Rebecca Caroline Schmidt

(Criminal) Law and Time in the Climate Crisis

20.02.2024, 20:00

Welcome by

Prof. Franziska Nori, Director Frankfurter Kunstverein
Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst, Director Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt
Finn-Lauritz Schmidt, Jurist, Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt

Lecture by

Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther, Jurist, Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt

Followed by a panel discussion with

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Britz, Former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, Jurist, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, Jurist, Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther, Jurist, Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt

Moderated by

Rebecca Caroline Schmidt, Managing Director Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt

At a crucial point in the justification of its 2021 climate resolution, the Federal Constitutional Court introduces the concept of ‘intertemporal safeguarding of freedom.’ The Constitution, it explains, obliges to ‘secure fundamental rights-protected freedom over time’ and to ensure the ‘proportional distribution of freedom opportunities across generations.’ Beyond immediately constitutionally relevant issues, the new key term opens up a dimension of freedom that has been insufficiently acknowledged thus far but is expected to play an increasingly significant role in the face of the accelerating climate crisis: the temporality of freedom. The law has hitherto inadequately captured this dimension, and the relationship between law and time is seldom addressed in legal scholarship. The lecture and panel discussion aim to present some considerations, particularly with regard to the issue of urgent and ever-diminishing time, which lies at the heart of concerns about the climate.

The admission fee is €5. The event is free for members of Frankfurter Kunstverein. No registration is necessary.
Please note that the event will take place in German.

The event is organized in collaboration with the Research Center Normative Orders at Goethe University Frankfurt and is part of the accompanying program for the exhibition Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity.

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Britz is a professor of Public Law and European Law at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. Britz studied Law at Goethe University Frankfurt starting in 1987. In 1994, she completed her dissertation, titled Die Bedeutung des Europäischen Gemeinschaftsrechts für die örtliche Energieversorgung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung kommunaler Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten (The Significance of European Community Law for Local Energy Supply with Special Consideration of Municipal Design Options), for which she was awarded the Baker & McKenzie Prize. Following her legal clerkship, she conducted research from 1997 to 2000 as a habilitation scholarship holder of the State of Hesse, during which she worked on the publication Kulturelle Rechte und Verfassung. Über den rechtlichen Umgang mit kultureller Differenz (Cultural Rights and Constitution. On the Legal Handling of Cultural Difference). In 2000, she habilitated in Frankfurt. In 2001, she was honored with the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2001 by the German Research Foundation. From 2011 to 2023, she served as a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court. During her tenure, she prepared key decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court as a rapporteur in the areas of environmental law, family law, and data protection law.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard is a professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, International and European Criminal Law, Comparative Law, and Legal Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2007, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Passau with the dissertation titled ‘Irren ist menschlich’ – Vorsatz und Tatbestandsirrtum im Lichte der Verantwortungsethik und der Emanzipation des angegriffenen Mitmenschen (‘To err is human’ – Intent and Mistake of Fact in Light of Ethics of Responsibility and the Emancipation of the Attacked Fellow Human). In 2015, he habilitated at LMU Munich with the habilitation thesis titled Die Konstitutionalisierung der gegenseitigen Anerkennung. Die justizielle Zusammenarbeit in Strafsachen in Europa im Lichte des Unionsverfassungsrechts (The Constitutionalization of Mutual Recognition. Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters in Europe in Light of Union Constitutional Law). Since 2015, he has held a professorship in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law at the Faculty of Law at Goethe University Frankfurt and is a member of the Research Center Normative Orders. He researches the transformations of criminal law and criminal justice in changing societies in the course of their internationalization, Europeanization, and digitization, as well as in the context of ‘glocal’ poly-crises. He has been a visiting professor at various universities in Europe (including Luiss University Rome, University of Bologna) and in South America (Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago de Chile). Additionally, he is the founding speaker of the newly established Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) in 2023.

Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst is Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy and Director of the “Normative Orders” Research Centre at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research interests include questions of justice, democracy and tolerance as well as the further development of critical theory and Kant’s philosophy. In 2012, the German Research Foundation honoured him with the Leibniz Prize as the most important political philosopher of his generation. He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the British Academy. Most important publications (all published by Suhrkamp and translated into many languages): Kontexte der Gerechtigkeit (1994), Toleranz im Konflikt (2003), Das Recht auf Rechtfertigung (2007), Kritik der Rechtfertigungsverhältnisse (2011), Normativität und Macht (2015), Die noumenale Republik (2021).

Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther is a professor of Legal Theory, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure Law at Goethe University Frankfurt. He studied Philosophy and Law in Frankfurt am Main. Between 1983 and 1986, he was a research assistant and lecturer in Frankfurt am Main under Klaus Lüderssen and in a legal theory working group led by Jürgen Habermas (1986-1990). In 1987, he obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the topic of Anwendungsdiskurse in Moral und Recht (Application Discourses in Morality and Law). In 1997, he completed his habilitation with the thesis Schuld und kommunikative Freiheit. Studien zur individuellen Zurechnung strafbaren Unrechts im Demokratischen Rechtsstaat (Guilt and Communicative Freedom. Studies on the Individual Attribution of Criminal Wrongdoing in the Democratic Rule of Law). Since 1998, he has been a professor of Legal Theory, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure Law at the Institute of Criminology and Legal Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt. He is a member of the Research Center Normative Orders and the Frankfurt branch of the Research Institute for Social Cohesion.

Dipl.-Jur. Finn-Lauritz Schmidt ist Doktorand der Forschungsinitiative „ConTrust – Vertrauen im Konflikt“ am Forschungszentrum Normative Ordnungen und am Institut für Kriminalwissenschaften und Rechtsphilosophie der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Er ist Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Professur für Straf- und Strafprozessrecht, Internationales und Europäisches Strafrecht, Rechtsvergleichung und Rechtstheorie bei Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, LL.M. (NYU). Er studierte als Stipendiat der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Rechtswissenschaft in Frankfurt am Main und forscht zu strafrechtlichen Implikationen des anthropogenen Klimawandels.

Dipl.-Jur. Finn-Lauritz Schmidt is a doctoral candidate in the research initiative ‘ConTrust – Vertrauen im Konflikt’ (ConTrust – Trust in Conflict) at the Research Center Normative Orders and at the Institute of Criminology and Legal Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt. He is a Research Associate at the Chair of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, International and European Criminal Law, Comparative Law, and Legal Theory under Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, LL.M. (NYU). As a scholarship recipient of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, he studied law in Frankfurt am Main and conducts research on the criminal law implications of anthropogenic climate change.

Rebecca Caroline Schmidt has been the Managing Director of the research center Normative Orders at Goethe University Frankfurt since November 2012. She studied law with a focus on criminal science, criminal procedure, and penal law at Goethe University. During her legal clerkship, she worked as a research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther and the Research Center for Criminal Law Theory and Criminal Law Ethics (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Andreas von Hirsch). Additionally, she gained experience in banking supervisory law at the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Frankfurt am Main from 2007 to 2012. In 2020, Rebecca Caroline Schmidt was appointed Administrative Managing Director of the nationwide Research Institute for Social Cohesion.

Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity

13.10.2023 — 03.03.2024 | Exhibition