Emad H. Atiq

Emad Atiq is a Professor of Law and Philosophy whose research spans topics in legal philosophy, ethics, and epistemology.

In legal philosophy, Atiq works primarily on questions in jurisprudence concerning the nature of law, the rule of law as a common yardstick for evaluating legal systems, persistent theoretical disagreements among legal officials, and the role of moral principles within historical legal practice. He has published a number of articles on these topics, and a volume titled Contemporary Non-Positivism consolidating his arguments was recently published by Cambridge University Press. Apart from jurisprudence, Atiq works on topics in private law theory, negligence, standards of proof, and normative reasoning within the law.

In ethics and epistemology, Atiq’s primary research project consists of an account of how epistemic virtues, such as the virtues of objectivity and intellectual courage, are related to moral virtues like impartiality. Atiq defends the view that perceptual awareness delivers a distinctive form of knowledge and empathy is our best means of gaining such knowledge of the experiences of others. In addition, Atiq's work addresses foundational questions in meta-normative theory, concerning, e.g., the nature of moral knowledge, the ethical implications of expressivist accounts of moral thought and talk, and the supervenience of the normative on the non-normative.

His articles have appeared in Noûs, Philosophical Studies, NYU Law Review, California Law Review, Law & Philosophy, Synthese, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, Ratio, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, New Criminal Law Review, and Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, & Public Policy, among other venues.

For a complete list, see: www.emadatiq.net.

Sample Publications

• Legal Positivism and the Moral Origins of Legal Systems Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2023) 36:37-64
• Law, the Rule of Law, and Goodness-Fixing Kinds In Brownlee, K., Enoch, D., and Marmor, A., (eds.) Engaging Raz: Themes in Normative Philosophy. Oxford University Press (2025)
• Reasonable Moral Doubt New York University Law Review (2022) 97:1373-1425
• The Disaggregated Hand Formula California Law Review (Forthcoming)
• I Feel Your Pain: Acquaintance & the Limits of Empathy (with Matt Duncan) In Kriegel, U., (ed.) Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind 4 Oxford University Press (2024)
• Knowledge by Acquaintance and Impartial Virtue Philosophical Studies (Forthcoming)
• Supervenience, Repeatability, & Expressivism No?s (2020) 54(3):578–599