Life and Work
Anne Peters studied Law, Modern Greek and Spanish at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, at the University of Lausanne, at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and at Harvard Law School. Peters earned her doctorate in 1994 at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg on the basis of her Dissertation-Thesis “Das Gebietsreferendum im Völkerrecht: seine Bedeutung im Licht der Staatenpraxis” (The regional referendum in international law: its significance in the light of state practice). From 1995 to 2001 she worked as a research assistant at the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. She obtained the Habilitation-qualification at the Walther-Schücking-Institute of Public International Law at the Christian Albrechts University Kiel on the basis of her Habilitation-Thesis “Elemente einer Theorie der Verfassung Europas” (Elements of a Theory of the Constitution of Europe) in 2000. From 2001 to 2013, Peters was Full Professor of International and Constitutional Law at the University of Basel. From 2004 to 2005 she was dean, from 2008 to 2012 research dean of the Law Faculty of Basel and from 2008 to 2013 member of the research council at the Swiss National Science Foundation. Since 2013 she is director at theResearch focus and theses
Peters' research interests relate to public international law including its history, global animal law, global governance and global constitutionalism, and the status of humans in international law. Peters’ theses are the following: Referendums on territory, when conducted freely, fairly, peacefully and under impartial supervision, are a necessary but not sufficient procedural factor in the exercise of peoples' right to self-determination. In this way they can contribute to the legalization of a change of territory, even in the case of the unilateral separation of a region from a state. EU basic legal norms can and should be qualified as a constitution of the EU (irrespective of the existence of a formal constitutional document). This European constitution obtains its legitimacy mainly through probation, and thus through its "output", i.e. legal and political results in the European public interest, less by its genesis and by the "input" from European citizens through elections and votes. The erosion of state constitutional law through increasingly intense exercise of sovereignty by International Organizations, increasing international regulations and extraterritorial effects of state action can and should be compensated by the recognition of global constitutional law, which constitutes, channels and limits this exercise of sovereignty ("compensatory constitutionalism"). International law should and can counteract its tendency towards epistemic nationalism by problematizing national prejudices and maintaining sufficient distance from legal practice; the pursuit of a constructive utopia is the task of international law. The democratization of international law and global governance is possible and necessary to complement its indirect democratic legitimacy (via national parliaments and governments) ("dual democracy"). The well-being of people, their security and their rights are the foundation and limit of state sovereignty. "Humanity", not "sovereignty" is the ultimate rationale of international law. A general principle of transparency has emerged as the fundamental principle of international law in all its branches, beginning with environmental law. The function of transparency in international law is similar to that in national public law: transparency enables public criticism of the exercise of international sovereignty. The principle of transparency strengthens the quality of international law as public law, as the right to establish and channel sovereignty, in the public interest and under the control of the public. The transparency of international institutions and legislative and implementation procedures can thus mitigate the democratic deficit of international law, ie the lack of a world parliament, a democratic legislative process, and a direct right of citizens to participate in the appointment of international offices. The history of international law can be rewritten using approaches of global history. The Global History Approach raises awareness of the problem of Eurocentrism in the development of international law and its presentation, and makes it easier to recognize and appreciate non-European influences. The individual enjoys "subjective international rights" and obligations which are, so to speak, below the threshold of particularly high-quality human rights, for example in international labor law, refugee law, international humanitarian law, etc. Allowing the recognition of these legal positions and the (contingent) international legal capacity of human beings expressed therein it is to qualify the individual as an original and normative priority (not only derived from the states and subordinate) subject of international law. The shift from the state as the starting point of international law to man represents a paradigm shift in the international legal order. Global animal rights will be established and developed as a field of research to safeguard animal welfare standards undermined by globalization, outsourcing and location mobility and to explore new concepts such as animal rights, animal status, the sovereignty of wildlife over natural resources. The new field of research can receive suggestions from numerous neighboring disciplines as part of the "animal turn" of the humanities and social sciences.References
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Anne 1960 births Jurists from Berlin University of Basel faculty Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law people Living people Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Max Planck Institute directors