I. Course outline

Law and legal concepts fundamentally shape membership and belonging in contemporary societies. The conditions of belonging are often formulated along the lines of characteristics such as race, religion or gender, but also class, ethnicity or descent. At the same time, access to belonging is limited through borders and nation states’ claim for a right to control migration as an expression of their sovereignty as well as through citizenship. The course will look at how the law functions as a marker of belonging and exclusion by looking both at conditions of belonging – namely gender, religion and race – as well as at access to and limitations of belonging through borders and citizenship. The course thereby does not focus on a particular legal order but attempts to unravel how particular laws, legal provisions or legal concepts at different levels are used to draw conditions of belonging.

II. Learning objectives

The students are able to identify the use of law to structure society and to critically reflect on the seemingly neutral concepts underpinning the legal order in liberal societies. The course will cover the functioning of law with regard to the categories gender, religion, race, borders and citizenship.

III. Course requirements

Please note that the course language is English. This is a reading intensive class and students will need to allocate sufficient time for reading the materials for each session. Most readings will be in English. This course is open for students who are at least in their second year (4th semester). Prior knowledge in German constitutional law, international human rights protection and public international law are required. The course is open for students from other disciplines.

IV. Assessment

The students are expected to participate actively in the course and to be able to present short oral inputs on the required readings, including case law. Evaluation will occur on the basis of oral participation in the course. close