{"title":"Alexander Somek","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"cosmopolitan-constitution-book-alexander-somek-9780198797944","title":"The Cosmopolitan Constitution","description":"Originally the constitution was expected to express and channel popular sovereignty. It was the work of freedom, springing from and facilitating collective self-determination. After the Second World War this perspective changed: the modern constitution owes its authority not only to collective authorship, it also must commit itself credibly to human rights. Thus people recede into the background, and the national constitution becomes embedded into one or other system of 'peer review' among nations.  This is what Alexander Somek argues is the creation of the cosmopolitan constitution. Reconstructing what he considers to be the three stages in the development of constitutionalism, he argues that the cosmopolitan constitution is not a blueprint for the constitution beyond the nation state, let alone a constitution of the international community; rather, it stands for constitutional law reaching out beyond its national bounds.   This cosmopolitan constitution has two faces: the first, political, face reflects the changed circumstances of constitutional authority. It conceives itself as constrained by international human rights protection, firmly committed to combating discrimination on the grounds of nationality, and to embracing strategies for managing its interaction with other sites of authority, such as the United Nations. The second, administrative, face of the cosmopolitan constitution reveals the demise of political authority, which has been traditionally vested in representative bodies. Political processes yield to various, and often informal, strategies of policy co-ordination so long as there are no reasons to fear that the elementary civil rights might be severely interfered with. It represents constitutional authority for an administered world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49574888997137,"sku":"GOR011744658","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/019879794X.jpg?v=1750876533"},{"product_id":"engineering-equality-book-alexander-somek-9780199693375","title":"Engineering Equality","description":"In an age of widespread cutbacks on social spending, the prospects of social policy generally appear to be grim. If noticeable progress has been recently made in the European Union, then it is in regard to rooting out discrimination. Indeed, anti-discrimination law and policy appears to be the one sphere of social policy whose success is causally connected to the European Union.   But how successful can anti-discrimination law be? This book uses legal analysis in order to expose the intrinsic shortcomings of common approaches. Anti-discrimination law fails to provide adequate legal guidance and therefore invites constant supplementation by pedagogical projects of social engineering.   This book offers a genuinely leftist critique on anti-discrimination law, and concludes with a discussion of alternative models of solidarity in the Union.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51097215598865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51097216712977,"sku":"NIN9780199693375","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52615193592081,"sku":"NLS9780199693375","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199693374.jpg?v=1751070665"},{"product_id":"individualism-book-alexander-somek-9780199542086","title":"Individualism","description":"This innovative study examines the authority constituting the European Union. It claims that the type of power constituting a transnational regime transcends traditional forms of constitutional legality. It argues that the European constitutional project is out of step with the normative make-up of such a regime. It is to be feared, indeed, that the adoption of a Constitution for Europe would create a smokescreen obscuring a new and disturbing reality.  Drawing on the ancient tradition of linking different types of political power with the composition of the citizen's soul, the book explains that a transnational regime is based on an understanding of citizenship that is different from that underlying a constitutional democracy. Citizens are deemed to be essentially separate from one another. They abandon the larger society to itself and pursue their good in the private sphere. In place of trust and reliance in their own power to bring about change through common action, they hope to benefit from entrusting \"problem-solving\" to international networks of expertise. Essentially, citizens of this kind exhibit a strong commitment to individualism.  The book shows how individualism is reflected in the regulatory authority that the Union claims for itself, in particular as regards the regulation of the internal market.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52323510386961,"sku":"NGR9780199542086","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780199542086.jpg?v=1757977296"},{"product_id":"cosmopolitan-constitution-book-alexander-somek-9780199651535","title":"The Cosmopolitan Constitution","description":"Originally the constitution was expected to express and channel popular sovereignty. It was the work of freedom, springing from and facilitating collective self-determination. After the Second World War this perspective changed: the modern constitution owes its authority not only to collective authorship, it also must commit itself credibly to human rights. Thus people recede into the background, and the national constitution becomes embedded into one or other system of 'peer review' among nations.  This is what Alexander Somek argues is the creation of the cosmopolitan constitution. Reconstructing what he considers to be the three stages in the development of constitutionalism, he argues that the cosmopolitan constitution is not a blueprint for the constitution beyond the nation state, let alone a constitution of the international community; rather, it stands for constitutional law reaching out beyond its national bounds.    This cosmopolitan constitution has two faces: the first, political, face reflects the changed circumstances of constitutional authority. It conceives itself as constrained by international human rights protection, firmly committed to combating discrimination on the grounds of nationality, and to embracing strategies for managing its interaction with other sites of authority, such as the United Nations. The second, administrative, face of the cosmopolitan constitution reveals the demise of political authority, which has been traditionally vested in representative bodies. Political processes yield to various, and often informal, strategies of policy co-ordination so long as there are no reasons to fear that the elementary civil rights might be severely interfered with. It represents constitutional authority for an administered world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52332912312593,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52332912967953,"sku":"NLS9780199651535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780199651535.jpg?v=1758153082"},{"product_id":"legal-relation-book-alexander-somek-9781107198012","title":"The Legal Relation","description":"What is law? The usual answer is that the law is a system of norms. But this answer gives us at best half of the story. The law is a way of relating to one another. We do not do this as lovers or friends and not as people who are interested in obtaining guidance from moral insight. In a legal context, we are cast as 'character masks' (Marx), for example, as 'buyer' and 'seller' or 'landlord' and 'tenant'. We expect to have our claims respected simply because the law has given us rights. We do not want to give any other reason for our behavior than the fact that we have a legal right. Backing rights up with coercive threats indicates that we are willing to accept legal obligations unwillingly. This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52585406398737,"sku":"NLS9781107198012","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781107198012.jpg?v=1761052762"},{"product_id":"legal-relation-book-alexander-somek-9781316648001","title":"The Legal Relation","description":"What is law? The usual answer is that the law is a system of norms. But this answer gives us at best half of the story. The law is a way of relating to one another. We do not do this as lovers or friends and not as people who are interested in obtaining guidance from moral insight. In a legal context, we are cast as 'character masks' (Marx), for example, as 'buyer' and 'seller' or 'landlord' and 'tenant'. We expect to have our claims respected simply because the law has given us rights. We do not want to give any other reason for our behavior than the fact that we have a legal right. Backing rights up with coercive threats indicates that we are willing to accept legal obligations unwillingly. This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52595345359121,"sku":"NLS9781316648001","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781316648001.jpg?v=1761070936"},{"product_id":"constitution-of-the-legal-relation-book-alexander-somek-9781509979226","title":"The Constitution of the Legal Relation","description":"This book defends the relational approach to law.  It begins by exploring how law is constituted in the context of either rational or reasonable conduct. Having identified reasonableness as the unifying theme of natural law theories, it argues that the form and authority of law originate in the practical resolution of a moral antinomy that these theories leave unaddressed.  The reasonableness of law lies in the structure and principles of relations in which rights are correlated with obligations and powers with liabilities. Rather than descending upon us from above in the form of directives, law emerges from our interactive efforts to cope with persistent moral disagreements.   Ultimately, the relational approach views the legal rules governing our interactions as expressions of a common will. The book concludes that, unsurprisingly, modern constitutionalism represents a thoroughly pragmatic and most defensible conception of the authority of law.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52610063696145,"sku":"NGR9781509979226","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53021988421905,"sku":"NLS9781509979226","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781509979226.jpg?v=1763123745"},{"product_id":"knowing-what-the-law-is-book-alexander-somek-9781509951291","title":"Knowing What the Law Is","description":"This book provides a selective and somewhat cheeky account of prominent positions in legal theory, such as American legal realism, modern legal positivism, sociological systems theory, institutionalism and critical legal studies. It presents a relational approach to law and a new perspective on legal sources.  The book explores topics of legal theory in a playful manner. It is written and composed in a way that refutes the widespread prejudice that legal theory is a dreary subject, with a cast of characters that occasionally interact in order to illustrate the claims of the book.  Legal experts claim to know what the law is. Legal theory—or jurisprudence—explores whether such claims are warranted. The discipline first emerged at the turn of the 20th century, when the self-confidence of both legal scholarship and judicial craftsmanship became severely shattered, but the crisis continues to this day.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52615207092497,"sku":"NLS9781509951291","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781509951291.jpg?v=1761523364"},{"product_id":"knowing-what-the-law-is-book-alexander-somek-9781509951338","title":"Knowing What the Law Is","description":"This book provides a selective and somewhat cheeky account of prominent positions in legal theory, such as American legal realism, modern legal positivism, sociological systems theory, institutionalism and critical legal studies. It presents a relational approach to law and a new perspective on legal sources.  The book explores topics of legal theory in a playful manner. It is written and composed in a way that refutes the widespread prejudice that legal theory is a dreary subject, with a cast of characters that occasionally interact in order to illustrate the claims of the book.  Legal experts claim to know what the law is. Legal theory—or jurisprudence—explores whether such claims are warranted. The discipline first emerged at the turn of the 20th century, when the self-confidence of both legal scholarship and judicial craftsmanship became severely shattered, but the crisis continues to this day.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52668833366289,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52668834119953,"sku":"NLS9781509951338","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781509951338.jpg?v=1762286048"},{"product_id":"moral-als-bosheit-book-alexander-somek-9783161608353","title":"Moral als Bosheit","description":"Moralische Vorwurfe verletzen oder verargern, vor allem wenn sie einen unvermutet und aus dem Hinterhalt treffen. Plotzlich gilt man als Rassist, Sexist oder gar als elitar. Die Daumen werden nach unten gekehrt und die Menge schreit Buh. In den Chor einzustimmen verspricht den Teilnehmenden Statusgewinn, denn wer andere verurteilt, reiht sich damit sofort unter die Guten ein. Aber dieses Gutsein ist perfide. Die unbeirrbar auftretende Moral erweist sich bei naherer Betrachtung oftmals als boshaft. Sie macht Mehrdeutiges eindeutig und erzeugt so, was sie anprangert. Sie vermeidet Begrundungen, belohnt das Ducken und vertraut auf die blanke Macht der Entrusteten. Inhaltlich lasst sie sich nicht verallgemeinern, denn sie mutet Menschen zu, Verhaltensmassstaben zu genugen, denen sie nicht genugen mussen. Die Bosheit dieser Moral gilt es zu begreifen und das Recht von ihrem Einfluss freizuhalten.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52679469072657,"sku":"NLS9783161608353","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783161608353.jpg?v=1762310647"},{"product_id":"wissen-des-rechts-book-alexander-somek-9783161564895","title":"Wissen des Rechts","description":"Das positive Recht ist das Objekt des rechtlichen Wissens. Aber wer oder was ist sein Subjekt? Ist esdieRechtswissenschaft? Ist es die jeweils zu einer Entscheidung befugte Stelle? Oder ist es gardas Recht selbst? Im Hauptbeitrag dieses Bandes wird die provokante These entfaltet, dass das Recht nicht bloss Gegenstand der Erkenntnis, sondern auch Subjekt des Erkennens ist. Den Schlussel zum Verstandnis dieser These bildet eine Theorie der Rechtsquellen. Diese lassen sich als Formen des Urteilens begreifen, etwa in der Form der Behauptung, etwas gehe nicht an, weil es das noch nie gegeben habe (Gewohnheitsrecht), oder etwas sei unerlaubt, weil das so entschieden worden sei (Gesetzesrecht). Keine Quelle kann fur sich selbst sprechen. Sie bedarf der Vermittlung durch eine andere. Zwischen den Quellen entsteht solcherart ein spannungsreiches Verhaltnis von wechselseitiger Anerkennung und Zuruckweisung.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52681538994449,"sku":"NLS9783161564895","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783161564895.jpg?v=1762315896"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-alexander-somek.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}