Sonia Cruz Dávila

Sonia is a ESRC research fellow as part of the Trans-Atlantic Platform project "Open Constitutional Democracy: Reconciling Deliberation and Constitutional Democracy". She holds a PhD in Law from King’s College London, England, an MA in Analytic Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, and a BA in Philosophy from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Mexico. She has previously been a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security & Law, Germany.

Sonia’s research interests lie at the intersection of constitutional, democratic, and legal theory, as well as moral and political philosophy. She is currently interested in three different, but interrelated, issues: (i) the compatibility between constitutionalism and populism, (ii) the degree to which the exercise of discretion by civil servants in general, and the head of government in particular, may be justifiable, and (iii) the existence of alternative sources of democratic legitimacy, beyond those conferring authority to the legislature (e.g., the democratic credentials of the judiciary).