Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser

CONSTRESS 2.0

Since January 2022, the second cycle of the strategic partnership project CONSTRESS – Constitutionalism under Stress: Comparative Perspectives has been underway as part of the profile partnership between Humboldt University of Berlin and Princeton University. Launched in 2016, the project takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together political scientists, political philosophers, sociologists, and legal scholars. At its core are jointly organized seminars and workshops designed for master’s students and doctoral candidates from various academic backgrounds at both universities. On the HU side, the project involves not only the Chair for Comparative Democracy Research and the Political Systems of Eastern Europe, but also researchers from the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI).

Primary research area

After the global wave of democratic constitutions and reforms in the 1990s, legal and political debates initially focused on the potential of constitutional law to protect transnational fundamental rights and strengthen democratic structures. In recent years, however, the darker side of this "new constitutionalism" has become increasingly apparent: in illiberal or populist contexts, constitutions can also serve to legitimize and entrench authoritarian tendencies. Constitutions are also facing mounting pressure when national, subnational, and supranational layers of constitutional politics overlap or come into conflict. Such tensions are visible both in Europe and across the Americas—and call for careful, comparative analysis. Although constitutions have traditionally been the domain of legal scholarship, their societal and political significance is drawing growing interest from political science and sociology. CONSTRESS brings these perspectives together in an interdisciplinary approach that integrates normative, legal, and empirical social science methodologies—aiming to develop a nuanced understanding of the current challenges facing constitutionalism.

Organizers

Topics of Past Seminars and Workshops