Dr. Annabel Brett

Biography

Annabel Brett studied Classics at Cambridge, turning her focus to the history of political thought. After completing her PhD on subjective rights and medieval scholastic thought, she published her first book, 'Liberty, Right and Nature,' with Cambridge University Press in 1997. Following a research fellowship at Gonville Caius College, she lectured in Philosophy at the University of York, returning to Cambridge in 1996 to take up a lectureship in the History of Political Thought. Currently, she serves as a Professor of Political Thought and History and is a co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought. Brett has widely published on the history of late medieval and early modern moral political thought, with a particular emphasis on the natural law tradition, Aristotelianism, and scholastic philosophy. Notably, her Carlyle Lectures in 2008 were published by Princeton University Press in 2011. She has authored a major new translation of Marsilius of Padua's 'Defender of Peace' and has recently turned her attention to the history of international law. She has co-edited a significant collaborative work, 'History, Politics, Law: Thinking International,' published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. In recognition of her contributions, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Helsinki in 2023 and became a Fellow of the British Academy in 2025. Her research interests cover the history of political thought, particularly from the early modern, ancient, and late medieval periods, along with the history of international law.

Research Interests

Experience

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