All are invited to an online talk by me, Gilbert Leung, on 24 July 2026 at 11:00 CEST | 10:00 BST, in which I will attempt to answer the question: ‘What is critical legal theory?’

The official description of the talk appears below. What it does not mention is that the talk assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, so I hope it will appeal to a broad range of people. There will also be some time for discussion.

To somewhat anticipate a part of my answer, if critical legal theory is a distinct field at all, it is at least a heterogeneous one, and perhaps even contestable. Different researchers/writers/academics may describe themselves as ‘critical legal theorists’ but do critical legal theory very differently. This, I would add, is not to say that a common ‘radical’ core may not be discernable.

So, if you consider yourself a critical legal theorist, please leave a comment below and let me know how you would define the field. I will try to incorporate some of your responses into the talk. Looking forward to seeing you there.

To register and receive the Zoom link, please visit the official Max Planck Law registration page: https://law.mpg.de/event/what-is-critical-legal-theory/

Official talk description

To ask what critical legal theory is, we might begin by separating its terms. Legal theory is the discipline that builds theories of law: what law is, how it works, what counts as law, and so on. Critique, meanwhile, has long been a motor of philosophical change in modernity, the force by which one position cuts through and tests another. The word itself carries that edge. From the Greek krinein, to separate, to distinguish, and so to decide and to judge, critique names the gesture of crisis and of the courtroom.

But this is precisely where critical legal theory becomes paradoxical. To critique law, to judge and cut through it, is already to take up law’s own position, the seat of the judge, the role of the law-giver. As Costas Douzinas argues in ‘Oubliez Critique‘, when it comes to law, critique may have no outside. Every instance of critique finds itself occupying a role law has already written for it.

If critique of law is bound to the very thing it opposes, what becomes of critical legal theory? Must it give way to something else? Can it form a school, or does it survive only as a multiplicity of movements, resistances, and refusals? These are some of the questions the talk takes up.

Gilbert Leung, LLB, LLM, DEA, PhD (London), is currently the Online Editor of Max Planck Law. He is a founding editor of Critical Legal Thinking and publishes at the intersection of law, critical theory, and philosophy. His latest publication is ‘Just Listening’ in Alexis Alvarez-Nakagawa and Illan rua Wall (eds), Rights, Resistance and Critique: The Legal Theory of Costas Douzinas (Routledge 2026). | Follow on LinkedIn