I write and teach in the field of public law at The University of Melbourne Law School.  I am interested in the insights that history (particularly intellectual history), historiography (historical method), and comparative methodology can bring to constitutional law and theory.    I also have experience consulting for the United Nations and in providing expert advice on ongoing legal disputes involving Russian law or the use of history. 

I have a forthcoming book that explains how a deceptive logic that I call the constitutional dark arts allows elected leaders to justify their centralised authority in the name of democracy and rights protection.  This justification is not just a problem in authoritarian systems like Russia, Turkey, or Hungary. It is also a threat to established democracies such as the United States and Australia.  

My comparative constitutional research primarily focuses on the fifteen former Soviet states of post-Soviet Eurasia (with an emphasis on Russia), Australia, and the United States.  This work builds on my doctorate (DPhil) in History and Masters (MPhil) in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford (where I was a Clarendon Scholar).  It also draws on the academic background and Russian language skills that I developed while earning a bachelors' degree in International Affairs and Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (with a certificate in Russian studies).  

My historical approach to law draws on my training in the Modern History Faculty at the University of Oxford as well as in law at Stanford Law School.  In particular, I am interested in the way that constructions of history shape constitutional law and the development of the legal system.  

Overall, this interdisciplinary approach seeks to expand our understanding of constitutional experience in order to revise and qualify our foundational constitutional concepts and theories.  So far, my work contributes to four strands of constitutional law theory.  

First, my scholarship has contributed to the theoretical understanding of constituent power in democratic constitutionalism.  This work has explored the dangers of popular constitution-making as well as the importance of rules in constitutional politics.   This has therefore led me to trace the neglected American tradition of constituent power as well as to explore the importance of expanded revision clauses in democratic constitutions.   I also have described how the American tradition of constituent power has shaped Australian constituent power. 

Second, my publications have examined the importance of constitutional structure.   I have written about key debates that drive the constitutional concept of the separation of powers.  This work has allowed me to identify a new form of authoritarian constitutional design in Russia (and other countries in Eurasia and Africa) as well as to explore the key questions surrounding the role of courts in constitution-making.  It has also led me to explore the historical and ongoing importance of centralism and supervision in both post-Soviet Eurasian and socialist public law.    This interest has also contributed to a forthcoming book that describes the constitutional dark arts, a practice that argues that democracy and rights protection are best secured through a centralised state. 

Third, my work explores the relationship between constitutional law, history, and historiography.  I have written on the insights that historiography - the critical study of how history is written and applied - brings to constitutional litigation. I have also written how historiographical methods should inform the overall project of comparative constitutional scholarship.  Finally, I have explored the intellectual history of the Australian Constitution and its lessons for understanding Australian constituent power and the distinctive form of Australian popular political constitutionalism. 

Fourth, my research is interested in examining the characteristics of post-colonial constitutionalism.  A recent book explores the insights that the post-colonial approach brings to constitutionalism in the context of the former Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.  

For a list of selected publications, please see here. 

To download selected publications,  please go here (Academia.edu) or here (SSRN).