José Antonio Magalhães

José Antonio Magalhães is a juridico-metaphysical theorist, writer, and educator. Their research focuses on the concept of world-orders, reconstructing modern legal theory (Hans Kelsen, Evgeny Pashukanis, Carl Schmitt) through contemporary humanities and social sciences, such as speculative realism, the ontological turn in anthropology, and the philosophy of technology with a particular focus on technological and ecological transformations.

They received their PhD in Legal Theory from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), with a thesis that investigated platforms and artificial intelligence from a juridico-metaphysical perspective, in 2021. They have since held a postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution to research relations between law, territory and ecology under the supervision of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro from 2022-24, and a research fellowship at ICI Berlin under the focus ‘Scale’ from 2024-26. Recent publications include ‘Platforms as Law: A Speculative Theory of Coded, Interfacial and Environmental Norms’ and ‘Index and nomos: A juridico-political contribution to speculative realism’.