MPI TAX

The Law between Objectivity and Power


Author: 

Philip M. Bender (ed.)

The Law between Objectivity and Power

This was the title of a two-day “YOUNG SCHOLARS CONFERENCE” hosted by Philipp M. Bender and the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in October 2020.

For the young scientists from Germany, France, the USA, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Peru, participation was possible both in person and digitally, also allowing the opportunity to interconnect worldwide.

During the conference, numerous fields of law and research strategies were brought together by an international as well as inter- and intradisciplinary approach to spotlight to what extent law is caught between the contrasting priorities of objectivity and power. Is law an instrument of the powerful or – on the contrary – an objective reality that limits power?

The contributions of the young scientists were accompanied by lectures from Professor Dr. Peter M. Huber (LMU, judge of the BVerfG), Professor Dr. Hans Christoph Grigoleit (LMU) and co-host Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Schön.

An edited volume from the conference has now been published by Nomos, in collaboration with Hart Publishing (Oxford).

The volume does not only take a theoretical perspective. Instead, it integrates insights from practical doctrinal contributions as well. Thereby, the book follows the idea of Constitutional Pragmatism, sketched out in its introductory chapter: each position in the epistemological dispute about the possibilities and limits of objectivity within the law entails normative implications; thus, the constitutional and doctrinal statements that normally settle normative disputes also have to be taken into account when talking about epistemological issues.

E-book (doi.org/10.5771/9783748927211-101) / Hardcover (ISBN 978-3-8487-8334-2).

Published:   Nomos, 2022, 477 p.