German Law Journal: GLJ Shorts and GLJ Specials Nora Markard, Emanuel V. Towfigh, and the other Editors of the German Law Journal

In this GLJ Shorts episode, Shubham Jain presents his article "Resistance and Reform as Responses to Human Rights Criticism: Relativism at FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022", which appeared in the Special Section "The FIFA World Cup 2022 and the struggle for human rights in Qatar" in GLJ vol. 24:9 in December 2023. Interview by German Law Journal editor in chief Clara Rigoni, editing by Benjamin Veit Weck.

In this video, Abduletif Idris explains how the members of the Environmental Rights in Cultural Context research group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology combine legal studies and anthropology to tackle the concept of environmental rights. Drawing on empirical evidence from case studies in Ethiopia, Mongolia, and Ecuador, the researchers see how constitutionally enshrined environmental rights are moving targets that often fail to live up to their promise.

Luc Leboeuf is the coordinator of the EU-funded VULNER project, which examines the application of the concept of vulnerability in the adjudication of asylum cases. There is still no common legal understanding of “vulnerability”; it takes on different meanings in different contexts, and is becoming a tool of selection and exclusion as it evolves as a legal instrument. In this short, Leboeuf focuses on the methodological framework that he and the VULNER consortium developed to study how asylum seekers actually experience the way “vulnerability” is applied to their specific cases. The methodology combines doctrinal legal analysis based of ECtHR case law with an ethnographic approach to how the concept is being implemented by public servants in their daily practices of dealing with asylum seekers.

“Sex must be voluntary; if it’s not, it’s a crime,” reads the Swedish government’s ad campaign. The new Swedish rape law is all about communicating consent – “listen, ask, and tune in so that you’re sure what others really want,” the ad continues. Feminists have long campaigned against rape laws that require active resistance from the victim, even where lack of consent is clear. But is rape really just about a failure of communication? What about power and patriarchy? And what about the grey zones that show up in empirical studies on sex communication?

Linnea Wegerstad looks at how the new law has been applied so far, whether it really brings the clarity it promises, and what needs to happen outside of the law for it to work. Her article “Sex Must Be Voluntary: Sexual Communication and the New Definition of Rape in Sweden“ appeared in the Special Issue “Sexual Violence and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century” in GLJ vol. 22:5 in August 2021.

Interview by GLJ editor Nora Markard, editing by Marlene Stiller.

Over the last years, mass protests against sexualized violence against women have led to law reform in many countries. They were sparked by shocking rape cases as well as #MeToo and similar campaigns. The Istanbul Convention provides an international framework for what is sometimes called "carceral feminism." Time to take stock and to evaluate the impact of the consent paradigm, the influence of social movements, and the limits of criminal law, both at the national and the international level.

Listen to Boris Burghardt and Leonie Steinl as they talk about their Special Issue "Sexual Violence and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century," how they collected contributions from around the world and from different disciplines, what insights they took away from this, and what their next projects are. And of course, find out who would play Boris in a movie and what Leonie would have done instead of becoming an academic!

The Special Issue appeared in August 2021 in GLJ 22:5. GLJ editor Nora Markard is the host, editing by Marlene Stiller.

This episode offers a hand-picked selection of highlights from the German Law Journal’s 2020 volume. It presents articles that may not (yet) have the download numbers they deserve – some algorithm detox, brought to you by GLJ Co-editor-in-chief Matthias Goldmann. All articles are vailable Open Access via our website: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/german-law-journal.

Editing by Marlene Stiller.