Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor of Legal Theory, Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg

Expert Bio

Mikhail Antonov is Professor of Law and associated with the Law Faculty at The National Research University “Higher School of Economics” (Saint Petersburg, Russia). He is also an advocate of the Saint Petersburg Bar Association and practises labor, commercial and tax law. Professor Antonov’s scholarly research interests focus upon problems of normativity in law and of sociological jurisprudence, the theory of sovereignty and human rights. In the recent years he particularly worked on issues involving legal argumentation in a comparative-law as well as a historical perspective. He is the author of more than 130 articles and papers, some of which have been published in English, French and German; a list of selected publications is at <https: www.hse.ru="" en="" org="" persons="" 23948027="">. Dr. Antonov has also translated and published in Russian works of some major Western legal philosophers such as Hans Kelsen, Eugen Ehrlich, Georges Gurvitch.

Wilson Center Project

“Philosophical Aspects of Modernization of Russian Law”

Project Summary

The project investigates the intellectual background of Russian lawmaking and law-application which partly differs from the values and ideas that are basic for the contemporary Western legal systems. This difference is patent in what concerns Western and Russian official conceptions of rights and of democracy. This creates a tension in discussions about human rights and other key issues, and problematizes the modernization of Russian law. The project is intended to reveal these underlying differences, and to show that discrepancies between Russia and the West on main legal and political issues result also from the difference of legal cultures and from the backwardness of Russian legal education.

Major Publications

• "Conservatism in Russia and Sovereignty in Human Rights", in: Review of Central and East European Law. 2014. Vol. 39. P. 1-40 
• "The Realist and Rhetorical Dimensions of the Protection of Religious Feelings in Russia", in: Review of Central and East European Law. 2015. Vol. 40. No. 3-4. P. 229-284 (with Ekaterina Samokhina) 
• "State Law and Law Enforcement in Societal Systems", in: Rechtstheorie. 2013. Vol. 44. No. 3. P. 287-313.