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Constellations of law, religion, and justice in the thoughts of Benjamin, Scholem, and Arendt

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thu. 23 Jan.

18h00-19h30

Sigrid Weigel, Professor of German Literature and Director of the Centre for Literature Research in Berlin.
Abstract:

The lecture addresses the authors’ reflections on the tension-filled relation of law to the idea of justice. They share the attempt to approach the hidden yet excluded precondition of positive law against the backdrop of the history of religion by both tracing central aspects of the juridical system back to religious or biblical ideas and discussing the limits of jurisdiction in certain cases that are not covered by jurisdiction - whether concerning ‘crimes against the humanity’ (Arendt’) or ‘ungeheure Fälle’ (immense cases, Benjamin). The lecture refers to constellations such as: the “conversation on the dirge” between Scholem and Benjamin during their stay in Bern 1918 as a primal scene of their ideas on „law and justice“ and „lament and accusation" (Klage and Anklage), Benjamin’s Critique of violence and essay on Karl Kraus, Arendt’s reflections on treatise and the Covenant in Human Condition, and her dispute with Karl Jaspers preceding her visit of the Eichmann-trial in Jerusalem.