Seminar: Strukturelle transformationer i samfundet – med et konstitutionelt perspektiv

TIME: Tuesday, 24 January, 13.00-15.30

VENUE: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Strandgade 71, ground floor, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

TIME: Tuesday, 24 January, 13.00-15.30

VENUE: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Strandgade 71, ground floor, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

Constitutionalization has traditionally been discussed in the context of the nation state and the relation between rulers and citizens. The central element in the concept of constitutionalization is “that in any political society government officials are not free to do anything they please but are bound to observe both the limitations of power and the procedures which are set out in the supreme, constitutional law of the community”, argues political scientist and constitutional scholar, David Fellmann.

In this Global Economy Monday seminar, however, two distinguished international scholars – Grahame Thompson and Poul Kjær – have been invited to provide constitutional perspectives of two phenomena distinctly not obviously confined to the national state, nor to ruler-citizen relations: corporate citizenship and financial crisis.

Grahame Thompson will discuss the process of constitutionalizing the global corporate sphere, based upon a book to be published by Oxford University Press later in the year. His main point is that there is a rather unacknowledged quasi-constitutionalization of global corporate affairs going on that is assembling a range of discursive and non-discursive resources, mainly associated with the progressive juridicalization of business activity and the inauguration of corporate citizenship as a key corporate strategy to legitimize the political reproduction of companies.

The question Thompson addresses is what are the analytical and practical resources available to help think this process and what are its likely outcomes? In particular, this raises the issue of the fate of the rule of law in an international context.

Poul Kjær, on the other hand, takes his point of departure in the argument that the immediate cause of societal crises is the dissolution of boundaries between previously distinct social processes leading to a mutual erosion of the coherency and functionality of the processes in question. On this background, he argues, constitutional structures can be understood as evolutionary responses to societal crises.

Constitutions are double-edged structures which simultaneously are oriented towards the maintenance of internal order and stability within a given social entity at the same time as they regulate the transfer of social components between social entities and their environments.

Thus, the ongoing financial crisis indicates a failure of constitutional bonding. From a structural perspective the reasons for this failure can be traced back to an increased discrepancy between the structural composition of world society and the constitutional structures in place due to increased globalisation and the emergence of new types of transnational law and politics which are not adequately grasped by existing constitutional frameworks.

Grahame Thompson, Visiting Professor, CBS
Poul F. Kjær, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
Jakob Vestergaard, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme

13.00-13.10: Introduction; Jakob Vestergaard, Senior Researcher, DIIS

13.10-13.50: The Constitutionalization of the Global Corporate Sphere?; Grahame Thompson, Visiting Professor, CBS

13.50-14.10: Coffee Break

14.10-14.50: The Financial Crisis in Constitutional Perspective: Law and Order within and beyond National Configurations; Poul F. Kjær, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

14.50-15.30: Open Discussion

Chair: Jakob Vestergaard, Senior Researcher, DIIS

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form from the website no later than Monday, 23 January at 12.00 noon.

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation.