Mikhail Xifaras
Professor of Legal Studies
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: PhD University of Besançon (France)
Research Areas: Legal theory; History of Legal Thought; Theory of Property; Political philosophy; Global Law; Legal Education
Mikhaïl Xifaras is a legal theorist and historian of legal thought. He is Professor of Legal Studies at New York University in Abu Dhabi since 2021. He has been Professor of Public Law at Sciences Po, where he headed the doctoral program from 2009 to 2018 and taught legal philosophy, property, and jurisprudence. Xifaras has been a regular Visiting Professor at Harvard Law school (2011-2015), Keio School of Law (2012-2018), Bruchman Law School, Tel Aviv University (2016; 2020), and New York University Abu Dhabi (2018-2020). He has published extensively on the theory of property, history of modern legal thought, legal theory, and political philosophy.
Courses Taught
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Why is property key to so many societies and social institutions? How do various understandings of its origins, definitions and limitations, distributions and regulations sit at the core of current debates about the environment, fairness and equality, the public and the private, the private and the commons, and more broadly the future of liberal societies? Focusing on the western legal tradition and its increasingly global implications, this course critically approaches various theories of property while constantly attending to contemporary debates about the institution and its legitimacy. The method is genealogical. After a brief presentation of premodern conceptions, the course will follow the rise and triumph of the canonical definition of Property as a subjective, absolute and exclusive right, through the careful study of conflicting theories about its nature, origins, grounds, purposes. What challenges have these canonical definitions faced - whether through social, analytical, or realist critique - and what implications do current ways of theorizing property have for its future?
Previously taught: Fall 2 2019, Spring 1 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras - MW 09:55 - 11:10 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras - TR 12:45 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Structures of Thought and Society
- Majors > Legal Studies
- Minors > Legal Studies
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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Is law above politics? When lawyers act according to ideological and political preferences, we think they betray the law. But we also often wish to be politically more autonomous, that is to be the authors of the laws we are subjected to. When the law is made only by lawyers and only based on legal technique, we think some important principles of political freedom are lost. This course aims to inquire about this paradox. To do so, the course will begin with a moment, at the end of the 18th century, when realizing political autonomy came by exiting the western legal tradition, but through law, imagining something like a “law without lawyers.” It will then study the reaction to and internalization of this project by eminent Jurists. In what ways has the resulting status quo defined the structure of modern law and legal science? Does raising such a question depend on an ongoing negotiation between law and politics? What narratives might we develop in order to understand the roles played by law and legal science (and their critique) in establishing supposedly politically autonomous societies?
Previously taught: Fall 2 2019, Fall 2 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2 2022, Fall 2 2023
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras - MW 11:20 - 12:35 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Structures of Thought and Society
- Majors > Legal Studies
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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This course poses the fundamental questions: "What is law?"; "What is a legal system?"; and "What is the rule of law?" Appreciating that law reflects different cultural and historical facts, the course employs a comparative methodology in order to explore the fundamental questions from the perspective of various legal traditions. This comparative methodology considers jurisprudence from African, Chinese, Hindu, Marxist, Islamic, Southeast Asian, and Western legal traditions. In relation to these diverse legal traditions, the course examines the topics of natural law, legal positivism, interpretivism, legal realism, justice, human rights, critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, and post-modernist jurisprudence.
Previously taught: Spring 2017, Spring 1 2018, Spring 1 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2 2021, Fall 1 2022, Spring 1 2023, Spring 2 2023, Fall 2 2023, Spring 1 2024, Fall 2 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
John Coughlin - MW 12:45 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 1 2025;
7 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras - MW 14:10 - 16:50 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras - TR 11:20 - 12:35 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Legal Studies
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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This course aims to provide, from a critical perspective, an historical introduction to the various ways of theorizing Property and Property Rights in the West, some analytics about the key concepts of the field (once called Laws of Things), and a survey of contemporary debates about Property. The method of the course is genealogical. After a brief presentation of pre-modern ways of theorizing Property, the course is first devoted to the rise and triumph of Property as a subjective, absolute and exclusive right. Then, it examines various attempts to overcome this conception, mainly social, analytical and realist critiques, to conclude with a view on the current debate in Property Theory.
Previously taught: Spring 1 2019, Fall 2 2020, Fall 2021
This course appears in...
- Majors > Legal Studies
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In this seminar forum under the guidance of a legal studies faculty member and in the academic community of the seminar participants, students identify a discrete legal text, case, or issue (or several thereof), and then engage in critical analysis from not only legal but also from philosophical, cultural, social, economic, religious, and ethical perspectives. While identifying the question(s), students undertake requisite research and begin drafting a senior thesis.
Prerequisite: Declared Legal Studies major and senior standing
Previously taught: Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Adeel Hussain - R 18:30 - 20:30 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Mikhail Dorel Xifaras, Adeel Hussain - T 17:00 - 19:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Legal Studies
- Minors > Legal Studies
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks