Articles & Papers

BmE Themenheft 6. Widersprüchliche Figuren in vormoderner Erzählliteratur: 1–23 DOI: 10.25619/BmE2020396

In Febel, Gisela, Sonja Kerth & Elisabeth Lienert (eds.) Wider die Geschichtsvergessenheit. Inszenierte Geschichte – historische Differenz – kritisches Bewusstsein. 39-53. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI: 10.1515/9783839459294-003

In Ingrid Bennewitz & Detlef Goller (eds.) altiu maere heute. Die Nibelungen und ihre Rezeption im 21. Jahrhundert.(Bamberger Germanistische Mittelalter- und Frühneuzeitstudien 6) 11-43. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press. ISBN: 978-3-86309-884-1 DOI: 10.20378/irb-57732

The EU’s free trade agreement with New Zealand fails to establish a critical concept of sustainability On July 9, 2023, the European Union and Aotearoa New Zealand concluded a comprehensive free trade agreement, which the European Commission describes as the most ambitious agreement ever with regard to sustainability issues. A closer look reveals that the scope of regulation is more comprehensive and progressive in many respects than in other agreements. Nevertheless, deficits can be identified in the design of the dispute settlement procedure, which are also due to the fact that the sustainability chapter is unable to establish a critical concept of sustainability that is sensitive to its contradictions. Findings from Contradiction Studies can help to fill this gap. Contradictions are associated with the concept of sustainability as it is used in the agreement. Only its recognition makes it possible to negotiate these contradictions at a legal level. To this end, the dispute settlement procedure must be made more effective with the involvement of civil society actors.

On 13.11.2024, a group of 113 members of the German Bundestag tabled a motion to initiate proceedings to ban the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The debate to date has focused on the requirements and prospects of success of a (partial) ban of the party from a constitutional perspective (in particular here and here). The national perspective threatens to distort the view of transnational interlegalities and does not do justice to the state of European integration.

In Austermann, Nele, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Heike Kleffner, Kati Lang, Maximilian Pichl, Ronen Steinke & Tore Vetter (eds.). 2024. Recht gegen rechts: Report 2024. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer. printISBN: 978-3-10-397556-7 ebookISBN: 978-3-10-491854-9

European demand for raw materials is growing as part of the energy transition. Many of the raw materials required for the energy transition are located on the territories of indigenous peoples, which often leads to conflicts. Against this backdrop, it is surprising that the planned agreement between the EU and the Mercosur states does not contain any provisions regarding the participation and protection of indigenous peoples. A reference to such provisions, in particular from ILO Convention 169, would be required under international law and would help to make the conflicts and contradictions of the concept of sustainability negotiable.

In Chojnicka, Joanna & Hornidge, Anna-Katharina & Knopf, Kerstin & Chatterjee, Sukla (eds.) Postcolonial Oceans: Contradictions, Heterogeneities, Knowledges, Materialities, 1-19. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1046.c17297

In Chojnicka, Joanna & Hornidge, Anna-Katharina & Knopf, Kerstin & Chatterjee, Sukla (eds.) Postcolonial Oceans: Contradictions, Heterogeneities, Knowledges, Materialities, 219-236. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1046.c17310

In Nele Austermann, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Heike Kleffner, Kati Lang, Maximilian Pichl, Ronen Steinke, & Tore Vetter (Hrsg.), Recht gegen rechts, 307–314. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer.

The Bremen Überseestadt, constructed as a new harbor between 1875 and 1913, reflects the close connections between harbor infrastructure and European colonialism. The increase in cargo handling, particularly of colonial commodities, necessitated new port facilities and the deepening of the Weser River. Despite its transformation into a modern urban area, the colonial past remains inadequately addressed to this day. The text calls for making the colonial entanglements visible as an integral part of Bremen’s trade history.

Legal research is usually done at a desk, discussions are possible by telephone and even archives are usually accessible online, and most work is based on academic literature. But what insights, perspectives and research subjects are missed by legal research for which researchers do not leave their desks? And how can the gaps be filled?

The need for reform of the global health system is openly on the table. Many stakeholders agree that the WHO has not been able to adequately address the political and social problems, global health emergencies triggered or exacerbated by epidemics and pandemics, malnutrition, and access to clean water in recent years. Against this backdrop, there is a widespread call for more equity and solidarity in the global health system.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed systemic problems in the global health system. It revealed that the global health system perpetuates global health inequalities rather than effectively reducing them: The international community, particularly the countries of the Global North, failed to make COVID-19 vaccines widely available to the populations of the world’s poorest countries. This blog debate takes stock of the reform debate about a just and decolonizing transformation of the health system. Bringing together scholars from various disciplines, the contributions of this debate ask what a fair global health system could look like and what role the law plays in it.

According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the AfD is now “definitely right-wing extremist”. It represents positions that fundamentally contradict fundamental trade union values. In this second part, I will show that the exclusion of AfD members from trade unions is also possible – contrary to what a recent decision by the Berlin II Regional Court suggests.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) represents positions that contradict fundamental trade union values. Trade union representation of employees’ interests is not compatible with membership of the AfD. Trade unions can therefore declare the AfD to be an opposing organization by means of an incompatibility resolution and exclude members who are also members of the AfD – and should do so.

In Brühne, Julia, Christiane Conrad von Heydendorff & Cora Rok (eds.). 2021. Re-Konstruktion des Realen: die Wiederentdeckung des Realismus in der Romania (Romanica Band 11). Göttingen: V&R unipress, Mainz University Press. 151–178. ISBN: 978-3-8471-1352-2

This article gives an overview of francophone African diasporic websites such as Africultures.com, africavivre.com and other digital magazines, networks and blogs that are present on different platforms. Taking recent novels, texts of liter- ary criticism, reviews and comments as examples, I analyse in what way they share in discourse about diasporic and migratory identity positions of Afropéens (‘Afropeans’) (and differ therein from other readings of the same novels). Methodologically, I draw on Stephen Greenblatt’s concepts of self-fashioning and circulation of social energy as well as on Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of the produc- tion of social capital. With respect to socially preformed discursive formation of Black people as an ostensibly homogeneous minority in the twenty-first century France, I refer to Pap Ndiaye’s ground-breaking study La condition noire from 2009 which closely analyses the complex situation of the Black migrant and post- migrant population. I focus on two narrative texts which are widely perceived both in France and on an international level: First, the autobiographically inspired novel Le Ventre de l’Atlantique (The Belly of the Atlantic) by Fatou Diome and second, Marie Ndiaye’s narrative triptych Trois femmes puissantes (Three Strong Women). Studying remarks and comments of literary criticism concern- ing these texts on francophone African diasporic websites, I raise the following questions: What relevance do these narrated characters (still) have today? To what extent do they shape the discourse of Black migrants in France? What kind of interpretation of the colonial history and context do they offer? And which emancipatory moments and decolonial strategies create a new, proper symbolic capital and, thus, add to the Imagined Community of ‘Noirs en France’ (‘Black people in France’)?

In the face of growing populism and right-wing radicalism, the fight against historical forgetfulness in thought and action is once again highly topical. At first glance, however, historical forgetfulness – at least in relation to the pre-modern era – hardly seems to exist: The Middle Ages, Renaissance and early modern period are experiencing a boom in novels, dramas and popular media. But here in particular, there is an urgent need for an active response to simplifications, mythifications and falsifications. The contributors to this volume show that it is essential for a critical consciousness to be aware of historical difference and media filters and to reflect on their effects. In the face of growing populism and right-wing radicalism, the fight against historical forgetfulness in thought and action is once again highly topical. At first glance, however, historical forgetfulness – at least in relation to the pre-modern era – hardly seems to exist: The Middle Ages, Renaissance and early modern period are experiencing a boom in novels, dramas and popular media. But here in particular, there is an urgent need for an active response to simplifications, mythifications and falsifications. The contributors to this volume show that it is essential for a critical consciousness to recognize historical difference and media filters and to reflect on their effects.

Since antiquity in Greece, the Law of Non-Contradiction (LNC) is considered to be the foundation of all philosophy. As Aristotle maintains in Metaphysics, “the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same thing and in the same respect” (1005b, 19–23).