Anna-Bettina Kaiser, “Staatsstreich, Ausnahmezustand, Regression”/”Coup d’état, State of Emergency, Regression”
Thursday, 4 December 2025, 19:00 CET
Senatssaal of Humboldt University
Unter den Linden 6
10117 Berlin
GERMANY
With Lothar Müller
Sponsored by:
The Mosse Foundation
Institut für deutsche Literatur
Humboldt University
Mosse Lectures
ZeughausKino
Deutsches Historisches Museum
Description:The coup d’état as a form of constitutional upheaval has had its day; today, democracies are dying a slow death — that is the common assumption. Yet, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that there is no single »script« for the gradual destruction of democracy. In fact, we are currently witnessing a variety of different forms of constitutional dismantling. How can these diverse phenomena be conceptualized? Under what conditions does law play an essential role, and under what conditions does force? Will we ultimately see the return of the coup d’état?
Anna-Bettina Kaiser: Rechtswissenschaftlerin; Professorin für Öffentliches Recht und Grundlagen des Rechts an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Kaiser ist seit 2016 Teil des Projekts »Constitutionalism under Stress« [CONSTRESS] in Kooperation mit der Princeton University und seit 2019 Co-Direktorin des Integrative Research Institute Law & Society [LSI] der Humboldt-Universität. Zu ihren Fachgebieten gehören Verfassungsrecht [Verfassungen in Krisenzeiten, Meinungsfreiheit], vergleichendes Verfassungsrecht, Verfassungstheorie und die Krise der Rechtsstaatlichkeit. Ihr 2020 erschienenes Buch »Ausnahmeverfassungsrecht« stand im selben Jahr auf der Sachbuch-Bestenliste von ZDF, Deutschlandfunk und DIE ZEIT und wurde mit dem Werner-von-Simson-Preis ausgezeichnet. Zuletzt war sie 2023/24 Fulbright-Stipendiatin und Senior Emile Noël Global Fellow an der New York University.
Legal scholar; Professor of Public Law and the Foundations of Law at Humboldt University, Berlin. Kaiser has been part of the “Constitutionalism under Stress” [CONSTRESS] project in cooperation with Princeton University since 2016 and has been co-director of the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society [LSI] at Humboldt-Universität since 2019. Her areas of expertise include constitutional law [constitutions in times of crisis, freedom of speech], comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and the crisis of the rule of law. Her book Ausnahmeverfassungsrecht [The State of Exception in German Constitutional Law], published in 2020, was on the non-fiction bestseller list of ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, and DIE ZEIT and was awarded the Werner von Simson prize. Most recently, she was a Fulbright Scholar and Senior Emile Noël Global Fellow at New York University in 2023/24.
Photo Credit: Niels Leiser for the Mosse Lectures