Thomas Crocker Associate Professor of Law, University of South Carolina Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: May–December 2011 Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: »Overcoming Necessity: Emergency, Constraint, and Constitutional Commitment« Project outline: In my project, Overcoming Necessity: Emergency, Constraint, and Constitutional Commitment, I explore the relations between political claims of necessity and constitutional commitments in light of national security policy. This project examines how necessity challenges constitutional constraints by seeking to supersede reason and reflection in setting national policies and priorities while encouraging officials to view national constitutions as potential »suicide pacts.« In light of the special problems necessity raises, this project asks: how, and to what extent, should constitutional norms guide our responses to emergency? How should constitutional commitments and constraints address the rush of urgent circumstance? Overcoming Necessity defends liberal constitutionalism’s commitment to deliberation, self-determination, and political accountability, each of which depends on doing more than following the dictates of perceived necessity. (Thomas Crocker) While at the Institute Thomas Crocker will be working with Rainer Forst (Professor of Political Theory at Goethe Univeversity and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence »The formation of normative orders« at Goethe University). Thomas Crocker's stay at the Institute is sponsored by the Alfons and Gertrud Kassel-Foundation. Scholarly profile of Thomas CrockerMain areas of research: Constitutional Law, Political PhilosophySelected publications:
Fellowships:Fulbright Senior Fellowship at Goethe University, May‒December 2011; Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Science, 2010/2011 |