Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia

The Department of Foundations of Law in the Faculty of Law cordially invites you to the next meeting of the Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia. On 7 October, our speaker is Martijn Hesselink from the European University Institute in Florence - Title: Revolutionary legal scholarship

Abstract: 
A revolution is a change in the most basic structure of the scientific, social, political, economic, or legal world. Revolutionary legal scholarship examines arguments and strategies for legal revolution in this sense. The paper defends revolutionary legal scholarship as a legitimate and much needed approach to law – at least as legitimate as dominant positivist-doctrinal and policy-oriented approaches. Epistemically, there is no reason to assume that true knowledge is more likely to be obtained concerning the legal status quo or gradual legal reform than regarding revolutionary change. Normatively, revolution may be justified as a remedy for structural injustice – a radical but perhaps necessary form of corrective justice. Research-ethically, revolutionary legal scholarship can be as rigorous as any legal scholarship. The paper centres four strands in contemporary revolutionary legal scholarship: work on abolition, non-reformist reform, legal prefiguration, and being a legal revolution.

Convenors:
Lukasz Dziedzic
Sebastian Reyes Molina
Roland Pierik

The colloquia will take place physically and online. The Teams link for the online sessions will be distributed later.