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The Böckenförde Dictum, Aristotle’s Koinōnia, and the Debate on the Future of Europe - Discussed: Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings. By Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde. Edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 480. $65.00 (cloth); Oxford Scholarship Online by subscription (digital). ISBN: 9780198818632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198818632.001.0001.
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Discussed: Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings. By Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde. Edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 480. $65.00 (cloth); Oxford Scholarship Online by subscription (digital). ISBN: 9780198818632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198818632.001.0001.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2022
Abstract
As a former diplomat currently engaged in praxis-oriented research and teaching, I examine Böckenförde’s importance in the broad context of the debate on the future of Europe. First, I trace some of Böckenförde’s specific thoughts on the development of the European Union, notably concerning trends that impact on the shared “sense of belonging” that underpins deliberative democracy. Second, accepting Böckenförde’s crucial distinction between the granular provisions of the law and an underlying ethos or sense of direction, I argue that the Böckenförde paradox is strongly supported at the roots of our culture by ancient Greek political thought, in ways that can help us develop our thinking in new directions—involving Aristotelian conceptions of orientation, community (koinōnia), and discernment. Finally, I address the challenges currently facing the European Union, taking as my point of departure President Emmanuel Macron’s evocation of the “contribution which a living Europe can bring to civilisation.” The political thought of Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, illuminated by conceptions of orientation, community, and discernment, can help to prepare us for a future intercultural dialogue in the service of peace.
Keywords
- Type
- Book Review Symposium: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Religion, Law, and Democracy
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University
References
1 Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, “The Rise of the State as a Process of Secularization [1967],” in Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings, ed. Künkler, Mirjam and Stein, Tine, trans. Thomas Dunlap (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 154–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 167. I am grateful to Dr. Künkler and Dr. Stein for reading earlier drafts of the present review and offering very helpful comments. I am also grateful for the pertinent suggestions of Silas Allard and Christy Green, editors at the Journal of Law and Religion.
2 Künkler, Mirjam and Stein, Tine, “Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde: Inner-Catholic Critic and Advocate of Open Neutrality,” Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 7, no. 1 (2018), 1–12 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 9.
3 Article 17 of the 1957 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as amended in 2009.
4 Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi [Encyclical on Christian hope] (Nov. 30, 2007). See also McDonagh, Philip, “Uncovering the Sources of Creation: Pope Benedict the XVI on Hope,” Logos/A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 13, no. 4 (2010): 96–120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, “The Future of Political Autonomy/Democracy and Statehood in a Time of Globalization, Europeanization, and Individualization [1998],” in Constitutional and Political Theory: Selected Writings, ed. Künkler, Mirjam and Stein, Tine, trans. Dunlap, Thomas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 325–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “Which Path Is Europe Taking [1997],” in Künkler and Stein, Constitutional and Political Theory, 343–67.
6 Böckenförde, “The Future of Political Autonomy,” 329.
7 Böckenförde, 329.
8 Böckenförde, 329.
9 Böckenförde, 330.
10 Böckenförde cites Dahrendorf, Ralf, “Freiheit und Soziale Bindungen. Anmerkungen zur Struktur einer Argumentation” [Freedom and social bonds: Notes on the structure of an argument], in Michalski, Krzysztof, ed., Die liberale Gesellschaft. Castelgandolfo-Gespräche 1992 [The liberal society. Castelgandolfo Talks 1992] (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1992)Google Scholar. Classicists might also turn to Thucydides 2.37 (the Funeral Oration) on the need for a margin of free choice in everyday life.
11 Künkler and Stein trace the development of Böckenförde’s thinking over time: “Earlier in his career, Böckenförde had, drawing on Hermann Heller, referred to this [commonality] as societal (or relative) homogeneity, but due to the multiple misunderstandings this created, later shifted to the terms ‘we- consciousness’ and ‘sense of belonging.’” Mirjam Künkler, “Freedom in Religion, Freedom in the State: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde on Religion, Law, and Democracy,” in Künkler and Stein, Religion, Law, and Democracy, 1–45, at 34.
12 Böckenförde, “The Future of Political Autonomy,” 330.
13 Fukuyama, Francis, “The End of History?,” National Interest, no. 16 (1989): 3–18 Google Scholar.
14 Böckenförde, “The Future of Political Autonomy,” 335.
15 United Nations, “Do You Know All 17 SDGs?,” accessed August 15, 2022, https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
16 I am thinking here of the general conference proposed by Pericles (seemingly in the early 440s), as reported by Plutarch in his Life of Pericles. The Thirty Years’ Peace of 446/445 is also relevant.
17 Thucydides, 4.59–64. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.
18 Thucydides, 6.3.
19 Thucydides, 5.18.
20 In the European Middle Ages, epieikeia is often rendered as epikeia.
21 Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “Critique of the Value-Based Grounding of Law,” in Künkler and Stein, Constitutional and Political Theory, 217–34.
22 Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “The Historical Evolution and Changes in the Meaning of the Constitution [1984],” in Künkler and Stein, Constitutional and Political Theory, 152–69, at 166.
23 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 2.2.4.
24 Philippians, 1.9–11.
25 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 2.6.
26 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 10.7.1.
27 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 8. See also my discussion of koinōnia below.
28 Killilea, Steve, “Peace and Systems Thinking,” in Peace in the Age of Chaos (Melbourne: Hardie Grant Books, 2020), 83–106 Google Scholar.
29 As I discuss below in connection with stasis.
30 Philip McDonagh, et al., On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy (Abingdon: Routledge 2021), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003053842.
31 Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “Freiheit ist ansteckend [Freedom is contagious],” Die Tageszeitung, September 23, 2009, 4.
32 Thucydides, 3.41 (on the Mytilene debate).
33 Rood, Timothy, “Thucydides’ Persian Wars,” in Rusten, Jeffrey S., ed., Thucydides (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 148–75Google Scholar.
34 Thucydides, 6.24.
35 Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein, “An Obituary for Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (1930–2019),” I-CONnect (blog), May 11, 2019, http://www.iconnectblog.com/2019/05/an-obituary-for-ernst-wolfgang-bockenforde-(1930-2019).
36 Aristotle, Politics, 3.1280b13.
37 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 8.
38 Plato, Protagoras, 322D (the term in Greek is noson poleōs).
39 In lectures at the Collège de France from 1982 to 1984, Michel Foucault explored the work of classical philosophers. Foucault used the concept of askēsis (understood as care of the self), the practice of askēsis as a means of critiquing the sociopolitical order, and the link between ethical transformation and social transformation to show that philosophy as an activity can become a form of resistance against power structures based on individualization. See McGushin, Edward F., Foucault’s Askesis: An Introduction to the Philosophical Life (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Greek philosophical tradition emphasizes the social dimension of askēsis, including the relationship between functioning communities and the meaning of words.
40 “Déclaration de M. Emmanuel Macron, président de la République, sur la construction européenne et le conflit en Ukraine, à Strasbourg le 9 mai 2022 [Declaration of president M. Emmanuel Macron, president of the Republic, on the construction of Europe and the conflict in Ukraine, at Strasbourg on the 9 of May 2022],” Vie Publique, May 9, 2022, https://www.vie-publique.fr/discours/285102-emmanuel-macron-09052022-union-europeenne.
41 “2021 State of the Union Address by President von der Leyen,” European Commission, September 15, 2021, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_21_4701.
42 McDonagh, et al., On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy, 23.
43 Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, para. 35.
44 Thucydides, 3.42
45 Thucydides, 3.82
46 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe Final Act (Helsinki Final Act), August 1, 1975, pp. 7–8, at 7, https://www.osce.org/helsinki-final-act.
47 McDonagh, et al., On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy, 116.
48 Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, “Woran der Kapitalismus krankt” [What ails capitalism], Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 24, 2009, reprinted in Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, Wissenschaft, Politik, Verfassungsgericht [Science, politics, constitutional court] (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2011), 64–71 Google Scholar.
49 Benedict XVI, “Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Members of the ‘Centesimus Annus’ Foundation” (Clementine Hall, Vatican City, May 19, 2006).