Political Philosophy Colloquium

ABSTRACT: This paper develops a critical theory of transnational justice. In its critical parts, the paper discusses a number of conceptions of justice that are parochial or positivistic in insufficiently questioning certain normative and empirical premises and thus miss the nature of forms of injustice beyond the state. In the constructive parts, I present a reflexive argument for a discursive conception of justice. This theory is then situated in transnational contexts of rule and domination, arguing for principles and institutions of fundamental transnational justice.

BIO: Rainer Forst studied philosophy, political science and American studies in Frankfurt/Main, New York and at Harvard University. After his involvement in the Leibniz research group on legal theory with J. Habermas in Frankfurt, Forst received his PhD with a study on theories of political and social justice: “Kontexte der Gerechtigkeit. Politische Philosophie jenseits von Liberalismus und Kommunitarismus”, was published 1994 with Suhrkamp (translated 2002 into English as “Contexts of Justice” with University of California Press; German 2004 German reprint edition; published in Portuguese with Paidós Verlag, 2010; a translation into Chinese is in preparation).

In the following years, Forst was assistant professor at the Otto-Suhr-Institute for political science at Freie University in Berlin and since 1996 assistant professor at the department of philosophy at Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main. In 1995/96 and 1999 he was visiting professor at the Graduate Faculty of New York's New School for Social Research. Forst received his Habilitation (second dissertation) in 2003 with his book “Toleranz im Konflikt. Geschichte, Gehalt und Gegenwart eines umstrittenen Begriffs” (published the same year with Suhrkamp, 5th reprint 2017; translated 2013 into English as “Toleration in Conflict” with Cambridge UP; translations into Spanish and Chinese are in preparation).

Forst had further visiting positions in Frankfurt and Gießen and received a Heisenberg grant from the German research association (DFG) before becoming full professor for philosophy and political theory at Goethe-University in Frankfurt in 2004 (succeeding I. Maus, prior to that I. Fetscher). In 2005/06 he was Theodor-Heuss-Professor at the New School for Social Research and since 2006 he is board member and permanent fellow at the newly founded Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg. Forst rejected an offer to become full professor at the University of Chicago in 2007.

Since 2007, he is co-director (with Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther) of the cluster of excellence Normative Orders at Goethe-University Frankfurt. His next book “Das Recht auf Rechtfertigung” was published in the fall of 2007 with Suhrkamp (2nd reprint edition in 2010) (published in English as »The Right to Justification« with Columbia UP in 2012; published in Swedish with Daidalos Press in 2007; a translation into Chinese is in preparation).

Forst was offered a visiting professorship from Harvard University in 2008 (not accepted so far.). In 2009, he was “Harris Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. At the same time, he was invited as a fellow by the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and since 2009 he is co-director of the Centre for Advanced Studies Justitia Amplificata. His book “Kritik der Rechtfertigungsverhältnisse” was published 2011 with Suhrkamp (translated into English as “Justification and Critique” with Polity Press 2013; published in Italien with Trauben in 2013 and in Spanish with Katz 2015)

In 2012, the German research association (DFG) awarded Rainer Forst the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize for his academic work.

Forst was Senior Emile Noël Fellow at the Monnet Center at New York University's Law School in the fall term 2013/14. His debate with Wendy Brown was published in 2014 as “The power of Tolerance. A Debate” with Columbia UP. In the same year, “Justice, Democracy and the Right to Justification” was published with Bloomsbury, including essays from critics and a comprehensive reply. In 2015, he accepted visiting positions at Rice University (Housten) and at the University of Washington (Seattle). His next book was published as “Normativität und Macht” with Suhrkamp in 2015 (published in English as “Normativity and Power” with Oxford UP in 2017). Also, since 2017, Forst is research professor for political theory at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung (WZB) in Berlin.

Rainer Forst is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft at Goethe-University in Frankfurt.