Costas Douzinas

Costas Douzinas is Professor of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London and Member of the Greek Parliament for Pireas. His latest book Syriza in Power: Reflections of an Accidental Politician was published by Polity in 2017.

A call for a new European social contract

Call for a new progressive and democratic front in Europe. A statement of intellectuals and academics on the state of the EU and the need for a new social contract.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 29 Jun 2020

A call for a new European social contract

Greece, August 2018: a mid-term report from a Syriza MP

"Are the critics of Tsipras right? This is the first government in a European crisis country that will complete its full term. Look at the facts."

By Costas Douzinas

/ 20 Aug 2018

Macedonia and ideology

Somewhere between our imagination, truth and the others’ desires we move, in different paths, towards the 'Macedonia of our dreams'.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 9 Jul 2018

Finis Europae? Historical cycles and the rise of right wing populism

Why has Europe failed to inspire its citizens in a similar way to other ideas such as the nation, socialism or human rights? Here are some answers and some solutions.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 26 Apr 2017

Human rights for Martians

The human rights movement can be seen as the ongoing but failing struggle to close the gap between the abstract man of the Declarations and the empirical human being. Has it succeeded? Yes and no.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 3 May 2016

Cities of refuge

The 1951 Geneva Convention on Political Asylum was a typical creation of the Cold War: the system cannot deal with the huge population flows now permanently characteristic of our world.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 26 Mar 2016

Democracy rising: what now for Syriza and Europe?

A discussion on how Europeans can relaunch the struggle for a democratic Europe in the aftermath of Syriza's fight against the powers that be. (Video, 39 mins)

By Srećko Horvat, Lorenzo Marsili, Costas Douzinas, Jerome Roos and Margarita Tsomou

/ 21 Jul 2015

Referendum and democracy: putting the demos on stage

The referendum takes the lesson of the squares to the heart of politics. The stakes are high: Greek destiny, the future of the European Union and of democracy is on the line.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 27 Jun 2015

What is a University and what does it need?

Greece needs a radical overhaul of its corrupt University system. The creation of autonomous University Councils, such as those in the UK where I teach, would be a good step towards this.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 2 Jun 2015

A very European coup

This is why Syriza's negotiating strategy has to play to the European gallery and not just to the suits in the conference room. The aim is to persuade people to put pressure on their own governments or change them in the coming elections.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 24 Apr 2015

Syriza: the Greek spring

The 2015 Greek elections mark the beginning of the end of a cycle that started in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are now witnessing the end of the "end of history" metanarrative.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 5 Feb 2015

Human rights and the paradoxes of liberalism

Human rights are a hybrid of liberal law, morality and politics. Their ideological power lies in their ambiguity, not in their adherence to liberal values of individual freedom.

By Costas Douzinas

/ 7 Aug 2014