2021 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Luxemburg: a revolutionary theorist and political activist, whose work has provided important political economy critiques of imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, and advocated for the collective commitment to social justice. Rosa Luxemburg’s work and influence spans many topics relevant to the critique of international law: political economy, militarism, capitalism, democracy, imperialism, self-determination, revolution, and feminism. While recent events and books have celebrated her life and intellectual and political legacy, engagement with her work in international law, with some notable exceptions, has been largely marginal. In this workshop, we bring together an international group of scholars, who engage with Rosa Luxemburg’s work in relation to a broad variety of international legal topics. Four broad themes will be discussed, anti-militarism, imperialism and primitive accumulation, self-determination, and reparations, ruptures and revolution.
Workshop Programme (provisional)
15 December 2022 | Humbolt University
Juristische Fakulät, Bebelplatz, Room E47
- 9.30-10.00 Introduction
Christine Schwöbel-Patel and Serena Natile - 10.00-12.30 Anti-Militarism
Chair: Christine Schwöbel-Patel, University of Warwick
Discussant: Tor Krever, University of Warwick
Marnie Lloydd (Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka), “A few
not too troublesome restrictions”, Restraints on Violence, Solidarity, Antimilitarism,
Peace
Chloe Truong-Jones (New York University), Accumulation and
Jurisdiction
Attila Antal (Eötvös Loránd University), The New Form of Capitalist
Militarism: The Permanent State of Exception - 12.30-13.30 Lunch
- 13.30-16.00 Imperialism and Primitive Accumulation
Chair: Tbc
Discussant: Latha Varadarajan, San Diego State University
Kanad Bagchi (Max Plank Institute for International and Comparative
Law, Heidelberg), Rosa Luxemburg and the Imperialism of Money
Santosh Anand (City University London), Foreclosed Temporalities:
Imperialism and International Criminal Law
Michele Tedeschini (Freie Universität, Berlin) Emptying the Bottom of
the Sea: Capital Accumulation in the Cavities of International Law - 16.00-16.30 Break
- 16.30-17.30 Rosa Lecture
- 19.00 Dinner at the Weltwirtschaft, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
16 December 2022 | Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Straße der Pariser Kommune 8A
- 9.30-12.30 Rosa walking tour
- 12.30-13.30 Welcome to the Stiftung
- 13.30-16.00 Self-determination
Chair: Serena Natile, University of Warwick
Discussant: Reut Yael Paz, Universität Gießen
Marcel Garbos (Columbia University), ‘National Nihilism’
Reconsidered: Rosa Luxemburg, Polish Industrialisation, and the
Possibilities of Post-Imperial Polity
Paola Zichi (Queen Mary University London), Rosa Luxemburg’s Self-
Determination and Feminist Legal Thought: On Imperialism,
Capitalist Expansion, and International Law
Eric Loefflad (Kent Law School), Domination is more than Conquest:
Rosa Luxemburg’s View from Partitioned Poland - 16.00-16.15 Break
- 16:15-18.00 Reparations, Ruptures and Revolutions
Chair: Tbc
Discussant: Susan Marks, LSE
Mia Swart (Edge Hill University), ‘Pushed into the burning desert’:
German ‘Reparations’ to the Herero through a Luxemburgian Lens
Serena Natile (University of Warwick), The Revolutionary Potential
of Transnational Social Security Law: Lessons from Rosa Luxemurg
Christine Schwöbel-Patel (University of Warwick), The
Luxemburgian Trial of Rupture - 18:00-18.30 Closing and Future Plans
Organiser
Christine Schwöbel-Patel, University of Warwick
Serena Natile, University of Warwick
Due to limited space, we can now only accommodate for online participation.
Location
Contact
Dr. Uwe Sonnenberg
Unit Head, History, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Email: uwe.sonnenberg@rosalux.org
Phone: +49 30 44310 425