Project details

In the language of psychology, the term ‘resilience' is used to describe an individual's mental strength. The volume ‘Resilience of the Law' transfers this concept to a legal context: How do laws react to crises and exceptional situations - such as the 2013 flood in Passau?

The term 'resilience' describes a system's tolerance and resistance to disruption. It is already being applied in fields such as psychology, education, urban planning and project management. Scholarly debate in these fields centres on the human ability of individuals or the ability of their surrounding infrastructure to resist external effects, particularly in times of crisis. The conference ‘Resilience of the Law', which was held at the University of Passau in June 2015, and its documentation were a first attempt to apply the term to a legal context.

The contributions to the volume, all of which are based on the conference, seek to define the conditions that can prevent or hinder a collapse of the legal system and show paths towards a shock-resistant law. In times of crisis, the resilience of laws has to be questioned: Which factors prevent or hinder the collapse of the legal system? How can the law be made resilient?

The conference proceedings include the following contributions:

• Professor Klaus Berger (University of Heidelberg) covers the biblical narration of apocalypses and catastrophes
• Professor Rüdiger Korff (University of Passau) examines the concept and meaning of resilience from a sociological point of view, including among other things the 2013 flood in Passau
• Professor Josef Isensee (University of Bonn) deals with resilience of law in exceptional cases using the example of the fight against terrorism
• Professor Lorenz Köhler (University of Bremen) analyses the role of case law for legal resilience
• Christoph Unger (President of the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Emergency Aid) and Monika John-Koch (Head of Department of the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Emergency Aid) point out measures for the protection of legal practice in times of crisis
• Dr Wolfang Steiner (Head of State Parliament and Head of Directorate in the Upper Austrian Federal Chancellery's Constitutional Service) explains how the legal framework can be designed with resilience in mind

The academic conference ‘Resilience of the Law' took place from 4 to 5 June 2015 at the University of Passau. The event itself and the subsequent publication of the conference proceedings were funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.