John Tasioulas (born 18 December 1964) is a Greek-Australian moral and legal philosopher. He is the inaugural Director of the

Institute for Ethics in AI An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

), and Professor of Ethics and Legal Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

.https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-09-11-inaugural-director-and-academic-team-appointed-new-institute-ethics-ai, 12 October 2020 He holds dual Australian and British citizenship.

Biography

John Tasioulas was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, in 1964. His parents, Konstantinos and Elpiniki Tasioulas, migrated to Australia from Dasyllio in the

Grevena Grevena (, ''Grevená'' ; ) is a town and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Western Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the Grevena (regional unit), Grevena regional unit. The town's current population is 12,515 citizen ...

region of Greece. He was a student at

Northcote High School Northcote High School is a co-educational, state secondary school in Northcote, Victoria, Australia. It is situated at the southern end of the City of Darebin, on St Georges Road. The school teaches from Years 7 to 12 and has a current popula ...

and

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex education, single-sex Selective school, academically selective secondary school, secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb ...

. He completed undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Law at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

and was the 1989

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

for Victoria. Studying at

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

, he received a doctorate (D.Phil in Philosophy) from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

for a thesis on moral relativism which was supervised by

Joseph Raz Joseph Raz (; ; born Joseph Zaltsman; 21 March 19392 May 2022) was an Israeli legal, moral and political philosopher. He was an advocate of legal positivism and is known for his conception of perfectionist liberalism. Raz spent most of his ca ...

. Tasioulas was a lecturer in jurisprudence at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

(1992–1998), Reader in Moral and Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford where he was a Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College (1998–2010), Quain Professor of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Laws,

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(2011–2014), and the inaugural Yeoh Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Law at

The Dickson Poon School of Law The Dickson Poon School of Law is the law school of King's College London, itself part of the federal University of London, and one of the nine faculties within the college. It is situated on the Strand in the East Wing of Somerset House. Th ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

and Director of the

Yeoh Tiong Lay Yeoh Tiong Lay (; 18 December 1929 – 18 October 2017) was a Malaysian billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He founded YTL Corporation, Malaysia's largest conglomerate, with interests in construction, utilities, hotels, property develo ...

Centre for Politics, Philosophy, and Law (2014-2020). He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School, an Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a Distinguished Research Fellow of the

Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics The Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford was founded in 2001. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division, University of Oxford, Humanities Division. The faculty is located next to Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College on Woodstock ...

, and a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

. He has been a Fellow at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and a Visiting Professor of Law at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

. He delivered the 'Or 'Emet Lecture at

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the ''Journal of Law and Social Policy'', and the ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal ...

(2011), the Natural Law Lecture at

Notre Dame Law School Notre Dame Law School is the law school of the University of Notre Dame. Established in 1869, it is the oldest continuously operating Catholic law school in the United States. The school enrolls about 600 students and in addition to the J.D. ...

(2012), and the Van Hasselt Lecture at Delft University of Technology (2016).

Academic expertise

Tasioulas works in moral, legal and political philosophy. He has advanced a version of the communicative theory of punishment, according to which the overarching point of punishment is the communication of censure to wrong-doers. His version of the theory is distinctive in making room for the value of mercy alongside that of retributive justice. In the philosophy of human rights, Tasioulas has argued for an orthodox understanding of such rights, according to which they are moral rights possessed by all human beings simply in virtue of their humanity. This contrasts with a more recent view that characterizes human rights in terms of some political role(s), such as being triggers for international intervention or benchmarks of internal legitimacy. According to Tasioulas, human rights have a foundation both in a plurality of human interests and in equal

human dignity Dignity is a human's contentment attained by satisfying physiological needs and a need in development. The content of contemporary dignity is derived in the new natural law theory as a distinct human good. As an extension of the Age of Enlighten ...

. Among other writings in this area, Tasioulas is the author of two reports on minimum core obligations, and their bearing on the human

right to health The right to health is the economic, social and cultural economic, social, and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international a ...

, for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. He has written on a range of other topics including moral relativism, games and play, the ethics of robots and Artificial Intelligence, and the philosophy of international law. His co-edited volume, ''The Philosophy of International Law'' (OUP, 2010), is a central text in the field. Tasioulas was a vocal supporter of

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

Selected works

* �
In Defence of Relative Normativity: Communitarian Values and the Nicaragua Case
��, (1996) 16 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, pp. 85–128. * �
Relativism, Realism and Reflection
��, (1998) 41 Inquiry, pp .377–410. *
Mercy
, (2003) CIII Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, pp. 101–132.
Punishment and Repentance
, Philosophy 81 (2006), pp. 279–322. *
Games and the Good
, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume LXXX (2006), pp. 237–264 *
The Moral Reality of Human Rights
, in T. Pogge (ed.), Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: Who Owes What to the Very Poor? (OUP, 2007), pp. 75–101. * S. Besson and J. Tasioulas (eds.), ''The Philosophy of International Law'' (OUP, 2010) * �
Taking Rights out of Human Rights
��, Ethics 120 (July 2010), pp. 647–678. *
Towards a Philosophy of Human Rights
, Current Legal Problems 65 (2012), pp. 1–30. *
Human Rights, Legitimacy, and International Law
, American Journal of Jurisprudence 58 (2013), pp. 1–25. *
Minimum Core Obligations: Human Rights in the Here and Now
, World Bank (2017). *
The Minimum Core of the Human Right to Health
, World Bank (2017). *
First Steps Towards an Ethics of Robots and Artificial Intelligence
Journal of Practical Ethics 7 (2019), pp. 61–95.

References

External links

*
Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights
, 'Or Emet Lecture, 10 March 2011 video *
Towards a Philosophy of Human Rights
, Inaugural Lecture, University College London, 19 January 2012 video *

, Philosophy Bites Interview, 12 October 2013 podcast *
Humanity's Debate
, Neos Kosmos, 2 December 2013, profile article *
Professor John Tasioulas joins King's
, 8 July 2014 *
Political Philosophy in the World: A Right to be Angry
, The Philosopher's Zone, 1 May 2016 *
Big Questions: Philosopher John Tasioulas on Justice, Privilege, and What People Get Wrong About Human Rights
, Rights Info, 16 February 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tasioulas, John 1964 births Living people People educated at Melbourne High School Melbourne Law School alumni Australian Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Philosophers of law Jurisprudence academics 20th-century Australian philosophers 21st-century Australian philosophers Artificial intelligence ethicists Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Academics of University College London Academics of King's College London Australian people of Greek descent People from Wollongong Academics of the University of Glasgow Legal scholars of the University of Oxford Radcliffe fellows