Samira Akbarian

Disproportionate? Unconstitutional? Moralistic? Criminal? The current manifestations of civil disobedience are hugely controversial. But what actually characterizes civil disobedience? Do climate activists, farmers’ protests and Reichsbürger justify their actions with this term? We urgently need a convincing and generally understandable theory of civil disobedience – and the award-winning legal scholar Samira Akbarian provides it. She explains how civil disobedience enables direct democratic influence that can redress imbalances in political processes.

Dr. Samira Akbarian is a research associate at the Chair of Public Law and Philosophy of Law at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Her research on civil disobedience has been awarded the German Study Prize of the Körber Foundation, the Merkur Prize for outstanding dissertations and the Werner Pünder Prize.

Event in German