Torben Spaak

Torben Spaak is Professor in jurisprudence at the Department of Law, Stockholm University since 2013. He was previously, in 1988-2013, at the Department of Law, Uppsala University as a doctoral candidate, senior lecturer, associate professor, and, finally, as a professor. He has also been Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School in 1994 and 2005, and Visiting Researcher at the same school in 2006.

Spaak's interests in legal science are mainly to be found in the central areas of jurisprudence. He is interested in issues concerning the nature of law, the analysis of fundamental legal concepts, and legal argumentation and interpretation. His dissertation dealt with the concept of legal competence (The Concept of Legal Competence: An Essay in Conceptual Analysis. Dartmouth, 1994, diss. 1992), and he has also written a monograph on legal argumentation (Guidance and Constraint: The Action-Guiding Capacity of Theories of Legal Reasoning. Iustus, 2007), a monograph on Karl Olivecrona's philosophy of law (A Critical Appraisal of Karl Olivecrona's Legal Philosophy. Springer, 2014) as well as approximately 40 articles (most of them in English), including reviews, in many prominent academic journals.

Moreover, Spaak has been invited to deliver lectures on legal philosophical matters at universities in Akureyri, Barcelona, Belo Horizonte, Buenos Aires, Bristol, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Freiburg, Genoa, Groningen, Kraków, Linköping, London, Lund, Maastricht, Milan, Minnea-polis, Oslo, Riga, San Marcos, Stockholm, and Uppsala. In addition, he one of three Series Editors of Springer’s Law and Philosophy Library as well as member of the editorial board of the IVR Internet Encyclopedia of Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, and Philosophy of Law, Journal of Law and Courts, and The Theory and Practice of Legislation.

Contact: torben.spaak@juridicum.su.se

Announcements

- The annual meeting of IVR Sweden will take place in Linköping the 27th - 28th of August. Save the Date. More information to come.

- Patricia Mindus is promoted to Professor of Practical Philosophy at Uppsala University, the first woman in that position since 1477 when the University was founded.

- Patricia Mindus publishes the book Hacia una teoría funcionalista de la ciudadanía

- IVR Sweden holds its annual conference in Stockholm, May 23-24, 2019. Read invitation and programme.

- The "Cambridge Companion to Legal Positivism Conference 2" is held in i Stockholm on April 22-25, 2019. Read programme.

- Programme, spring 2019, for the joint Uppsala and Stockholm Seminar in Philosophy of Law

- The IVR 29th world congress, "Dignity, Democracy Diversity", issues a CfP. Deadline for abstracts is December 31, 2018. The congress is held in Lucerne, 7-13 July 2019.

- A PhD dissertation defence of interest in Philosophy of Law at Stockholm University on October 12, 2018: Jasmina Nedevska Törnqvist, Why Care About Future People’s Environment?

Sweden