jens meierhenrich

“This is a superb volume. The bold, thoughtful framing of the editors’ introductory chapter is itself well worth the price of admission. The list of contributors is a veritable Who’s Who of legal scholars and political theorists concerned with the rule of law. Like any good Companion, this collection of essays provides an accurate survey of the current state of the field. But it goes much further, pointing out highly productive directions for the next generation of research and practice. Moreover, it arrives at an opportune moment, when understanding what the rule of law is, and what it is not, has never seemed more important.”

Josiah Ober, Mitsotakis Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Political Science and Classics, Stanford University

“The historian E.P. Thompson thought it ‘an unqualified human good’ but Judith Shklar dismissed it as a ‘bit of ruling class chatter.’ So what is the rule of law and does it matter? These are the questions explored in this timely and thought-provoking collection by an impressive array of leading scholars. For political scientists, philosophers, lawyers and policy-makers it will be an invaluable resource.”

Catherine O’Regan, Director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

“Brilliantly designed and edited, multi-faceted yet coherent, realistic and profound, this volume should immunise future discussions of the rule of law against simplistic approaches. It can also serve as a model for editors of theoretical companions, handbooks and collections. A masterpiece.”

William Twining, Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London

“Meierhenrich's and Loughlin's endeavour to redefine the rule of law and to ask whether and in which understanding it is worth being defended is timely and satisfies an urgent need.”

Dieter Grimm, Professor of Law, Humboldt University Berlin, former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

“Jens Meierhenrich and Martin Loughlin have gathered leading legal scholars from around the world to produce an extraordinary collection of essays. The editors set out to challenge settled expectations by ‘making the rule of law strange again.’ The result is a major contribution to legal theory – an indispensable text for scholars and an entire syllabus for the classroom.“

Paul W. Kahn, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, Yale Law School

“One would have hoped that in our own time a rigorous analysis of Nazi law would serve only antiquarian purposes. However, Jens Meierhenrich’s magnificent The Remnants of the Rechtsstaat serves as a painful reminder that this is unfortunately not the case. In this brilliant and meticulous reevaluation of Ernst Fraenkel’s interrogation of the workings of the Third Reich’s legal system, Meierhenrich revives the idea that authoritarian regimes are not in fact ‘lawless’ entities, but states that deploy legalism in both cynical and systematic ways. In an era when ‘hybrid regimes,’ which combine both dictatorial and liberal elements, proliferate throughout the world—in Europe and North America as well—The Remnants of the Rechtsstaat is an indispensable read.”

John P. McCormick, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

“As early as 1938, Ernst Fraenkel, a German labor lawyer and social democrat—chased out of Germany because of his ‘Jewish origin’—attempted an analysis of Nazi law. He argued that law and lawlessness existed side-by-side, and deviously complemented one another. Meierhenrich has carefully and admirably excavated this intellectual achievement, and reimagined Fraenkel’s ‘dual state’ for the twenty-first century. This is a terrific book and of immediate relevance for understanding the present: dual states are everywhere.”

Michael Stolleis, Professor of Public Law Emeritus, University of Frankfurt, and formerly Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History

"The Remnants of the Rechtsstaat is an essential companion to Ernst Fraenkel's The Dual State. Meierhenrich sets that analysis in its rich context and effectively shows its relevance to an understanding of contemporary authoritarianism. In an era in which the rule of law is increasingly under threat, this book is an immense contribution."

David Dyzenhaus, University Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto

“Jens Meierhenrich has written a remarkable book. Working towards a wider account of what remained of rational law under National Socialism, and what might still remain of rational law under conditions of authoritarianism more generally, he has excavated the ways in which the 'remnants' of the Rechtsstaat exist within both regime types. He has done so, moreover, by rehabilitating and furthering a classic idea formulated most famously in Ernst Fraenkel’s powerful book, The Dual State, about the normative and prerogative dimensions of law and politics under radical duress. By reminding us of just how imbricated Fraenkel’s book was with his lived experience under National Socialism, Meierhenrich’s own 'ethnography' of Nazi law uses Fraenkel’s example to teach us once again just what was so important about that book and its author, and why political theorists, legal theorists and historians, as well as scholars of the Third Reich, might profitably return to him anew for lessons that are both deeply historical, but disarmingly contemporary.”

Duncan Kelly, Professor of Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge

"Jens Meierhenrich has written a wonderfully ambitious, challenging book. It is, at once, a sweeping, quite original history of the role of legalities in the troubled South African past and a provocative conceptual work that lays the foundation for a theory of democracy rooted in the rule/s of law. An impressively erudite, transdisciplinary study - one with broad comparative relevance - it will have a major impact on scholarship in law and society. Everywhere."

John Comaroff, Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology, Harvard University, and Research Professor, American Bar Foundation

"In a highly scholarly work, that draws heavily on South African case law, legislation and legal literature, Jens Meierhenrich explores a contradiction in the South African apartheid state that informed South African jurisprudential discourse during the apartheid era. On the one hand, the apartheid regime invoked law as an instrument to impose and justify racial discrimination and political repression, but on the other hand it allowed relatively independent courts to administer justice in accordance with the enlightened values of the common law, a mix of English and Roman-Dutch law. Meierhenrich explains this contradiction in terms of a conflict between a prerogative state, which shows little respect for the rule of law, and a normative state, which respects the rule of law. His thesis, with wide philosophical underpinnings, provides a satisfactory explanation for the fact that when South Africa became a democracy in 1994 it was able to draw on its normative heritage in order to construct a model constitutional order."

John Dugard, Professor of Public International Law, Leiden University

"This is a highly original and unusual book. In it the author analyzes the legal institutions that played a role in the history of racism in South Africa from 1652 to 2000. It is directed to help explain the role of law in South Africa's extraordinary transition from Apartheid to democracy. It makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the manner in which law plays a role in social transformation."

Richard Goldstone, former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

"Up to a few years ago most political scientists who studied law and courts knew nothing about comparative politics and most students of comparative politics knew nothing about law and courts. Now no student of either can afford to ignore the other. This book is central evidence for that proposition, essential reading for people in both fields, and an enormous step forward in our understanding of the role of legal institutions in political development in general and democratization in particular."

Martin Shapiro, James W. and Isabel Coffroth Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley

"Drawing on Ernst Fraenkel's idea that some states combine the normative force of legality with the arbitrariness of prerogative, Jens Meierhenrich's examination of South Africa's transition to democracy illuminates fundamental questions about why - and, more important, how - the law's traditions can contribute to democratic stabilization even under apparently unfavorable conditions. More than an insightful analysis of an important case, this provocative work makes an important contribution to the theory of constitutional design."

Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

"In this provocative work, Jens Meierhenrich argues that the dual nature of the apartheid state - its combination of legalistic with repressive institutions - was essential to South Africa's transition to democracy. In showing how common legal traditions helped transform confrontation to cooperation, he sets a compelling research agenda for some time to come."

Elisabeth Jean Wood, Professor of Political Science, Yale University

"Meierhenrich provides a compelling interpretation of the South African transition to full democracy. His argument is beyond doubt a major contribution to our understanding of this remarkable historical moment."

Crawford Young, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"This monumental compilation provides a compelling and up-to-date survey of genocide starting with its contested definition and historical patterns and moving to its widespread ramifications, including responses in law, media, and psychology. Jens Meierhenrich has done students, teachers, and the public a great service in collecting these sometimes little-known materials and capturing the state of a pivotal discussion in so comprehensive and responsible a way."

Samuel Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University

"A multidimensional, complex, fluid, and ever-expanding concept, genocide can be bewildering and confusing.  Here is a comprehensive yet eclectic guide that offers all you need to know."

Stathis N. Kalyvas, Gladstone Professor of Government, University of Oxford

"With its comprehensive introduction and compilation of critical essays in the field, this volume will be a key resource for anyone - students, scholars, practitioners, or lay readers - interested in genocide."

Alexander Laban Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs, and UNESCO Chair in Genocide Prevention, Rutgers University

"This is a remarkable book. Meierhenrich and Pendas have assembled a wonderful and coherent collection. They offer a new understanding of political trials, one which illuminates both the juridical dimensions of political life and the way political meanings shape courts and trials. Broad in its historical and cultural sweep, impressive in its scholarship, uniformly persuasive, Political Trials in Theory and History will quickly become a must-read among students of law and politics."

Austin Sarat, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

"All trials are political. Sometimes we see it, sometimes we don’t. This collection is a marvelous exploration of that often forgotten fact, demonstrating to us the need to be able to appraise the uses of the criminal law and legal process for many kinds of political ends, some of which we have reason to agree with, while others can only appear as highly dubious. This is an intelligent and timely intervention in a field too often shrouded in technicalities."

Martti Koskenniemi, Academy Professor, and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki

"Criminal trials are fascinating, as Hollywood learned long ago. Political trials are even better: the stakes are higher; the participants loom larger. These fourteen case studies of major trials, organized in accordance with a framework that the editors provide, are genuinely illuminating and wonderfully engaging."

Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton