Professor Sean Coyle LLB, PhD

Birmingham Law School
Professor of Jurisprudence

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 6321
Fax
+44 (0) 121 414 3585
Email
s.coyle@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Coyle writes and teaches on aspects of legal and political philosophy. In 2004 his work won one of the SLS Prizes for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. His next book, From Positivism to Idealism, was shortlisted for the 2008 Inner Temple Book Prize. His third book, Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence, was the subject of a conference at the University of Notre Dame, USA in 2013. In addition, he is the author of a student text, Modern Jurisprudence (3rd ed 2022). He is currently writing a book on natural law theory.

He has lectured and spoken at universities throughout the UK and elsewhere, including Emory University, LSE, UCL, and the Universities of Antwerp, Manchester, Miami and Minnesota.

At Birmingham, he is a member of the Jurisprudence research group, and is director of the Forum for the Study of Natural Law.

Qualifications

  • LLB (Hons), University of Dundee
  • PhD in Jurisprudence, University of Glasgow

Biography

Professor of Jurisprudence 2011-present; previously Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Exeter (2009-11), Reader in Jurisprudence, University College London (2005-09), Lecturer in Laws, University College London (2003-05), and Lecturer in Law, University of Durham 

Teaching

  • Jurisprudence (LLB Y2)
  • Political and Legal Theory II (LLB Y3)
  • Advanced Political and Legal Theory (LLM)

Postgraduate supervision

All areas of legal and political philosophy.

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

 

All areas of legal and political philosophy, centring especially on theories of natural law.

Current projects

Recent work has focused on the natural law theory and ethics of Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius and Francisco Suarez. Recent work has included a book entitled Natural Law and Modern Society (Oxford UP 2023) and one entitled Natural Law, Ethics and Human Vulnerability (Hart Publishing 2025). Currently writing a book on Saint Augustine.

Other activities

  • Editorial Board member (and former Editor) of Jurisprudence: An International Journal of Legal and Political Thought.
  • Editorial Board member, Law and Practical Reason (monograph series, Hart Publishing)
  • Editorial Board member, Journal of Human Rights and the Environment (Elgar)

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Coyle, S 2023, Natural Law and Modern Society. 1st edn, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192886996.001.0001

Coyle, S 2013, Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence. Cambridge University Press.

Article

Coyle, S 2024, 'The Poisoning of the Rule of Law', Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence.

Coyle, S 2023, 'Natural law theory, "new" and old', American Journal of Jurisprudence, vol. 68, no. 1, auad004, pp. 33–62. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajj/auad004

Coyle, S 2020, 'Can natural laws be derived from human sociability?', New Blackfriars, vol. 101, no. 1091, pp. 46-66. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12381

Coyle, S 2017, 'Natural law and goodness in Thomistic ethics', Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 77-96. https://doi.org/10.1017/cjlj.2017.4

Coyle, S 2017, 'Natural law in Aquinas and Suarez', Jurisprudence, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 319-341. https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2017.1324057

Coyle, S 2016, 'Natural law in Aquinas and Grotius: An Ethics for Our Times?', New Blackfriars, vol. 97, no. 1071, pp. 591-609. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12212

Coyle, S 2013, 'Fallen Justice', New Blackfriars, vol. 93, no. 1048, pp. 687-709. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2005.2011.01421.x

Coyle, S 2013, 'Legality and the Liberal Order', Modern Law Review, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 401. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12018

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Coyle, S 2024, The Validity of Validity: Reply to Moreso and Ángeles Ródenas . in L Burazin, KE Himma & G Pino (eds), Jurisprudence in the Mirror: The Common Law World Meets the Civil Law World. Oxford University Press, pp. 153-167. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191964718.003.0009

Coyle, S 2015, Property rights, environmental justice and worldly order: lessons from natural law. in A Grear & LJ Kotzé (eds), Research handbook on human rights and the environment. Elgar. <https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-on-human-rights-and-the-environment>

Coyle, S 2015, Radicalism and Conservatism in Environmental Law. in A Grear & E Grant (eds), Thought, Law, Rights and Action in the Age of Environmental Crisis. Edward Elgar, pp. 96-121. <http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/thought-law-rights-and-action-in-the-age-of-environmental-crisis>

Chapter

Coyle, S 2013, The Ideality of Law. in T Brooks (ed.), Law and Legal Theory. Brill.

Coyle, S, Liang, B & Lu, H 2011, Western Jurisprudence and Study of Law. in Jurisprudence: Western Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Legal and political philosophy including jurisprudence