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Towards a Law of Cohabiting? The European Way (LAW-DS-LAWCOH-26)

LAW-DS-LAWCOH-26

Description

It is tempting to interpret European law and the whole postwar construction as an attempt to rescue not just the Nation-State (Milward), but a specific form of sociability or ’living together’ (Habermas) based on the assumption that the Western democratic conversation and European capitalism will generate consensus, peace of mind and security. This attempt has clearly failed. This conception is now being challenged. What does it mean to live together in a Europe fraught with movements of polarisation and enemisation, entangled in forms of alienation and othering, engaged in processes of destruction of natural ecosystems and non-majoritarian forms of life? The relative stability and peacefulness of European societies cannot be assumed any more. Admittedly, it is very difficult to imagine what a new form of cohabitation may look like. This short seminar is an invitation to look for concepts, techniques, and principles that may help substantiate the idea of cohabitation. Are there resources in law, philosophy and social sciences to develop a renewed and broadened conception of cohabitation? Are there specific legal techniques associated to it? This seminar explores the ‘European way’. This means that it is not just looking for an abstract notion of cohabitation. It wonders about the specific material and social conditions for such a conception to take shape. Moreover, it is meant to question Europe’s ability and legitimacy to engage in such a reorientation. Is Europe, considering its past and structural orientation, able and legitimate to propose a new form of cohabitation? Is cohabitation really what alienated people need or want?

Programme

1. ‘Living together’: sociability and unsociability in Europe and its law

2. ‘Cohabiting’ v ‘Living together’

3. Coexisting with (social/cultural) differences in today’s Europe: case study

4. Cohabiting with other (human/non-human) lives in today’s Europe: case study

5. Cohabiting or not?

First, Second & Third Term: registration from 21 to 25 September 2026.

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