Stefan Auer – författare

The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU’s economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sense of purpose, and the Covid-19 pandemic its credibility as a protector of European citizens.

The key argument of this book is that the multiple crises of the European project are caused by one underlying factor: its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. Left unchecked, supranational institutions tend to become ever more bureaucratic, eluding control of the people they are meant to serve. The logic of technocracy is thus pitted against the democratic impulse, which the European Union is supposed to embody. Democracy in Europe has suffered as a result.

Ausgehend vom Werk des Völkerrechtlers Alfred Verdross (1890–1980) wird die Völkerrechtswissenschaft an deutschen und österreichischen Universitäten zwischen 1933 und 1945 untersucht. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf einer begriffsgeschichtlichen Analyse: Was verstand man damals unter „Volk“ und welchen Einfluss hatte dies auf den völkerrechtlichen Staatsbegriff sowie Minderheitenschutz? Deutlich wird die Abkehr von hergebrachten Positionen und der intensive völkerrechtswissenschaftliche Meinungsstreit. Diese Debatte und die Politisierung des Völkerrechts im Nationalsozialismus werden erstmals umfassend anhand eines systematischen Vergleichs von Verdross’ Werk mit den Werken zahlreicher anderer zeitgenössischer Völkerrechtler nachgezeichnet.