Democracy and Law - the Law of Democracy

label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Silviu Marinescu
All over the world it seems as if we are currently witnessing a great shift of power downward, away from a small elite toward a much broader base. The world seems to be democratizing, and there is reason for sheer joy about this. Wars are even being fought for democracy.Democracy is broadly recognized as an 'essentially contested concept.' (Gallie). Two of the characteristics of such concepts are that they are value laden, and that there exists a permanent struggle about the meaning of them. As far as the second characteristic is concerned: when reading the literature on the topic one cannot fail to notice that endless discussions take place about the concept of democracy. Various political thinkers using the word democracy have different ideas about the correct meaning, usage or interpretation of it (in a recent book some 40 definitions of democracy were identified!). Paradoxically, in practice many people are nevertheless to such an extent supporters of the democratic form of governance, that they believe that it is scarcely in need of further elucidation. After all, who would be against democracy?

Period
14-07-2014 - 25-07-2014 (2 weeks)

Target group
Advanced undergraduates and Master students, especially in social sciences, law, and humanities

Course aim
The objectives of this course are to acquaint students with:- contemporary democratic dilemmas (through concrete cases and events);- the way different legal systems deal with these dilemmas.



Credits
6.0 ECTS credits

Course fee
EUR 600[Convert to USD]The reader and the book are included in the course fee and will be provided by Tilburg University.

Course leader
K.T. Meijer LL.M MA

Tilburg University International Office
Address: PO Box 90153 International Office P 2.219
Postal code: 5000LE
City: Tilburg
Country: Netherlands
Website: http://tilburguniversity.nl/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@tilburguniversity.nl
Phone: 0031134663743 (or 8911)