Kojève and Law: A Critical Examination

Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) was one of the major philosophers of the twentieth century. His famous lectures on Hegel and his provocative end-of-history thesis left an indelible mark on contemporary thought. By the end of the Second World War, he abandoned academic philosophy to embark on a diplomatic career. While occupying an influential position in French foreign trade diplomacy, Kojève worked on a series of manuscripts which largely remained unpublished until well after his death. Initially dismissed as post-historical irony and play, Kojève’s post-war philosophical writings open new perspectives on how we became post-historical and where we go from here.

Spotlighting Kojeve's distinct contributions to legal scholarship, while also showcasing his broader influence across a range of disciplines — including philosophy, political theory, sociology, law and transnational studies — these two books include original contributions from eminent editors, translators, and biographers of Kojeve, as well as from historians of legal and political thought, specialists on global trade and private international law, statelessness, and public international law.

First Panel - Kojève and the Ancients.

• Participants: Jonas Schwab-Plfug, Luis Pedrazuela, and Teresa Pullano
• Discussant: David Ragazzoni

Second Panel - Kojève and His Contemporaries.

• Participants: Matthew Sharpe, Massimo Palma, and Igor Shoikhedbrod
• Discussant: Clifford Orwin

Third panel - Kojève and the Moderns. Between Kant and Hegel.

• Participants: Bryan-Paul Frost and Jacob McNulty
• Discussants: Alan Brudner and Susan Shell

Fourth panel - Kojève and Phenomenology.

• Participants: William Conklin, Bogdan Ovcharuk, and Sabina Tortorella
• Discussant: Tarek Dika.

Fifth panel - Kojève, Empire, and the Future of the Universal Homogeneous State.

• Participants: Rob Howse and Olga Obolenets.
• Discussants: Ronald Beiner and Melissa Williams

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This is a book launch on Kojeve and Law: A Critical Examination (Routledge 2026) presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics. The conference is free to attend and open to the public. Talks will be streamed online with live chat.

About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):

The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.

In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.

The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai