Violence as prime social tabou: social organisation and culture as bulwarks against outbursts of violence
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Cécile Margelidon (ENS-PSL, Latin Literature): “Law as a solution to violence? The history of the Twelve Tables and the legend of Numa Pompilius in Rome”
It is a typical motif of augustean Latin writing to present the birth of law as a remedy for violence. We would therefore explore the representation of violence leading to a historical break through the renewal of law by comparing two famous episodes: one, the foundation of the law by Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, who took the opposite tack to the violent actions of Romulus; the other, the episode of the foundation of the Twelve Tables after the conflict between the plebeians and the patricians (451-450 BC): both are historical mirrors to the Augustan power. Our sources will therefore be, on the one hand, the Latin historians and poets of the Augustan period (turn of the millennium) who reported on this episode; on the other hand, the preserved legal fragments that present the rules imposed on violence.
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Colombine Madelaine (University of Tours/IRJI, Law): “The role of the European Court of Human Rights in the evolution of the representation of violence”
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), concluded in 1950, does not explicitly sanction violence. However, it prohibits torture and inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3 ECHR). Since its first landmark rulings on the subject in the 1970s, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights has evolved significantly. For example, rape was initially considered a simple violation of the right to privacy (Article 8 ECHR) and not inhuman and degrading treatment. Subsequently, the threshold of severity required for the application of Article 3 ECHR was gradually lowered. The Court has thus recognised that a simple slap (in a specific context, however, on a minor in police custody) can trigger its application. This development has implications at national level and the increasing criminalisation of certain acts that are now perceived as punishable. It is therefore possible to make a link with the representation of violence to trace how certain acts that were perceived as socially acceptable a few decades ago are now punishable by law.
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Kai Koddenbrock (University of Bielefeld, International Relations and Political Economy): “The question of violence in German political and memorial culture”
Before and after the rise of National Socialism and the Holocaust, Germany was at the heart of theorizing the relationship between imperialism, fascism, and anti-semitism. Yet, over the past 70 years, under the protection of the US security umbrella – and supported by the rapid resumption of relations with Ben-Gurion's Israel – the theorisation of German political economy and its global political relations has been dominated by liberal and institutionalist approaches that have largely ignored this long and powerful tradition of criticism. In the face of new investments in the arms industry, the rise of the AfD, and the political class's support for the genocide unfolding in Gaza, this lecture will examine the significance of theories of fascism and imperialism for understanding current German political economy and foreign policy and how they may help shed light on the peculiar way Germany grapples with the question of violence both within and beyond its borders in times of Staatsräson.
Cécile Margelidon, certified grammar professor holding a PhD in Classical Literature from the University of Tours, currently teaches at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. After completing her thesis on etymological games in pre-classical and classical Latin poetry, she is now interested in expressions of poetic erudition and the relationship between law and literature.
Colombine Madelaine, after working for two years as a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, is now a senior lecturer in public law at the University of Tours. She was Vice-President in charge of international relations at the University of Tours from 2020 to 2024. Her research focuses mainly on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Kai Koddenbrock is Professor of International Relations and Political Economy at the University of Bielfeld. He works on Geopolitics and Geoeconomics, theories of imperialism and questions of self-determination in the Global South. His most recent academic articles are „Walking a fine line: Germany and the question of imperialism“ as well as „Geoeconomics and National Production Regimes“. "Beyond financialisation: the longue durée of finance and production in the Global South" and "International financial subordination: a critical research agenda." He has recently edited Capital Claims: Power and Global Finance (Routledge), with Benjamin Braun, and African Monetary and Economic Sovereignty in the 21st Century (Pluto Press), with Maha ben Gadha, Ndongo Samba Sylla, Fadhel Kaboub and Ines Mahmood. His latest monograph is The practice of humanitarian intervention: Aid workers, agencies and institutions in the DR Congo (Routledge, 2015).
