Counter-Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat

10 December 2020, online at 7pm Sydney time

Speakers: Jan Zielonka and guest commentators Saskia Sassen and Pola Cebulak

Building upon the theses of his pathbreaking 2018 book, Counter-Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat, on this occasion Jan Zielonka* will be in coversation with guest commentators Saskia Sassen** and Pola Cebulak.***

From our research project, they will be joined by Adam Czarnota^ and Wojciech Sadurski^ in a discussion moderated by Martin Krygier.^

In his book, Counter-Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat (Oxford University Press, 2018) Jan Zielonka suggests that Europe and its liberal project need to be reinvented and recreated. There is no simple way back after Europe has failed to adjust to enormous geopolitical, economic, and technological, changes that swept the continent over the past three decades. Europe and its liberal project need to be reinvented and recreated, because European models of democracy, capitalism, and integration, are not in sync with new complex networks of cities, bankers, terrorists, or migrants. In his analysis, liberal values that made Europe thrive for many decades have been betrayed, and the escalation of emotions, myths, and ordinary lies, have left little space for reason, deliberation, and conciliation.

His book examines these different aspects, proposing a way out of the labyrinth – and rich material for discussion by our panel.

The event is free, but registration is essential to gain access to this webinar.

Our project is co-hosting this talk with the Network for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law.

 *Jan Zielonka is Professor of European Politics at the University of Oxford and Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Venice, Cá Foscari. His previous appointments include posts at the University of Warsaw, Leiden and the European University Institute in Florence. Counter-Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat was awarded the 2019 University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Best Book Prize for the book that has ‘made the most substantial and original contribution to knowledge in the area of contemporary European Studies’ in the past year. Zielonka has produced seventeen books and frequently contributes articles to various European newspapers.

**Saskia Sassen is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University and and former Chair of the Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. She is a student of cities, immigration, and states in the world economy, with inequality, gendering and digitization three key variables running though her work. Her numerous works have been translated into over twenty languages, and she has received many awards and honors, among them multiple doctor honoris causa, the 2013 Principe de Asturias Prize in the Social Sciences, election to the Royal Academy of the Sciences of the Netherlands, and being made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government.

***Pola Cebulak is is Assistant Professor in European Law at the European Studies Department of the University of Amsterdam. She holds a double doctoral degree (2010-2014) from the Université libre de Bruxelles (Institute for European Studies) and the University of Geneva (Global Studies Institute). Her research focuses on European Union (EU) law, in particular EU institutional law, judicial politics, EU external relations and human rights law. In 2020-21, she is part of the Re:constitution Fellowship. Before joining the University of Amsterdam, Pola worked as Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher in Denmark (iCourts – the Centre of Excellence for International Courts at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen) and Switzerland (Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva and Chair of Public International and European Law at the University of Fribourg).

^Adam Czarnota and Martin Krygier of the University of New South Wales Law School, and Wojciech Sadurski, of the Sydney University Law School, are the three leaders of the Constitutional Populism project.