C.V. | Publications | Project


Research Interests
constitution making and technology, law and technology, constitutional theory, legal and social theory, ethnographic methods, international law, post-conflict law and justice, global constitutionalism

Research Area(s)
Latin America, North Africa, Europe

Profile

Felix-Anselm van Lier is a Research Associate at the Government Innovations Lab at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, where he works on helping the UK government to identify innovative social impact commissioning strategies.

Van Lier was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Law and Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle from 2019 - 2021. His research focused on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in constitutional reform and constitution-making processes. His work examined the impact of such technology on public participation in constitution making and on the institutional and procedural frameworks through which constitutions are created.

Before joining the Max Planck Institute, van Lier completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford, where he produced an ethnographic analysis of the Libyan constitution-making process. Previously, he pursued an MSc. in Law, Anthropology and Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds an LL.M. in International Crime and Justice from the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Institute and the University of Turin, Italy. Van Lier completed his undergraduate studies with an LL.B. from the Hanse Law School at the University of Bremen and Oldenburg in Germany.

Van Lier has taught courses in jurisprudence, international law, global governance, and transitional justice at the University of Oxford, Stanford University (Stanford House, Oxford), and O.P. Jindal Global University. He has worked as a consultant for organizations such as the Berghof Foundation, Democracy Reporting International, and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law.

Why Law & Anthropology?

Anthropology's qualitative and quantitative research methods offer an invaluable toolbox that allows for a 'look behind the scenes' at the creation of legal norms and rules and their respective meanings for those who create them and those who are subject to them. The focus on law as an intrinsically social and political process allows for a more nuanced account of the practice of law and legal mechanisms in different socio-cultural contexts.

Go to Editor View