Gunther Teubner
Professor of Private Law and Legal Sociology,
University of Frankfurt, and
Visiting Centennial Professor, London School of Economics

"Civil Constitutions in a Global Society"

Wednesday, 15 October 2003
12:00 p.m.
7200 Law School (Lubar Commons)

cosponsored by The European Union Center Link to EUC website
the Governance Project of the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), and the Institute for Legal Studies. Hosted by David M. Trubek, Voss-Bascom Professor of Law and Director of WAGE.

Mermin Jurisprudence Lecture

Gunther Teubner is an internationally known scholar in legal and social theory and author of numerous books, including Networks and Connected Contracts (2003), Law and Reflexivity (1994), and Law as Autopoietic System (1993), which was translated in 8 languages. He is the coauthor and editor of Constitutionalism and Transnational Governance (2002), Global Law Without A State (1997), and Environmental Law and Ecological Responsibility (1994).

Abstract: What does it mean to speak of "constitutionalism" in world society today? The idea of constitutional governance, developed in an era when nation states were stronger and more independent, society less complex, and communication slower and less pervasive, is challenged by processes of globalization, digitalization, and privatization. How can this idea be adapted to the conditions of an increasingly interdependent yet polycentric world and a pluralized society of autonomous sectors? Gunther Teubner argues that the solution lies not in the creation of a world constitution modeled on national charters, but rather through the constitutionalization of autonomous sectors in world society. He sees a multiplicity of civil constitutions emerging in relative distance from institutionalized politics.These civic constitutions draw on, but do not simply mimic, the procedures, principles and norms of constitutional law.