I am a Research Scientist for „law and culture“ at the University of Luxembourg and Associated Member at the Centre Georg Simmel at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (affiliations and fellowships >>).
My research focuses on the relationship between the subject and the institutional system, on the juridical and linguistic foundations of subjectivity and culture, the role of literature and aesthetics in culture and law, as well as, and specifically, on new technologies, such as blockchain technology, and their impact on traditional conceptions of subjectivity, institution and law.
Having obtained a Master’s degree at the Sorbonne, I worked as a trilingual translator in a law firm in Paris. During my time at the law firm I received the offer to translate Le Désir politique de Dieu by Pierre Legendre. Once the translation was finished, I resumed my academic path and wrote a doctoral thesis on the relationship between law and literature. After a teaching assignment at Duke University in the United States, I finished my PhD at the University of Luxembourg and the University Paris-Sorbonne in 2015.
full CV >>
Research interests
In my research, I am particularly guided by the following questions:
- How does the individual become subject? To what extent is it entangled in rigid norm structures and to what extent can it break free from them, possibly even influence them? What role do language, aesthetics and law play in this?
- How are legal and cultural binding paradigms changing due to increasing trans- and international networks, and not least due to decentralisation efforts?
- What impact does digitalisation have on social dynamics and the institutional structure of our society? How does the striving for ever more autonomous, virtually based – and thus disembodied – forms of life affect the foundations of our community and concepts of subjectivity? Does this lead to a dissolution of social contexts or do new forms of community and new social ties emerge?
- What are the ideological foundations and cultural and legal implications of blockchain technology? To what extent will it – with the proliferation of legal tech – actually change the legal landscape? What does its quest for „decentralised justice“ and „self-sovereign identity“ mean for the traditional functioning and foundations of our legal and cultural system?
- What role does the body, materiality, nature play in all this?
Publications (selection)
- « Göttliche Protokolle, Bitcoin-Jünger und schattenhafte Herrscher: Über die religiösen Anwandlungen und ideologischen Verstrickungen der Blockchain-Technologie », in: Jahrbuch für Technikphilosophie, Nomos-Verlag 2022, p. 177-194.
- « Plateformes de règlement de litiges décentralisées : vers ‚une justice plus juste‘ ? », in: Dalloz Revue IP / IT 01/2021, p.13-16.
- « Blockchain matters – lex cryptographica and the displacement of legal symbolics and imaginaries », Respondents: Jean Lassègue & Pierre Musso, Law & Critique, 2022.
- « Digitalisierung und soziale Distanz. Körperliche Präsenz als Kern demokratischer Repräsentation », Die politische Meinung, Nr. 564, Sept-Okt. 2020, p. 69-73.
- Numérique : avec le Covid-19, « la présence physique s’est avérée soudainement porteuse d’une dimension politique », Le Monde, 20.11.2020.
- « Corona und die krisenhafte Wiederkehr des Verdrängten », Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, ZKph 2020/2, p.111-122.
- « Débattons enfin de la ‘blockchain’ », Le Monde, 4.05.2019
- « La technologie blockchain et la promesse crypto-divine d’en finir avec les tiers », Études digitales. Religiosité technologique, II, Classiques Garnier 2019, p. 33-52.
Complete list of publications >>
News
September 13-16th, 2023: Prof. Christian Bermes, Prof. Gérard Raulet and me organised a workshop on „Opinion / Public Opinion“ at the Inter-University-Center-Dubrovnik, where I held a talk on Dekorporalisierung = Demokratisierung? Öffentliche Meinung im Sog der Virtualisierung. Check out the program here.
May 11th-12th, 2023: Prof. Pierre Musso and me organised a workshop on „Technicité and Symbolique“ at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Nantes. Check out the podcasts here and my talk on „NFTs et la (ré)création virtuelle du Soi“ here.
April 18th, 2023: Prof. Pierre Musso and me were invited to present our newly published book Introductions à l’oeuvre de Pierre Legendre at the Institut d’Études Advancées in Nantes:
April 12th, 2023: Pierre Musso, Sandrine Palussière and me payed tribute to Pierre Legendre and his „dogmatic anthropology“ on the radio program „Esprit de Justice“ at France Culture. If you want to know more about his work and who he was, listen in!
December 19th, 2022: Dr. Julia Schneider’s new comic „The Big Third and the Blockchain“, which is based on my research on blockchain technology , was launched on 1E9.
November 11th, 2022: I had the chance to discuss my thoughts on DAOs and platforms for decentralized justice with the Foresight Unit at the European Commission. Thank you for inspiring discussions Maciej Krzysztofowicz, Thomas Hemmelgarn, and colleagues !
September 22, 2022: I took part in a round table discussing Kleros and the future of justice at the Journée Européenne du Numérique au Barreau de Paris (Ordre des avocats de Paris) – Yann Aouidef, Arthur Dénouveaux, Jean Lassègue, Philippe Vandaele
September 15th, 2022: I took part in the conference The Digital Divide at the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, together with Evgeny Morozov. Check out the following two videos:
