Beskrivelse
In times of uncertainty for (international) law, it might be worthwhile to rethink its function for our society. Law is often viewed as a stabilizer, structuring social order through rules and institutions. Transformative law, however, challenges this static perspective, examining the role of law as shaping our society. Transformation is a compounded word. “Formation” refers to a form and the “trans” part to the act where the form goes beyond its existing form, i.e. transformation means to “change form”. Seeing law as “transformative” means to understand it as a driver for fundamental change, rather than a response to existing societal shifts.Particularly new social processes, such as climate change or the emergence of new types of social media require a news lens, also on the raison d’être of the law itself. The speed of many of those developments results in “crises of regulation” where the social processes have changed while the law has not followed along and does no longer capture the new realities. In order to be able to keep up, the law must become more “transformative”. It can provide a flexible framework which sets goals for the future and keeps a more open perspective to initiate and foster further transformation in society.
In our next session of the Theory Talks series, we will explore this dynamic understanding of the law and discuss whether law really has the potential to drive social change, rather than merely capturing it. The perspective on law as a constructor of social realities, institutional structures, and power dynamics raises crucial questions: How does the law transform governance processes? How does it relate to democracy and activism? To what extent can law be transformative in times of crisis? What can and should we do as scholars to make transformative law a reality?
| Periode | 7 maj 2025 |
|---|---|
| Sted for afholdelse | Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Tyskland |