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Mathias Völzke

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About our research

Constitutionalism has gone global. A commitment to the rule of law, democracy and human rights – the core commitments of the modern constitutional tradition that has its roots in the American and French Revolutions - has become the defining feature of a global legitimatory script that is applied not only in the context of newly established state constitutions, but also for assessment, interpretation and progressive development of law beyond the state.

The Center for Global Constitutionalism as a platform for problem-focused basic research is focused on addressing three kinds of resulting questions:

1. How are existing institutions, procedures and standards to be interpreted, progressively developed or reformed, in order to ensure that the rule of democratically legitimate and human rights respecting law, can successfully be developed beyond the state, even in the face of deep political disagreement across states?

2. If there are common standards, according to which all states must comply with norms relating to the rule of law, democracy and human rights, exactly how are these standards to be understood? Through what kind of mechanisms should the global spread and enforcement of these standards be supported?

3. The Center for Global Constitutionalism also examines different theoretical and historical questions, that concern the relationship between the rule of law, democracy and human rights itself. This includes questions concerning the history and theory of citizenship, European integration, the regulation of markets and the theory of human rights.

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Contact

Hilde Ottschofski
Assistant
hilde.ottschofski [at] wzb.eu
fon +49 30 25491 285
fax +49 30 25491 542

Reichpietschufer 50
D-10785 Berlin
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Our Cooperating Partner

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Jus Cogens Journal

A Critical Journal of Philosophy of Law and Politics

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Videos

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Mattias Kumm

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Keynote in Israel: Mattias Kumm on Authoritarian Populism as a Challenge to Judicial Review of Rights

Video

Mattias Kumm talks about our research.

Selected Publications

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Cover Public Reason and Courts

Edited Volume

"Public Reason and Courts" edited by Mattias Kumm, Silje Langvatn and Wojciech Sadurski has been published by Cambridge University Press.

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Edited Volume

"Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives" edited by Mattias Kumm, Takao Suami, Anne Peters and Dimitri Vanoverbeke has been published by Cambridge University Press.

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Edited Volume

Mattias Kumm's "On the Representativeness of Constitutional Courts" has been published in "Judicial Power" (CUP) edited by Christine Landfried.

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Handbook

Check out Dieter Gosewinkel's article on "The Constitutional State" in "The Oxford Handbook of European Legal History" (OUP):

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Cover Human Rights: Moral or Political?

Edited Volume

Mattias Kumm's "The Turn to Justification: On the Structure and Domain of Human Rights Practice" has been published in "Human Rights: Moral or Political?" (OUP) edited by Adam Etinson.

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Cover Antiliberal Europe

Edited Volume

"Anti-liberal Europe: Neglected Story of Europeanization" edited by Dieter Gosewinkel has been published by Berghahn Books. 

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Cover Constitutional Acceleration within the European Union and Beyond

Edited Volume

Kriszta Kovács's "Changing Constitutional Identity via Amendment" appears in "Constitutional Acceleration within the European Union and Beyond" (Routledge) edited by Paul Blokker.

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Cover Naulila

Book

Jakob Zollmann's "Naulila 1914. World War I in Angola and International Law" has been published by Nomos.

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