Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI)

News

Thomas F. Remington: The Ordoliberalism Debate

On 02/01/2022 at 6pm, Thomas F. Remington will take the publication of several books in recent years dealing with the subject of ordoliberalism as an opportunity to reconsider the body of ideas associated with ordoliberalism. His talk will be part of LSI's "Landscapes of Equality" lecture series.


The publication of several books in recent years dealing with the subject of ordoliberalism offers an occasion to reconsider the body of ideas associated with ordoliberalism. In this talk, I undertake two tasks: first, to clarify what the term properly refers to and in particular how it is related to 'neoliberalism', and second, to consider its relevance to the liberalizing economic policies undertaken in the United States, Russia and China since the late 1970s, including its implications for anti-trust and anti-monopoly law. I argue that much of the recent discussion of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism overlooks important differences between early ordoliberal thought and neoliberalism as it evolved over time. I believe that a better understanding of ordoliberalism can also provide insights relevant to the contemporary debates about the crisis of liberal democracy and capitalism. Does ordoliberalism in fact offer a 'third way' for ordering a market economy in democracy?

 

Thomas F. Remington is Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University. He is Goodrich C. White Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science at Emory University and a Senior Research Associate of the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. He is author of a number of books and articles. Among his books are Presidential Decrees in Russia: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and The Politics of Inequality in Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2011). His research focuses on the political sources of economic inequality in the United States, Russia, China and Germany

 

Online, Registration: lsi(at)rewi.hu-berlin.de

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Call for Applications: Winter School "Politics and Law – An Interdisciplinary Dialogue between Social and Legal Sciences"

Call for Applications: Winter School "Politics and Law – An Interdisciplinary Dialogue between Social and Legal Sciences"



Centre Marc Bloch, the Integrated Research Institute Law & Society, both Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies of the University of Oxford are welcoming applications for the first socio-legal Winter School for young scholars to be held in Berlin from 28 to 30 November 2018.

For more information, please see our Call for Applications.

Deadline. 1st September 2019.

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Lecture Series on Popular Sovereignty in Winter Term 2019/20

Lecture Series on Popular Sovereignty in Winter Term 2019/20



Together with Bard College Berlin and with the support of the American Social Science Research Council, LSI organises a Lecture Series on Popular Souvereignty in winter term 2019/20.


Modern constitutional democracies rest on the principle of popular sovereignty. The idea that ultimate authority is vested in the people has served to ground constitutional orders and legitimize political power in the modern world. With the recent rise of authoritarian parties and populist governments that assert popular legitimacy to question constitutional principles as necessary buttresses of democratic regimes, the viability and soundness of “rule of the people” has come under intense scrutiny.


Co-hosted by Bard College Berlin and Humboldt University’s Law and Society Institute, the Lecture Series on Popular Sovereignty convene distinguished scholars, political analysts, and civil society activists to probe contemporary dilemmas of democratic government and examine the challenges confronting the concept and practice of popular sovereignty today.

 

Please find all details on the dates and speakers here.

 

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | "Mobility, Activism and Politics". Public Lecture Series by Einstein Fellows Research Group @HU

"Mobility, Activism and Politics". Public Lecture Series by Einstein Fellows Research Group @HU



Einstein Flyer Mobility Activism Politics 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last couple of decades have witnessed significant political and social changes that left scholars and policymakers in bewilderment. The rise of far-right politics and the increasing salience of polarizing political discourses as global phenomena have wiped away the optimistic prospects of the 1990s and early 2000s for widespread democratization. Simultaneously, there has been an upsurge in the movement of people across boundaries. According to the recent figures by the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the growing number of migrants has now outpaced the growth rate of the world's population. Refugees and asylum seekers constitute approximately a quarter of global increases due to fast-growing rates of forced displacements.

These two processes – democratic de-consolidation and increasing migration – are indeed not isolated from one another. Far from that, migration has, for instance, become a keyword for far-right political actors to mobilize and polarize constituencies within and across boundaries. Against this background, this Lecture Series organized by Einstein Fellows Research Group explores these two processes, primarily, but not only, using Turkey. Through an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach, lectures by the Fellows invite students and scholars to think together about questions of i) regime change and authoritarianism, ii) diaspora politics and new migration(s), and last, but not least, iii) resistance and insurgency.

Besides Einstein Fellows, three renowned scholars - Christian Volk, Arjun Appadurai, and Philip Gorski - will also give lectures with empirical foci on cases beyond Turkey. These lectures are aimed to put the discussion on Turkey in a broader context and to pose questions about similarities and differences across cases. Through this comparative focus, the series aims to put in conversation theory and praxis. We invite all the interested students and scholars to contemplate together about these pressing issues of our times.

 

 

Winter School on Politics and Law

From 28 to 30 November, the Law & Society Institute, Centre Marc Bloch and the Oxford Centre for Socio Legal Studies are hosting the first Berlin Winter School on Politics & Law.


From 28 to 30 November, the Law & Society Institute, Centre Marc Bloch and the Oxford Centre for Socio Legal Studies are hosting the first Berlin Winter School on Politics & Law.

Having received more than 150 applications, 25 doctorate students from various academic disciplines were chosen to participate at the Winter School. By combining the different academic perspectives on the implicit and explicit relationship between law and politics, the Winter School aims at shedding light on respective disciplinary blind spots, or questions not posed yet, in order to foster a dialogue on different methodological and theoretical approaches of socio-legal research. By switching perspectives and leaving the comfort zone of one’s own academic subfield, participants will learn more about the interdisciplinary potential of their work within the thematic realm of law and politics and, thus, how to fill the often evoked but rarely applied concept of interdisciplinarity with content. For three days, the Winter School provides a space to discuss the participants’ projects with fellow PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and renowned scholars of socio-legal research from different academic traditions.

As part of the Winter School, Prof. Marietta Auer will hold a public keynote speech on November 29 at Law Faculty on the question “What is Legal Theory?” At the same time, this lecture will be the official kick-off of the new Integrated Research Institute Law & Society at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

 

Call for Paper: Manufacturing Collectivity

From July 1st 2020 to July 3rd 2020 the conference "Manufacturing Collectivity. Exploring the Nexus of Gender, Collectivities, and Law." will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin. The submission deadline for the Call for Papers is Janauary 3rd 2020.


 

From July 1st 2020 to July 3rd 2020 the conference "Manufacturing Collectivity. Exploring the Nexus of Gender, Collectivities, and Law." will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin. The submission deadline for the Call for Papers is January 3rd 2020

Preceding the conference, there will be an Interdisciplinary PhD Students’ Workshop on July 1st, 2020 at Freie Universität Berlin (see CfP, page 3).

The conference and the workshop are hosted by the DFG-research group “Law - Gender - Collectivity".

 

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | LSI Berlin is now inaugurated as Integrative Research Institute!

LSI Berlin is now inaugurated as Integrative Research Institute!

The Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) celebrated its inauguration on 29 November 2019 in the law faculty of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.


The Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) is very grateful for the great interest in its opening event on 29 November 2019 in the law faculty of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The institute, which has been advancing interdisciplinary legal research in Germany since 2008, is now officially inaugurated as the university’s fourth Integrative Research Institute (IRI). The IRIs are interdisciplinary research institutes which support intra-university cooperation and thus provide a framework for innovative approaches that transcend disciplinary boundaries. They are funded by the Excellence Initiative.


Prof. Dr. Stefan Grundmann, Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Law, and Prof. Dr. Gabriele Metzler, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Principal Investigator of the LSI, opened the evening with their greetings and the speakers of the LSI, Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff and Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser, informed about already started and planned activities of the LSI. Prof. Dr. Marietta Auer, University of Gießen and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, gave the keynote lecture on "What is Legal Theory? She outlined an interdisciplinary field of research in legal theory and advocated a closer link between dogmatic tradition and philosophical reflection.


"This institute has future!” – acclaimed Stefan Grundmann in his welcoming address. We look forward to shaping this future in the coming years.


The evening was also part of the first Berlin Winter School on Politics & Law, organized by the LSI together with the Centre Marc Bloch and the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies from 28 to 30 November. Please find a detailed conference report here. Further information on the cooperation with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University can be found here.


The following links will also provide you with further information on the activities and research fields of the LSI Berlin.


To stay up to date, we cordially invite you to subscribe to our LSI Newsletter.    

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | The Berlin Winter School on Politics and Law 2019 – A short report

The Berlin Winter School on Politics and Law 2019 – A short report

The Integrative Research Institute Law & Society, the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Centre Marc Bloch hosted the first Berlin Winter School on Politics and Law from November 28 to 30.


An interdisciplinary dialogue between social and legal science was the motto and the aim of the first Berlin Winter School on Politics and Law, organised by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (University of Oxford), Centre Marc Bloch and the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) from November 28 to 30 in Berlin. 25 PhD students and 17 speakers and panel discussant from various countries and a variety of academic disciplines attended the event, discussing methodological and theoretical challenges of socio-legal research. By combining the different academic perspectives on the implicit and explicit relationship between law and politics, the Winter School shed light on respective disciplinary blind spots, or questions not posed yet.

In a first keynote, Prof. Dr. Nicolas Dodier (École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) introduced a sociological approach to the relationship between law and politics and illustrated his conceptual thoughts by inquiring the place of victims in criminal trials.

In order to deepen the mutual understanding of the different disciplines for each other, a first practical session was dedicated to discussing two recent and highly controversial court decisions from both a social science and a legal perspective. Dr. Nahed Samour and Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff (both Integrated Research Institute Law & Society) presented the case S.A.S vs. France which was brought before the European Court of Human Rights, ruling that the ban on face covering in France did not violate the provisions on right to privacy or freedom of religion of the European Convention on Human Rights. Dr. Bettina Lange (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) and Dr. Johan Horst (Integrated Research Institute Law & Society), discussed the case Urgenda Foundation vs. State of the Netherlands of the The Hague Court of Appeal, the first legal decision summoning a national government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In both discussions, different methodological approaches to textual analysis and the role of extrajudicial knowledge were discussed.

Besides those sessions, participants were invited to present their PhD projects in poster sessions, a method which lead to very fruitful discussions, setting the basis for the exchange about those projects in the following days.

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The second day was opened by a panel in which experienced scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds discussed the challenges of interdisciplinary working and writing and, thus, the difficult relationship between social sciences and jurisprudence in research practice. Moderated by Dr. Guillaume Mouralis (Centre Marc Bloch), Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser (Integrated Research Institute Law & Society), Dr. Kevin Grecksch (Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies), Ass. Prof. Lionel Zevounou (University of Nanterre) and Dr. Andrea Kretschmann (Centre Marc Bloch) shared their views and experiences with the audience.

In the following workshop, those insights were put into practice in a writing session. Conducted by Dr. Ulrike Zeigermann (Centre Marc Bloch), the participants discussed different approaches and shared experiences about writer’s blocks, supervisors’ feedback and the challenge of translating thoughts into actual text.

In the afternoon, Dr. Anna Tsalapatanis (Oxford Centre of Socio-Legal Studies) gave a talk on a mixed-methods approach to socio-legal research, introducing the project “EURO-EXPERT” at Oxford University which combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the topic of cultural expertise in a variety of national courts in Europe.

In order to compare different national approaches, the final session for that day discussed regional particularities to socio-legal studies. Dr. Christian Boulanger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Ass. Prof. Liora Israël (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) introduced and discussed the examples of France, the US, the UK, and Germany, providing the audience with answers to the complex questions why the traditions of socio-legal research in those countries vary significantly.

The second keynote on Friday evening, held by Prof. Dr. Marietta Auer (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), was dedicated to the question “What is Social Theory?”, advocating a closer link between dogmatic tradition and philosophical reflection. This lecture was, at the same time, part of the official opening of the LSI Berlin as the fourth Integrated Research Institute at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Please find more details here.Meet the editors

On the third day, the Winter School came even closer to an implementation of the discussions on interdisciplinary working and writing of the first two days: Prof. Dr. Sally Sheldon (Kent Law School), editor of the Journal Socio and Legal Studies, and Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher (Universität Frankfurt/Oder), editor of the Journal Kritische Justiz, shared their views about what a paper needs in order to be published in their journals.

With this session, the first Berlin Winter School on Politics and Law ended after three days full of discussions and fruitful exchange. We would like to thank all PhD students, speakers and the teams from the three hosting institutions who made that event a success. The submission of more than 150 applications from all over the world shows that there is a huge demand when it comes to interdisciplinary socio-legal studies. For follow up events and more information, please subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society is part of the Oxford/Berlin Research Partnership

Integrative Research Institute Law & Society is part of the Oxford/Berlin Research Partnership

Since 2019, the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) is part of the Oxford/Berlin Research Partnership. With the project "The Role of Law in Society". An Oxford/Berlin socio-legal research partnership, cooperation with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford is being strengthened.


This new cooperation is located in the field of law and society studies which include a wide
range of methods, that offer innovative perspectives on law beyond legal doctrine. As well as social science, legal science is interested in a convincing transposition and systematisation of these socio-legal methods. In this context our project seeks to make an internationally informed contribution.

Starting with two workshops, one in Berlin, one in Oxford, we pursue the goal of deepening our understanding of each other’s approaches to ‘law and society’, and thus to lay the foundation for further future cooperation in the context of research projects and joint grant applications. In addition, the workshops are intended to lay the foundation for graduate student, postdoctoral researcher and staff visits as well as longer term exchanges, for instance in the context of sabbaticals.

The first workshop in the form of an international Winter School took place in November 2019 in Berlin and was entitled Politics and Law. An interdisciplinary dialogue between social and legal sciences. For that, the two partner institutes cooperated with the Centre Marc Bloch Berlin. A conference report can be found here.


The second workshop will take place at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford in December 2020.

Please find further information on the Berlin University Alliance and the Oxford/Berlin Research Partnership here.

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Lecture Series: Ambivalences of Strategic Litigation

Lecture Series: Ambivalences of Strategic Litigation

Die DFG-Forschungsgruppe “Recht Geschlecht Kollektivität”, das Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin) und das Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (Viadrina) veranstalten im Sommersemester 2020 die Vortragsreihe „Ambivalences of Strategic Litigation“.


Die DFG-Forschungsgruppe “Recht Geschlecht Kollektivität”, das Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin) und das Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (Viadrina) veranstalten im Sommersemester 2020 die Vortragsreihe „Ambivalences of Strategic Litigation“.

Das Programm zur Reihe finden Sie hier.

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Call for Applications: re:constitution Fellowships 2020/21

Call for Applications: re:constitution Fellowships 2020/21

The Berlin-based re:constitution programme “Exchange and Analysis on Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe” released the Call for Applications for the 2020 re:constitution Fellowships.


Call for Applications 2020/21: https://www.reconstitution.eu/en/news/news-detail/call-for-applications-reconstitution-fellowships-202021.html

The application deadline is 24 May 2020.


The fellowships address scholars as well as practitioners of law and neighbouring disciplines who are interested in sharing ideas on recent problems and developments of democracy and the rule of law across Europe and its member states. The fellows will be able to flexibly pursue their project on a topic of their own choice and will become part of a European network for the exchange of views about current questions of European constitutionalism. They will receive a monthly stipend of €2.500 for their mobility phase at institutions of legal scholarship and practice in another EU member state.

re:constitution is a joint programme of the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien and Democracy Reporting International, funded by Stiftung Mercator. The Academic Director of re:constitution is Christoph Möllers, Professor of Public Law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

Contact: reconstitution@trafo-berlin.de

 

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Postponement of the LSI events for the 2020 summer semester

Postponement of the LSI events for the 2020 summer semester

Due to the current closure of the university, the public LSI events will not take place as planned until further notice. We will inform you on our website as soon as new information is available. Stay healthy!


Due to the closure of the university, the lecture series Landscapes of Equality, in which, for example, Federal Constitutional Judge Susanne Baer was meant to speak, will be postponed.

This also applies to the events of the series New Political Economies of Law, in the context of which the workshop Kritiken des Eigentums, organized by Andreas Fischer-Lescano (Bremen), Johan Horst (Berlin) and Christoph Menke (Frankfurt), should have taken place on March 31. The lecture The Morality of Privatization by Alon Harel (Hebrew University Jerusalem and Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) will also be postponed.


The workshop discussions of the LSI project group on the topic "Integration interdisziplinär" will also be postponed.


We will inform you about alternative dates and further events in our newsletter.


 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Lectures on Contemporary Turkey: Anatomy of a Political Regime

Lectures on Contemporary Turkey: Anatomy of a Political Regime

Online Lecture Series on Contemporary Turkey: Anatomy of a Political Regime by Off-University and HU Blickwechsel: Contemporary Turkey Studies from May to July 2020 every Wednesday, 5 pm.


 

In the last two decades, Turkey has gone through major political, social and economic changes with critical repercussions in every sphere of life. Now counted among the cases of autocratic regimes, Turkey is far from being able to find democratic solutions to its long-rooted problems. With this lecture series, we aim to discuss different dimensions of these changes by focusing on constitution and law, the nature and form of the political regime, the relation between politics and religion, state and violence, media and politics as well as pandemic and the production of differences and inequalities. The series featuring eminent scholars will give us a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Turkey.

 

Program and speakers

 

To join the lecture series please register via Off-University's Online Lecture Platform following this link.

 

This lecture series is co-organized by Off-University and HU Blickwechsel: Contemporary Turkey Studies and funded by Einstein Foundation Berlin and Stiftung Mercator.

 

 

Legal form(s) beyond capitalism?

Johan Horst discusses Grietje Baars's The Corporation, Law and Capitalism in the Völkerrechtsblog.


Link to the english version.

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Moira Fradinger on gender diversity and sexual identity in Argentina

Moira Fradinger on gender diversity and sexual identity in Argentina

Moira Fradinger discusses Argentina’s ground-breaking legal reform of 2012 which de-pathologized gender identity and sexual diversity


Moira Fradinger, associate professor of comparative literature at Yale University and fellow at The American Academy in Berlin, was supposed to speak on Citizenship, Inequality, and Vulnerability: The Case of Argentina as part of our lecture series Landscapes of Equality. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the event because of coronavirus.

We are, instead, now sharing this short video by our collaboration partner The American Academy in Berlin in which Moira discusses Argentina’s ground-breaking legal reform of 2012 which de-pathologized gender identity and sexual diversity.

You can see the video via that link.

 

Second episode of the Law & Society Podcast online

In the second episode of the Law & Society Podcast, Dr. Eddie Bruce-Jones from the University of London speaks about race and inequality and the scholarship on law and race in Germany and internationally.


 

Law & Society Podcast, Episode 2: Race and Inequality – The importance of the single case

Eddie Bruce-Jones speaks about scholarship on law and race in Germany and internationally. He stresses the importance of studying the single case for equality law, like the example of Oury Jalloh, a Black man who died in police custody in 2005 in Dessau/Germany, and its potential implications for the European Court of Human Rights. Rather than race being an US-centric category, Eddie Bruce Jones considers race a transhistoric and transnational concept that allows us to theorize similarities beyond geography and time. In a comparative as well as law and anthropology perspective, he explains how the concept of race is crucial in order to see how society is centrally structured around inequality.

Dr. Eddie Bruce-Jones is Reader in Law & Anthropology and Deputy Dean of the School of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London.

 

Please find all episodes of our Podcast here.

 

 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | News | Crisis Managers Wanted - Authoritarian vs. Democratic Systems in Times of Instability

Crisis Managers Wanted - Authoritarian vs. Democratic Systems in Times of Instability

LSI speaker Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff was part of a panel discussion on „Crisis Managers Wanted - Authoritarian vs. Democratic Systems in Times of Instability” at the POSTWEST festival (Volksbühne Berlin), together with Oliver Bilger (Tagesspiegel) and Vlad Troitskyi (Center of Contemporary Art DAKH, Kyiv). Chair: Gwendolyn Sasse (ZOiS).


Please find the video file of the panel discussion via this link.