Andreas Føllesdal

Biographic information: Short Longer Norsk

Short

ANDREAS FØLLESDAL Ph.D., Professor of Political Philosophy, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Ph.D. 1991 in Philosophy, Harvard University. He publishes in the field of political philosophy, especially international political theory and international legal theory. Past projects include Co-Director, PluriCourts, a Centre of Excellence for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order 2013-2023. Principal Investigator, European Research Council Advanced Grant MultiRights 2011-16, on the Legitimacy of Multi-Level Human rights Judiciary.

Longer

I am a political philosopher particularly interested in puzzles of globalization and Europeanization, and have published and collaborated in research on these topics since obtaining my PhD as Fulbright Fellow at the Philosophy Department of Harvard University. In 1991 I defended my PhD dissertation on The Normative Significance of State Borders. I was privileged to be advised by the philosophers John Rawls and TM Scanlon, and economist, later Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. The dissertation critiqued and extended their and others’ research on fairness, legitimacy and rights to international relations. My theory of international and global legitimacy defends international human rights obligations. Committed to multi-disciplinarity, I supplemented the required PhD studies in philosophy with courses in human rights law and international law at Harvard Law School; welfare economics, game theory and international political economy at the Economics Department; and international relations at the Department of Government. I honed my teaching with courses on the case method at Harvard Business School and at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

I have continued multi-disciplinary research on international and global puzzles and dilemmas in the intersection of law, international relations and political theory: While serving as Research Director at ARENA Centre for European Studies, I was Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy for several years. I moved to the Faculty of Law in 2001, to serve as Director of Research for the University’s multidisciplinary Centre for Human Rights.

Over the decades my intellectual curiosity has tracked the fascinating changes wrought by ‘globalization:’ from the profound challenges states face in an increasingly interdependent world, over Europeanisation, to multi-level governance. I also study the emerging roles and obligations of non-state actors, multinationals and organized consumers and investors, partly as a member, 2004 – 2010, of the Council on Ethics, Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global.

As Principal Investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant MultiRights 2011-2016 I had the privilege to invite several outstanding junior and senior scholars to address certain puzzles concerning the present multi-level human rights regimes. As Co-Director of PluriCourts, a Centre of Excellence 2013-2023, I pursued the challenges of how to explain, assess and improve the cluttered web of international courts and tribunals in several sectors and territorial levels.

Norsk

Andreas Føllesdal (Ph.D). er professor i politisk filosofi ved Juridisk fakultet, Universitetet i Oslo. Han fikk doktorgrad i filosofi fra Harvard universitet som Fulbright Fellow på en avhandling om statsgrensers normative betydning, med hovedveiledere John Rawls og T.M. Scanlon, Amartya K. Sen som biveileder vedrørende enkelte kapitler. Føllesdal var Co-Director for PluriCourts, Senter for fremragende forskning om internasjonale domstolers legitimitet, finansiert av Norges forskningsråd 2013-23. Han ledet MultiRights– the Legitimacy of the Multi-Level Human Rights Judiciary, 2011-2016, et Advanced Grant fra The European Research Council. Han ledet et prosjekt ved Senter for grunnforskning/Centre for Advanced Studies ved Videnskapsakademiet i 2009, Should States Ratify Human Rights Conventions? Føllesdal er medlem av det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi.

Føllesdal publiserer innenfor politisk filosofi med særlig vekt på menneskerettigheter, EU, folkerett og internasjonale domstoler. Han har skrevet om temaer som fordelingsrettferdighet, føderalisme, minoritetsrettigheter, demokrati og subsidiaritet, blant annet i tidsskriftene Journal of Political Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, Journal of Peace Research, International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, Metaphilosophy, og Global Society. Han har redigert bøker og spesialnumre i tidsskrifter om internasjonale domstoler, demokrati i EU, om velferdsstater i Europa, dyreetikk, samiske rettigheter, global rettferdighet, og om konsulentetikk i Europa. Han har også bidratt til en rekke antologier om EUs politiske teori.

Føllesdal er redaktør for flere bokserier, mest med Cambridge University Press. Han deltar i flere forskningsprosjekter i EU, er jevnlig Visiting Scholar ved Harvard Center for European Studies, og har deltatt i referansegrupper og komiteer i Norge, Sverige og USA.

Føllesdal bidrar i norske debatter om temaer som næringlivsetikk, utfordringer for offentlig forvaltning, og EU. Han var medlem i Pensjonsfondets etiske råd i flere perioder, og var medlem i Bioteknologinemnda 1998-2000. Han var professor ved ARENA, Norges forskningsråds forskningsprogram om europeiseringen av nasjonalstaten, 1994-2005, og var professor ved Filosofisk institutt, Universitetet i Oslo, 1999-2005.