Peter Niesen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1712898 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Niesen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Niesen |
| SIGNATURE | NIESEN P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universität Hamburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4050-4265 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power
This volume examines a key notion in political and constitutional theory. Constituent power denotes the capacity and authority to make (democratic) constitutions. The concept plays a key role both in real-world processes of constitution-making and constitutional transformation and in their scholarly analyses. The handbook brings together leading scholars across political theory, philosophy, intellectual history, and law to explore the political, …
Beyond Demokratiewissenschaft ? Response to interlocutors
In my response to critics in this special issue, I introduce an example from animal politics to clarify what I’ve been after in claiming the label of Demokratiewissenschaft for political theory, and to highlight the motivation for employing a democracy-apt method (I). In a second section, I take up the challenges of internationalizing the basic commitments of that method through the eyes of my esteemed interlocutors (II
Wohin mit Kants politischer Philosophie
Die Beschäftigung mit Kants politischer Philosophie findet heute in nie gekannter Intensität und Qualität statt, folgt jedoch meist dem Aufbau der Rechtslehre und sieht sich daher gezwungen, ungedeckte Anleihen bei seiner Moralphilosophie aufzunehmen. Der Beitrag schlägt vor, die Rechtslehre stattdessen von hinten nach vorne zu lesen, mit dem Weltbürgerrecht einzusteigen und die Unterscheidung zwischen provisorischer und peremtorischer Rechtsgelt…
Constituent power in political liberalism: Constraining the future
In Sovereignty across Generations, Ferrara attempts a dual feat. He demonstrates that political liberalism needs a nuanced doctrine of constituent power to be brought in line with traditional democratic concerns. At the same time, he argues that political liberalism is capable of making constituent power safe for democracy, in reining in its unruly and unbound character. By distinguishing between ‘the people’ and the electorate, Ferrara develops …
Two Cheers for Lost Sovereignty Referendums: Campaigns for Independence and the Pouvoir Constituant Mixte
In this article, I bring together three recent ideas from political theory and constitutional law. The first is the notion developed by Jürgen Habermas and Markus Patberg of a pouvoir constituant mixte. Complex polities such as supra-state federations should be understood as constitutional entities that combine two or more authorizing subjects. The default “mixed” conception is that of dual sovereignty, split between the federations’ member colle…
Vulnerability, Space, Communication: Three Conditions of Adequacy for Cosmopolitan Right: Comment on Arthur Ripstein, Kant and the Law of War (KLW)
The chapter argues that according to the Kantian completeness assumption, not only do we face a major unresolved systematic issue—all exercise of cosmopolitan right takes place in a state of nature between states and foreigners: a highly structured state of nature, to be sure, but a state of nature nonetheless—but we have too few options for fulfilling the conditions of explanatory adequacy. Niesen points out that in Kant and the Law of War no sp…
Verteidiger der Staatlichkeit, nicht des Staates. Zum Tod von Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (1954‒2020)
Bibliographie: Niesen, Peter: Verteidiger der Staatlichkeit, nicht des Staates. Zum Tod von Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (1954‒2020), ZPTh – Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie, 1-2020, S. 167-172. https://doi.org/10.3224/zpth.v11i1.15
Truth-tracing versus truth-tracking: Lafont, Landemore and epistemic democracy
Cognitivist theories of democratic decision-making come in two flavours, which I label transparently and intransparently epistemic. Lafont’s deliberative theory of democracy has strengths in accounting for the transparently truth-tracing power of justification but lacks a plausible account of the intransparently truth-tracking power of aggregative approaches highlighted by, among others, Hélène Landemore, such as the Condorcet Jury Theorem or the…
Speech, truth and liberty: Bentham to John Stuart Mill 1
Bentham’s Utilitarianism transforms earlier free speech doctrine in the service of the pursuit of truth and the control of government, preserving the distinction between statements of opinion and of fact and awarding the latter a lesser degree of protection. The work of James Mill and the early writings of John Stuart Mill retain this distinction, but their accounts are weighed down by the problems of a direct Utilitarian approach, in their conse…
Nonalienation among peoples: Symposium on Catherine Lu’s Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics
This contribution gives an appreciation of Catherine Lu’s book Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics and introduces some concepts and motifs, themes and arguments that play a role in the discussion by the three commentators Reinhard Wolf, Alasia Nuti, and Kimberly Hutchings in this book symposium. The discussion adds to the development of the categories of structural injustice, alienation, and reconciliation, and especially of the systemat…
Regression in membership law: For a cosmopolitanism from within
Kant and Rawls on Free Speech in Autocracies
In the works of Kant and Rawls, we find an acute sensibility to the pre-eminent importance of freedom of speech. Both authors defend free speech in democratic societies as a private and as a public entitlement, but their conceptions markedly differ when applied to non-liberal and non-democratic societies. The difference is that freedom of speech, for Kant, is a universal claim that can serve as a test of legitimacy of all legal orders, while for …
Introduction: Resistance, disobedience or constituent power? Emerging narratives of transnational protest
Transnational social movements, campaigns and individual activists have described their activities in the traditional vocabularies of political dissent: as protest, opposition, contestation, dissidence or rebellion. Where strategies have involved illegal, well-publicised activities, the vocabularies of resistance and of civil disobedience have become an activist lingua franca. What all such descriptions have in common is that they paint a largely…
Reframing civil disobedience: Constituent power as a language of transnational protest
In 1992, the Frankfurt scholar Ingeborg Maus launched a polemical attack against then current narratives of democratic protest, objecting to the languages of ‘resistance’ or ‘civil disobedience’ as defensive, servile and insufficiently transformative. This article explores in how far the language of constituent power can be adopted as an alternative justificatory strategy for civil disobedience in transnational protests. In contrast to current ap…
The ‘Mixed’ Constituent Legitimacy of the European Federation
Constitutional lawyers and political scientists have described the European Union as a federation of states ( fédération , Bund ). They deny that federations generate a new union‐wide constituent authority besides the pouvoirs constituants of the member states. Habermas argues that federative constituent power lies with individuals in their dual roles as citizens of the several states and as citizens of the Union. I argue that from the perspectiv…
Parole, vérité et liberté de Jeremy Bentham à John Stuart Mill
L'utilitarisme de Bentham transforme profondément la doctrine antérieure de la liberté de parole en la mettant au service de la recherche de la vérité et en réfléchissant à la portée du contrôle exercé par le gouvernement. Il préserve la distinction entre les affirmations portant sur des opinions et celles portant sur des faits et accorde aux premières une moindre protection. Comme l'avait fait son père James Mill, John Stuart Mill conserve cette…
Banning the Former Ruling Party
Die Grenzen des Privaten
Political party bans in Rwanda 1994–2003: Three Narratives of Justification
This article discusses the public justifications brought forward for three waves of bans on political parties in Rwanda after the regime change of 1994. While the standard narrative of protecting democracy from its enemies ('militant democracy') was not invoked, two alternative narratives carried the burden of justification. The first is that of banning strongly particularistic parties, i.e. parties that discriminate or incite hatred and violence…
Colonialism and Hospitality
For Kant, the contents of cosmopolitan law are to be ‘limited’ to non-citizens' subjective rights to hospitality. Although hospitality yields universal and far-reaching communicative rights, its limits may seem overly restrictive at first. I argue that this narrow focus is intended to fend off justifications for colonial occupation that could otherwise draw support from Kant's own doctrine of private law. Kantian hospitality is further limited in…
Pornography and Democracy
The ‘Mixed’ Constituent Legitimacy of the European Federation
Constitutional lawyers and political scientists have described the European Union as a federation of states ( fédération , Bund ). They deny that federations generate a new union‐wide constituent authority besides the pouvoirs constituants of the member states. Habermas argues that federative constituent power lies with individuals in their dual roles as citizens of the several states and as citizens of the Union. I argue that from the perspectiv…
Reframing civil disobedience: Constituent power as a language of transnational protest
In 1992, the Frankfurt scholar Ingeborg Maus launched a polemical attack against then current narratives of democratic protest, objecting to the languages of ‘resistance’ or ‘civil disobedience’ as defensive, servile and insufficiently transformative. This article explores in how far the language of constituent power can be adopted as an alternative justificatory strategy for civil disobedience in transnational protests. In contrast to current ap…
Banning the Former Ruling Party
Political party bans in Rwanda 1994–2003: Three Narratives of Justification
This article discusses the public justifications brought forward for three waves of bans on political parties in Rwanda after the regime change of 1994. While the standard narrative of protecting democracy from its enemies ('militant democracy') was not invoked, two alternative narratives carried the burden of justification. The first is that of banning strongly particularistic parties, i.e. parties that discriminate or incite hatred and violence…
Regression in membership law: For a cosmopolitanism from within
Introduction: Resistance, disobedience or constituent power? Emerging narratives of transnational protest
Transnational social movements, campaigns and individual activists have described their activities in the traditional vocabularies of political dissent: as protest, opposition, contestation, dissidence or rebellion. Where strategies have involved illegal, well-publicised activities, the vocabularies of resistance and of civil disobedience have become an activist lingua franca. What all such descriptions have in common is that they paint a largely…
Truth-tracing versus truth-tracking: Lafont, Landemore and epistemic democracy
Cognitivist theories of democratic decision-making come in two flavours, which I label transparently and intransparently epistemic. Lafont’s deliberative theory of democracy has strengths in accounting for the transparently truth-tracing power of justification but lacks a plausible account of the intransparently truth-tracking power of aggregative approaches highlighted by, among others, Hélène Landemore, such as the Condorcet Jury Theorem or the…
Constituent power in political liberalism: Constraining the future
In Sovereignty across Generations, Ferrara attempts a dual feat. He demonstrates that political liberalism needs a nuanced doctrine of constituent power to be brought in line with traditional democratic concerns. At the same time, he argues that political liberalism is capable of making constituent power safe for democracy, in reining in its unruly and unbound character. By distinguishing between ‘the people’ and the electorate, Ferrara develops …
Parole, vérité et liberté de Jeremy Bentham à John Stuart Mill
L'utilitarisme de Bentham transforme profondément la doctrine antérieure de la liberté de parole en la mettant au service de la recherche de la vérité et en réfléchissant à la portée du contrôle exercé par le gouvernement. Il préserve la distinction entre les affirmations portant sur des opinions et celles portant sur des faits et accorde aux premières une moindre protection. Comme l'avait fait son père James Mill, John Stuart Mill conserve cette…
Pornography and Democracy
Colonialism and Hospitality
For Kant, the contents of cosmopolitan law are to be ‘limited’ to non-citizens' subjective rights to hospitality. Although hospitality yields universal and far-reaching communicative rights, its limits may seem overly restrictive at first. I argue that this narrow focus is intended to fend off justifications for colonial occupation that could otherwise draw support from Kant's own doctrine of private law. Kantian hospitality is further limited in…
Die Grenzen des Privaten
Political party bans in Rwanda 1994–2003: Three Narratives of Justification
This article discusses the public justifications brought forward for three waves of bans on political parties in Rwanda after the regime change of 1994. While the standard narrative of protecting democracy from its enemies ('militant democracy') was not invoked, two alternative narratives carried the burden of justification. The first is that of banning strongly particularistic parties, i.e. parties that discriminate or incite hatred and violence…
Banning the Former Ruling Party
Parole, vérité et liberté de Jeremy Bentham à John Stuart Mill
L'utilitarisme de Bentham transforme profondément la doctrine antérieure de la liberté de parole en la mettant au service de la recherche de la vérité et en réfléchissant à la portée du contrôle exercé par le gouvernement. Il préserve la distinction entre les affirmations portant sur des opinions et celles portant sur des faits et accorde aux premières une moindre protection. Comme l'avait fait son père James Mill, John Stuart Mill conserve cette…
The ‘Mixed’ Constituent Legitimacy of the European Federation
Constitutional lawyers and political scientists have described the European Union as a federation of states ( fédération , Bund ). They deny that federations generate a new union‐wide constituent authority besides the pouvoirs constituants of the member states. Habermas argues that federative constituent power lies with individuals in their dual roles as citizens of the several states and as citizens of the Union. I argue that from the perspectiv…
Kant and Rawls on Free Speech in Autocracies
In the works of Kant and Rawls, we find an acute sensibility to the pre-eminent importance of freedom of speech. Both authors defend free speech in democratic societies as a private and as a public entitlement, but their conceptions markedly differ when applied to non-liberal and non-democratic societies. The difference is that freedom of speech, for Kant, is a universal claim that can serve as a test of legitimacy of all legal orders, while for …
Introduction: Resistance, disobedience or constituent power? Emerging narratives of transnational protest
Transnational social movements, campaigns and individual activists have described their activities in the traditional vocabularies of political dissent: as protest, opposition, contestation, dissidence or rebellion. Where strategies have involved illegal, well-publicised activities, the vocabularies of resistance and of civil disobedience have become an activist lingua franca. What all such descriptions have in common is that they paint a largely…
Reframing civil disobedience: Constituent power as a language of transnational protest
In 1992, the Frankfurt scholar Ingeborg Maus launched a polemical attack against then current narratives of democratic protest, objecting to the languages of ‘resistance’ or ‘civil disobedience’ as defensive, servile and insufficiently transformative. This article explores in how far the language of constituent power can be adopted as an alternative justificatory strategy for civil disobedience in transnational protests. In contrast to current ap…
Speech, truth and liberty: Bentham to John Stuart Mill 1
Bentham’s Utilitarianism transforms earlier free speech doctrine in the service of the pursuit of truth and the control of government, preserving the distinction between statements of opinion and of fact and awarding the latter a lesser degree of protection. The work of James Mill and the early writings of John Stuart Mill retain this distinction, but their accounts are weighed down by the problems of a direct Utilitarian approach, in their conse…
Nonalienation among peoples: Symposium on Catherine Lu’s Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics
This contribution gives an appreciation of Catherine Lu’s book Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics and introduces some concepts and motifs, themes and arguments that play a role in the discussion by the three commentators Reinhard Wolf, Alasia Nuti, and Kimberly Hutchings in this book symposium. The discussion adds to the development of the categories of structural injustice, alienation, and reconciliation, and especially of the systemat…
Regression in membership law: For a cosmopolitanism from within
Vulnerability, Space, Communication: Three Conditions of Adequacy for Cosmopolitan Right: Comment on Arthur Ripstein, Kant and the Law of War (KLW)
The chapter argues that according to the Kantian completeness assumption, not only do we face a major unresolved systematic issue—all exercise of cosmopolitan right takes place in a state of nature between states and foreigners: a highly structured state of nature, to be sure, but a state of nature nonetheless—but we have too few options for fulfilling the conditions of explanatory adequacy. Niesen points out that in Kant and the Law of War no sp…
Verteidiger der Staatlichkeit, nicht des Staates. Zum Tod von Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (1954‒2020)
Bibliographie: Niesen, Peter: Verteidiger der Staatlichkeit, nicht des Staates. Zum Tod von Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (1954‒2020), ZPTh – Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie, 1-2020, S. 167-172. https://doi.org/10.3224/zpth.v11i1.15
Truth-tracing versus truth-tracking: Lafont, Landemore and epistemic democracy
Cognitivist theories of democratic decision-making come in two flavours, which I label transparently and intransparently epistemic. Lafont’s deliberative theory of democracy has strengths in accounting for the transparently truth-tracing power of justification but lacks a plausible account of the intransparently truth-tracking power of aggregative approaches highlighted by, among others, Hélène Landemore, such as the Condorcet Jury Theorem or the…
Two Cheers for Lost Sovereignty Referendums: Campaigns for Independence and the Pouvoir Constituant Mixte
In this article, I bring together three recent ideas from political theory and constitutional law. The first is the notion developed by Jürgen Habermas and Markus Patberg of a pouvoir constituant mixte. Complex polities such as supra-state federations should be understood as constitutional entities that combine two or more authorizing subjects. The default “mixed” conception is that of dual sovereignty, split between the federations’ member colle…
Wohin mit Kants politischer Philosophie
Die Beschäftigung mit Kants politischer Philosophie findet heute in nie gekannter Intensität und Qualität statt, folgt jedoch meist dem Aufbau der Rechtslehre und sieht sich daher gezwungen, ungedeckte Anleihen bei seiner Moralphilosophie aufzunehmen. Der Beitrag schlägt vor, die Rechtslehre stattdessen von hinten nach vorne zu lesen, mit dem Weltbürgerrecht einzusteigen und die Unterscheidung zwischen provisorischer und peremtorischer Rechtsgelt…
Constituent power in political liberalism: Constraining the future
In Sovereignty across Generations, Ferrara attempts a dual feat. He demonstrates that political liberalism needs a nuanced doctrine of constituent power to be brought in line with traditional democratic concerns. At the same time, he argues that political liberalism is capable of making constituent power safe for democracy, in reining in its unruly and unbound character. By distinguishing between ‘the people’ and the electorate, Ferrara develops …
Beyond Demokratiewissenschaft ? Response to interlocutors
In my response to critics in this special issue, I introduce an example from animal politics to clarify what I’ve been after in claiming the label of Demokratiewissenschaft for political theory, and to highlight the motivation for employing a democracy-apt method (I). In a second section, I take up the challenges of internationalizing the basic commitments of that method through the eyes of my esteemed interlocutors (II
The Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power
This volume examines a key notion in political and constitutional theory. Constituent power denotes the capacity and authority to make (democratic) constitutions. The concept plays a key role both in real-world processes of constitution-making and constitutional transformation and in their scholarly analyses. The handbook brings together leading scholars across political theory, philosophy, intellectual history, and law to explore the political, …
Political science (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (9 works) · Democracy (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Power (physics (5 works)