King's College London

Professor Massimo Renzo has been announced as the new Chair and Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law following a highly competitive selection process led by the King’s Search Team.

Professor Renzo has written on wide range of topics in legal, moral and political philosophy, and is currently working on a number of issues related to moral agency, with a focus on the notions of autonomy, responsibility and meaning. He is the Honorary Secretary of the Society for Applied Philosophy and one of the editors of the journal Criminal Law & Philosophy.

The Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law, founded in 2014, is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of legal and political philosophy.

Established following a generous endowment from the Yeoh Family, the Centre seeks to fulfil its mission by bringing together research from across the School and the College, developing its cutting-edge Politics, Philosophy and Law Programme, and by engaging policymakers and the wider public in an ongoing conversation on how to create a better society.

The LLB Politics, Philosophy & Law, a qualifying law degree that allows students to choose from modules in the departments of Philosophy and Political Economy, is unique in the UK.

Professor Alexander Türk, Interim Executive Dean, The Dickson Poon School of Law, said: "I am delighted to announce Professor Massimo Renzo as the new Chair and Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre. Interdisciplinary research is vital to the mission of the Dickson Poon School of Law, and our Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre plays a central role in delivering on that mission. Professor Renzo is an internationally-recognised scholar and his research on political authority, on just war, human rights, and philosophy of the criminal law, is the perfect example of the need to bring together different perspectives, to advance understanding and address some of the most pressing issues of our time."

Professor Renzo joined King’s as a Reader in 2015 and has served as a Professor of Politics, Law and Philosophy since 2018, and Acting Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay (YTL) Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law since September 2020. He is the recipient of the Gregory Kavka/University of California, Irvine Prize in Political Philosophy and of the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship.