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Professor Stewart Motha

Positions held:
  • Professor of Law, Birkbeck Law School
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Stewart Motha was Executive Dean of Birkbeck Law School, 2016-22; and Managing Editor of Law & Critique, 2015-2020. He has published widely on issues of sovereignty, memory, history, and decolonisation with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean region. In 2023 he held the John Hinkley Visiting Professorship at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He has also held visiting fellowships at Sydney Law School, Melbourne Law School, and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS).  

    Stewart’s current major project explores the multiple forms and sources of legal norms, breaking down the historical separation between law and nature. This research is linked to questions of climate justice and legal responses to ecological crises. It investigates the relationship between 'matter' (materiality) and norms. 

    Prior to joining Birkbeck in 2012, Stewart taught at Kent Law School. He has also taught Law in Australia, and was an Associate to the Hon. Justice Margaret Beazley - Judge of the Federal Court of Australia; Case Manager of the Native Title Unit, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc., South Australia; and a Consultant to the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action.

     

    Stewart's most recent book, Archiving Sovereignty: Law, History, Violence (Michigan University Press) was published in 2018. 

    In 2020, he launched a podcast series called COUNTERSIGN. Stewart and guests discuss books, films, and other materials from across disciplines to consider new perspectives on law, difference, and being in common.

    Stewart lectures on Constitutional and Administrative Law; Law, History, and Political Violence; Foundations of Property; Law, Nature, and Planetary Justice.

    Highlights

    Office hours

    Mondays 4-5pm

    Qualifications

    • PhD, University of London, 2005
    • BA LLB (Hons), Macquarie University, 1993
    • LLM, Osgoode Hall Law School, 1996

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Chair of Birkbeck College Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Team
  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Sovereignty
    • Postcolonial law and theory
    • Constitutionalism
    • Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment
    • Law and aesthetics
    • Indian Ocean studies
    • South Asian studies
    • Australian legal studies
    • Transformative justice
    • Problems of law, time and justice
    • Environmental Law and Theory
    • Anthropocene and new materialism
    • Legal Philosophy

    Research overview

    Stewart's book, Archiving Sovereignty: Law, History, Violence (Michigan University Press), arose out of research into how law functions as an archive of sovereign violence. The book also offers an elaboration of the ‘as if’ (the consciously false, or fiction) at the heart of modern law. Reworking the notion of the ‘archive’, the book addresses the sovereign event in Australia, South Africa, and the Indian Ocean region as a problem of law’s capacity to retain and disavow sovereign violence at the same time. This memorial function of law is elaborated through juridical case studies, and literary and other artistic works.


  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    5

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest.

    If you are interested in pursuing research in any of these areas, you should first read our advice on how to apply for MPhil/PhD research before submitting an application.


    Current doctoral researchers

    • CAROLINA AMADEO
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
    • JULIUS NDAWULA
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
    • KANIKA GAUBA
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Violence and the Indian Constitutional Founding
      Description:

      This thesis examines the birth of the Indian republic amidst the subcontinent's violent partition in 1947. Where the moment of founding is framed by violence, how does the law constitute political community, i.e., the 'People', who are both authors of the constitutional text and enactors of violence against the neighbour? Reading debates on the problem of minorities in the Constituent Assembly, this study explores the intertwined nature of commitments of sovereignty and fraternity in post-independence India.

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • CARSON ARTHUR
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Speaking as a matter of fact: racial violence, accountability, and the inquests of Black people who have died in England/Wales police custody
      Awarded:
      2024
    • TSHEPO MADLINGOZI
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Awarded:
      2018

    Teaching

    Foundation of Property

    Law, Nature, and Planetary Justice (LLM module)

    Law, History, and Political Violence

    Teaching modules

    • Law, History, and Political Violence (LALA135H6)
    • Law, Nature, and Planetary Justice (LALW081S7)
    • Foundations of Property (LALW095H5)
    • Foundations of Property (Senior Status) (LALW098H7)
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book Section

    Editorial