The 24th World Congress of IVR (the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy), to be hosted by China Law Society, will be held on September 15-20, 2009 in Beijing, China. We hereby cordially invite you and your colleagues to the Congress.

The theme of the conference “Global Harmony and Rule of Law” highlights the importance of world’s harmony. We believe that the discussion of harmony from the perspective of law is of great significance, not only because harmony is the ideal living situation of human being, but because order, which the law is supposed to pursue, is one of the core components of harmony. According to the philosophy of China, even of East-Asia, harmony has been a dominant concept reflecting in every aspect of our culture. These abundant resources may provide inspiration for thinking on harmony and law. At the same time, like the former world’s IVR congresses, this conference will continue the tradition to hold special workshops and working groups on various topics, in order to cover most important issues and present our recent achievements in the field of legal philosophy and social philosophy

The 24th World Congress of IVR is expected to enjoy participation of a large number of jurisprudents and jurists all over the world and consequently provide a wonderful opportunity for free communications and for making friendship. The local organizing committee will spare no effort for the Congress preparations so that all congress participants would have a fruitful and pleasant stay in China. In addition to academic programs, arrangements will be made for participants to visit such places as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Those who would like to have more tourism in China are also welcome to choose any of the post-congress tours that will be recommended later on. Now the preliminary website for the Congress is available. You can get access to the website by clicking either www.ivr2009.com or www.chinalawsociety.com .

It would be highly appreciated if you could help publicize the congress information among jurisprudents of your state by any method you feel convenient. You and your colleagues are also warmly welcome to send to us workshop proposals and congress papers.

We sincerely hope to meet you and your colleagues in Beijing.

Best wishes

Yours Sincerely

Mr. Gu Zhaomin, Director-General
Overseas Liaison Department, China Law Society
No.63, Bing Ma Si Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100034, P.R.China
Tel/Fax: 8610-66510410
Email: ivr2009@chinalawsociety.com

Groupe de Recherche Philosophie Politique et Sociale

23. Juni 2008
Centre Marc Bloch, Raum 114

10:00 bis 12:00 Uhr

Anthony LADEN

Democratic Authority: Command or Connection?

Responsable : Ciaran CRONIN

Authority is generally understood as the right to command. This makes the concept of democratic authority, the authority possessed by democratic citizens, somewhat paradoxical. In this conference I try to undo this paradox by offering an alternative conception of authority that I call the authority of connection. Unlike the authority of command, the authority of connection is reciprocal and depends on the uptake of others for its full normative efficacy. The conference begins with a general discussion of the concept of authority, compares two forms of authority: the authority of command and the authority of connection, and then argues that when we act as democratic voters we wield the authority of command while when we participate in reasonable democratic deliberation, we take up and forge the authority of connection. It concludes that since the authority of connection is more fully a democratic form of authority, we should regard deliberation and not voting as the central activity of democratic citizens.

Anthony LADEN is Associate Professor for Philosophy a the University of Illinois at Chicago and currently a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt and the Universität Potsdam. He received his PhD in 1996 from Harvard, where he was a student of John Rawls and Amartya Sen, among others. He has written on democratic theory, feminism and identity politics, Rawls, and practical reason. He is the author of Reasonably Radical (Cornell, 2001) and co-editor, with David Owen, of Multiculturalism and Political Theory (Cambridge, 2007). Amongst his recent articles are: "Radical Liberals, Reasonable Feminists" (J of Pol. Phil., 2003), "Evaluating Social Reasons: Hobbes vs. Hegel" (J Phil 2005), and "Negotiation, Deliberation and the Claims of Politics" (in Laden and Owen, 2007). He is currently at work on a book on practical reasoning that he alternatively describes as deriving the rational from the reasonable and as developing a philosophy of the rational significance of gossip.

Centre Marc Bloch
Schiffbauerdamm 19
U-Bahn/S-Bahn: Friedrichstrasse
D-10117 Berlin
Tel.: + 49 (0)30 - 20 93 37 95/96
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