Constitutionalism: Revolutionary, Transformative, Militant - Humphrey lecture with Mattias Kumm
The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism invites you to this year's Humphrey Lecture in Human Rights, which will be given by Mattias Kumm, Inge Rennert Professor of Law at New York University's School of Law.
Abstract
The constitutionalist tradition, inaugurated by the American, French and Haitian Revolutions in the 18th century and dominant today, shares three features: It is revolutionary, transformative and militant. All three features are connected to a particular conception of legitimate authority. The presentations will discuss the three features in order to clarify the nature of legitimate authority as it is conceived within the constitutionalist tradition and discuss what this implies with regard to contemporary challenges.
About the speaker
Mattias Kumm is the Inge Rennert Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He also holds a Research Professorship on "Globalization and the Rule of Law" at the Social Science Research Center (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB), and he is a Professor of Law at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
He has taught at leading universities wordwide, and has held professorial appointments at Harvard, Yale, and the EUI. He is on the board of various international journals and professional societies, and is founding co-editor in chief of Global Constitutionalism (CUP). Kumm holds a JSD from Harvard Law School and has pursued studies in law, philosophy and political sciences at the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and Harvard University.
Kumm's research and teaching focuses on basic issues in Global, European and Comparative Public Law. His work emphasizes the analytical and normative connection between law, claims to legitimate authority and public reason and the institutional conditions under which such claims can be made plausible.
About the Humphrey Lectures
The John P. Humphrey Lectureship in Human Rights is an annual lecture on the theme of the role of International Law and Organization in the world-wide protection of Human Rights. The lecture was founded in 1988 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the drafting of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in recognition of the leadership of John P. Humphrey (BCL 1928) in the elaboration, drafting, and promotion of the Declaration.
This event is eligible for inclusion as 1.5 hours of continuing legal education as reported by members of the Barreau du Québec.
