Keynote Lecture Winter School Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Winter School 2025

The Institute for Transformation Research and Sustainability (transzent), the Institute for Democracy and Participation Research (IDPF) at the University of Wuppertal (BUW), the Wuppertal Institute and the Andrássy University of Budapest organised the Winter School 2025 "Power (in) Democracy": Power is essential in democracy. This is not new, but it can be discussed again in light of the current global political situation. Current trends of (de-)globalization, the curtailment of independent media and the judiciary, the fundamental changes in refugee and immigration policy, climate and energy policy as well as digital media and artificial intelligence raise questions about how power and resources have been redistributed in democracy. Power is also the ability to organise collectively and to formulate civil society needs.

My Contribution

I presented my findings on the implications of the internationalisation of law for state order for the first time in Wuppertal. I focused my lecture on the regulatory underpinnings of the internationalisation of law, which are true for Switzerland, as well as for the EU-Member Germany. I explained how globalisation, digitalisation and the urgency to address common concern of humankind inevitably require international regulatory cooperation, which in terms inevitably strengthens the role of the executive branch of government due to its competence in foreign policy. I showed how this development can lead to distrust in government and to a perceived sense of loosing control. For these reasons, institutional adaptation of lawmaking processes to the internationalisation of law appears crucial for the maintenance and protection of democracy.

The audience was highly engaged and we concluded the session with an extensive and genuinely substantive Q&A. The lecture was recorded and is available here.