Werner Gephart

Werner Gephart (* 1949 ) is a German legal scholar , sociologist and artist . He is a founding director of at the University of Bonn -based Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture" .

Life and Scientific Career

Werner Gephart studied law at the University of Bonn and sociology at the University of Cologne . He received his doctorate in 1986 from the University of Göttingen with a thesis on Émile Durkheim . In 1991 he completed his habilitation at the University of Düsseldorf with the venia legendi for sociology. After academic activities at the University of Düsseldorf (1977–1990) and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1990–1991), he was appointed professor for sociology at the University of Bonn in 1992 . In addition, Werner Gephart held visiting professorships in Moscow (1990/1991),Paris (1994/1995), Tunis (1998), St. Louis (2001) and Herzliya (2008). In 2010 Werner Gephart founded the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the period from 2010 to 2022.

Scientific work and artistic creation

Besides the sociological theory , the sociology classics and the history of sociology dedicated Werner Gephart questions of art - and cultural sociology , the literature - and media sociology , the religion - and especially the sociology of law . He is co-editor of the magazines Droit et Société, Law and Literature and Law and the Arts as well as editor of the volume “Recht” in the context of the historical-critical complete edition of Max Weber's works . In addition to Max Weber, special attention is paid to the work of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim.

Werner Gephart has also been intensively involved in the sociological analysis of legal cultures for several decades . In contrast to other approaches, Werner Gephart focuses in particular on their relationship to competing normative orders (such as religion, custom or fashion) in different “cultures of validity”. To this end, he differentiates in his writings - based in particular on Weber and Durkheim - between a normative, a symbolic, a ritual and an organizational dimension of law as a central sphere of social life. The law thus forms a central component in the theory of the spheres of modernity developed by Gephart, which, in contrast to other theories of differentiation of modern society, focuses on the mutual overlapping and penetration of social sub-areas.

Many years of preoccupation with these topics and classic authors resulted in the foundation of the Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture” in 2010. The college wants to contribute to the understanding of law in times of advancing globalization of normative orders. In contrast to law, especially legal dogmatics , the aim of the college is to make law as an important dimension of a globalizing world understandable with the categorical and methodological means of the humanities .

Werner Gephart's main research areas can also be found in his artistic work. His paintings , collages and installations illustrate the history of the social sciences and their relationship to the underlying legal cultures. A recurring motif are portraits of the sociological founding fathers . In addition, his works refer to current events such as Brexit or the refugee crisis . His work has already been presented in Düsseldorf , Cologne , Bonn , Oldenburg , Paris , New York , Bloomington , Trier , Tunis , New Delhi and most recently at King's College London as part of the exhibition “Some Colors of the Law”.

Honors (selection)

• 2016/2017: Honorary Artist of the Dickson Poon School of Law , King's College , London
• 2014: Awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by the University of Turin
• 2014: Awarded the “Premio Laici per il Mediterraneo”, Festival Mediterraneo della Laicità, Pescara
• 2008/2009: Guest lectures at the Center for European Studies / Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) and the law faculty of IDC Herzliya (Israel), sponsored by the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia
• 2001/02: Appointment to the Fulbright Honorary Professorship (Distinguished Chair for German Studies) for the 2001/02 academic year. Worked at the Department of Political Science, Washington University , St. Louis
• 2000: Awarded the Chevalier de l'ordrenational du Mérite order by the President of the French Republic by decree of May 15, 2000
• 1994/95: Alfred Grosser Endowed Professorship at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation )

Publications

Series Editorships

• Werner Gephart (Ed.), Series of publications by the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Law as Culture”, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2012ff.
• Werner Gephart (Ed., From Vol. 6 together with Daniel Witte), Society and Communication. Sociological studies, Münster: LIT Verlag 2005ff.

Monographs and compilations (selection)

• Werner Gephart: Some Colors of the Law. Images and Interpretations, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2017.
• Werner Gephart / Daniel Witte: The Sacred and the Law. The Durkheimian Legacy, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2017.
• Werner Gephart / Daniel Witte: Law as Culture? Contributions to Max Weber's Sociology of Law, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2017.
• Werner Gephart / Jure Leko: Law and the Arts. Elective Affinities and Relationships of Tension, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2017.
• Werner Gephart / Jan Christoph Suntrup: The Normative Structure of Human Civilization. Readings in John Searle's Social Ontology, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2017.
• Werner Gephart, Martin Schermaier (eds.), Reception and legal culture change. European legal traditions in East Asia and Russia, Frankfurt am Main 2016.
• Werner Gephart, Raja Sakrani, Jenny Hellmann (eds.), Legal Cultures in Transition. From South Africa to Spain, from post-war Germany to the dawn of the Arab world, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2015.
• Werner Gephart, Jan Christoph Suntrup (eds.), Legal Analysis as Cultural Research II, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2015.
• Werner Gephart, Law, Culture, and Society. Max Weber's Comparative Cultural Sociology of Law, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2015.
• Katharina Boele-Woelki, Nina Dethloff, Werner Gephart (eds.), Family Law and Culture in Europe. Developments, Challenges and Opportunities, Cambridge: Intersentia 2014.
• Werner Gephart, Jürgen Brokoff, Andrea Schütte, Jan Christoph Suntrup (eds.), Tribunale. Literary representation and legal processing of war crimes in a global context, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2013.
• Werner Gephart (Ed.), Legal Analysis as Cultural Research, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2012.
• Werner Gephart, Law as Culture. For a humanities research into law in the globalization process, zero number of the series of publications of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture", Bonn / Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2010.
• Werner Gephart and Siegfried Hermes (eds.), Economy and Society. The economy and the social orders and powers. Estate, Volume 3: Law [MWG I / 22-3], Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010.
• Werner Gephart, Goethe as a sociologist. And other essays on the relationship between literature and sociology, Münster 2008.
• Werner Gephart, Law as Culture. Cultural sociological studies on law [Studies on European legal history. Publications of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Volume 209], Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
• Werner Gephart, Voyages sociologiques. France - Allemagne, Paris: l'Harmattan 2005.
• Werner Gephart and Karl-Heinz Saurwein (eds.), Broken Identities. On the controversy about collective identities in Germany, Israel, South Africa, Europe and in the struggle for identity between cultures, Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1999.
• Werner Gephart and Hans Waldenfels (eds.), Religion and Identity. In the horizon of pluralism, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1999.
• Werner Gephart u. a., media myth? The staging of celebrities and fate using the example of Diana Spencer. Opladen; Wiesbaden: West German 1999 (together with Miriam Meckel, Klaus Kamps, Patrick Rössler).
• Werner Gephart, founding fathers. Sociological pictures with interpretations by Alois Hahn, Wolf Lepenies, Richard Münch a. a., Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1998.
• Werner Gephart, Images of Modernism. Studies on a sociology of art and culture content, Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1998 (Sphären der Moderne; Vol. 1).
• Werner Gephart, Action and Culture. Diversity and unity of cultural studies in Max Weber's work, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1998.
• Werner Gephart, symbol and sanction. The theory of collective imputation by Paul Fauconnet, Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1997.
• Werner Gephart and Ludger Honnefelder (eds.), Europe growing together. European integration as a challenge for the university. 1994.
• Werner Gephart, Social Theory and Law. Law in the sociological discourse of modernity, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1993.
• Werner Gephart and Hans Peter Schreiner (eds.), Stadt und Kultur, Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1991.
• Werner Gephart, Punishment and Crime. The theory of Emile Durkheim, Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1990.

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Gephart in the catalog of the German National Library
• Werner Gephart (University of Bonn)
• Werner Gephart (Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture")
• Werner Gephart at The Dickson Poon School of Law
• Käte Hamburger College "Law as Culture"

Individual evidence

1. ^ Droit et société | Lextenso editions. Retrieved January 26, 2018 (French). 
2. ^ Law & Literature . January 1, 2012 ( degruyter.com [accessed January 26, 2018]).
3. ^ Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG: Max Weber Complete Edition. Retrieved January 26, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Punishment and crime - The theory of Emile Durkheim | Jumper . 1990 ( springer.com [accessed January 26, 2018]).
5. ↑ Legal analysis as cultural research. 1 (=  series of publications by the Käte-Hamburger-Kolleg "Law as Culture" . Volume 1 ). 1st edition. Klostermann, Frankfurt, M 2012, ISBN 978-3-465-04147-4 ( dnb.de [accessed on January 26, 2018]).
6. ^ Table of contents, legal analysis as cultural research, Frankfurt 2012. Retrieved on January 26, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Pictures of Modernity - Studies on a Sociology of Art | Werner Gephart | Jumper . ( springer.com [accessed January 26, 2018]).
8. ↑ Pictures of Modernity: Studies on a Sociology of Art and Culture . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 978-3-663-09412-8 , urn : nbn: de: 1111-201312134979 (additional literature).
9. ↑ WORKSHOP “Cultures of Differentiation. Towards a cultural-sociological turn in differentiation research ”- Käte Hamburger Kolleg“ Law as Culture ”. Retrieved January 26, 2018 . 
10. ^ Project presentation - Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture". Retrieved January 26, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Prof. Dr. jur. Dr. hc Werner Gephart - Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Law as Culture”. Retrieved January 26, 2018 . 
12. ^ Vittorio Klostermann Publishing House | Law - Law as Culture. Retrieved February 14, 2018 . 
13. ^ LIT publishing house Berlin-Münster-Vienna-Zurich-London. Retrieved February 14, 2018 .