englischWhat makes international law legitimate? Based on a critique of the traditional idea of state voluntarism and canonical notions of legitimacy, this book develops an alternative conception of international legal legitimacy. Hannah Arendt's political thinking guides its normative analysis of [...]

englischGlobalisation and global governance mean that private actors are involved in public regulation and decision-making processes. Companies in particular are experiencing an increase in power that goes far beyond mere economic indicators; that is, they are also gaining political and normative [...]

englischState consent as the prevailing legitimising principle of international legal norms has become increasingly insufficient lately. This book reconstructs collective self-determination as an immanent legitimacy criterion that can supplement and materially underpin the principle of state [...]

englischHas digitalisation become a threat to democracy and freedom? Publications which state this are currently extremely fashionable. They have replaced the utopian literature of the 1990s, which saw digitalisation as the solution to the problems of modern society. This volume shines new light on [...]

englischThe possibility of attaining plural citizenship is an issue which divides political opinion. In relation to the formation of transnational democratic institutions especially, theoretical questions arise as well: Is plural citizenship both on and above state level in democracies of different [...]

englischThe wide-ranging decisions of the European Council, the individually binding resolutions of the Security Council, the growing number of summits in different constellations (G-8, the G-20, the BRICS states etc.)  – we are witnessing a rapid rise in executive meetings and executive law-making. [...]

englischDemocracy seems to be no longer self-evident. A growing sense of alienation in politics determines the daily life of citizens: democratic institutions and procedures may be working properly, yet they promote non-democratic values such as technocracy, oligarchy, élitism. The repression of [...]

englischWhat is federalism and how can we think about federal political orders beyond the paradigm of modern statehood? This volume re-opens the debate on the implications and the potentials of federalism by examining competing ideas. The contributions highlight the theoretical and normative content [...]

englischThe concept of sovereignty has comprised the conditions of legal rule, public authority and, due to this, has been a political and legal key-concept for centuries. The promise of sovereignty has been to guarantee political order. What has come to the forefront of academic discussion today, [...]