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

Are states of exception still exceptional? One could doubt it, if we look at current debates and developments: existential governmental crises and states of exception have become buzz words. But what’s behind these buzz words? This seminar aims at exploring the topic “state of exception“ by looking at it through different lenses: historical, legal, comparative, and policy lenses will form a bigger, interdisciplinary picture. The legal perspective will comprise both a doctrinal and a socio-legal perspective, and the comparative perspective will link back to the historical one: it will be both synchronical and diachronical, i.e. comparative over time. A co-operation between the HU Law Faculty (Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser), the HU Department of History (Prof. Dr. Gabriele Metzler), and the Department of Politics at Princeton University (Prof. Dr. Jan-Werner Müller) makes possible this interdisciplinary approach towards the state of exception as a multi-layered phenomenon.

The seminar addresses questions such as the origin of the state of exception as a legal instrument, its development in 19 th century France and Prussia, and its grave abuse in Weimar Germany, where emergency decrees finally lead to a permanent state of exception during the Nazi period. With a specific normative focus, the seminar will analyse the respective requirements of the U.S. and current French and German constitutions (Notstandsverfassung) for dealing with states of exception. How do the aforementioned constitutions cope with modern threats such as terrorism? What role do courts play? And how do rules emanating from the conception of militant democracy (Wehrhafte Demokratie) interact with the instrument “state of exception“? Termed as a policy question: Is the conception – and in Germany the rules – of militant democracy an illiberal antagonism? Or is it an indispensable tool in future challenges for constitutional democracies?

The seminar wants to examine these and further questions. Seminar participants will – if possible – form interdisciplinary and international teams of two to jointly work on a presentation. The seminar will be supplemented by an optional workshop which will take place on either 11 or 12 July 2016 at Humboldt University.

Literatur:
Bruce Ackerman , The Emergency Constitution, The Yale Law Journal 113 (2004), p. 1029 ff.
Giorgio Agamben , State of Exception, 2005
Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde , Der verdrängte Ausnahmezustand, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 1978, p. 1881-1890 Boldt, Hans , Rechtsstaat und Ausnahmezustand. Eine Studie über den Belagerungszustand als Ausnahmezustand des bürgerlichen Rechtsstaates im 19. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1967
Boldt, Hans , Art. Ausnahmezustand. necessitas publica, Belagerungszustand, Kriegszustand, Staatsnotstand, Staatsnotrecht, in: Otto Brunner/Werner Conze/Reinhart Koselleck (Hrsg.), Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, Stuttgart 1972, Studienausgabe 2004, S. 343 ff
David Dyzenhaus , States of Emergency, in: Michel Rosenfeld/Andras Sajo (eds.), The Oxford Handbook on Comparative Constitutional Law , Oxford 2012, S. 442 ff.
Ernst Fraenkel , The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship, 2015 (1941)
Günter Frankenberg , Political Technology and the Erosion of the Rule of Law: Normalizing the State of Exception, 2015
Gregory K. Golden , Crisis Management during the Roman Republic. The Role of Political Institutions in Emergencies, 2013
Oren Gross , Law in Times of Crisis. Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice, 2006
Rainer Grote , Regulating the State of Emergency – The German Example, in: Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 33 (2003), p. 151 ff. Anna-Bettina Kaiser , Die Verantwortung der Staatsrechtslehre in Krisenzeiten – Art. 48 WRV im Spiegel der Staatsrechtslehrertagung und des Deutschen Juristentages 1924, in: Ulrich Jan Schröder/Antje von Ungern-Sternberg (Hrsg.), Zur Aktualität der Weimarer Staatsrechtslehre, 2011, S. 119 ff.
Karl Loewenstein , Militant Democracy and Fundamental Rights, The American Political Science Review 31 (1937), p. 417 ff. and p. 638 ff.
Jan-Werner Müller , Militant Democracy, in: Michel Rosenfeld and András Sajó (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law, Oxford 2012
Rossiter, Clinton , Constitutional Dictatorship. Crisis Government in the Modern Democracies, New Brunswick und London 2002 (1948)
Carl Schmitt , Political Theology. Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty, 2006 (1922)
Schudnagies, Christian , Der Kriegs- oder Belagerungszustand im Deutschen Reich während des Ersten Weltkrieges. Eine Studie zur Entwicklung und Handhabung des deutschen Ausnahmezustandsrechts bis 1918, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1994
Adrian Vermeule & Eric A. Posner , Accommodating Emergencies, in: The Constitution in Wartime: Beyond Alarmism and Complacency (Mark Tushnet ed., 2005)