Former Fellow

Merio Scattola

Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Padua

Research project: Political theology in the early modern period

As a guest of the Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders” and the International Research Training Group “Political Communication from Antiquity to the 20th Century”, Merio Scattola will research and teach in Frankfurt on the epistemological prerequisites of ancient and modern natural law, in particular on the concept of law and justice in ancient scholasticism and in modern science, and on the question of transcendence in political orders from both a historical and a systematic perspective.

Events:

July 9, 2014
Presentation
“The School of Salamanca as a Discourse Community” in the colloquium “Discussions about the School of Salamanca”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Thomas Duve and Prof. Dr. Dr. Matthias Lutz-Bachmann
Location: Max Planck Institute for European Legal History

July 21 to August 1, 2014
Workshop
“The law and the city”, led by Dr. des. Andreas Wagner, Anselm Spindler and Prof. Dr. Merio Scattola

July 25 – 26, 2014
Presentation
“Jean Bodin and international law” at the conference “System and Order in international law”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Stefan Kadelbach

July 22 to August 1
Workshop
Changes of State – Political Theory in the Transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era
Location: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

October 27, 2014, 4 pm
Lecture
The doctrines of natural law in the 18th century
Location: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

August or November 2014
Workshop
“Political communication from antiquity to the 20th century”

November 2014
Lecture at the workshop of the research project of the Cluster of Excellence “The Bible as norma normans”

Winter semester 2014/15
Guest lecture as part of the lecture by Prof. Dr. Schorn-Schütte
The emergence of natural law in the European 18th century

  • Biografische Angaben

    Merio Scattola is Professor of the History of Political Ideas at the School of Human and Cultural Sciences at the University of Padua. His research focuses on the history of natural law doctrines, political theology and the history of political thought in the early modern period. His book "Dalla virtù alla scienza", in which he described the history of academic politics in Germany, was named one of the "Legal Books of the Year 2003" by the "Neue Juristische Wochenschrift". Merio Scattola has developed the concept of a 'political epistemology' and he likes to examine the forms of knowledge and the literary genres in which political language is expressed.
  • Publikationen

    Das Naturrecht vor dem Naturrecht. Zur Geschichte des ius naturae im 16. Jahrhundert, Tübingen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1999. Teologia politica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007. Dalla virtu alla Scienza. La fondazione e la trasformatione della disciplina politica nell’eta moderna, Mailand, Franco Angeli, 2003. Eine innerkonfessionelle Debatte. Wie die Spanische Spätscholastik die politische Theorie des Mittelalters mit der Hilfe des Aristotelismus revidierte, in: Alexander Fidora, Johannes Fried, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann und Luise Schorn-Schütte (Hgg), Politischer Aristotelismus und Religion in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2007, (Wissenskultur und Gesellschaftlicher Wandel, 23), S. 139-161. Widerstand und Naturrecht im Umkreis von Philipp Melanchthon, in Luise Schorn-Schütte (ed.), Das Interim 1548/50. Herrschaftskrise und Glaubenskonflikt, Gütersloh, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2005, (Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, 203) S. 459-487. Emilio Bonfatti, Giuseppe Duso und Merio Scattola (Hgg), Politische Begriffe und historisches Umfeld in der Politica methodice digesta des Johannes Althusius, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek), 2002. Von der Politik zum Naturrecht. Die Entwicklung des allgemeinen Staatsrechts aus der politica architectonica, in: Jacques Krynen and Michael Stolleis (Hgg.), Science politique et droit public dans les facultés de droit européennes (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècle), Frankfurt am Main, Vittorio Klostermann, 2008, (Studien zur Europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, 229), S. 411-443. „Models in History of Natural Law“, in: Ius commune. Zeitschrift für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte, 28 (2001), S. 91-159.

News from the research center

News
30.06.2025

Article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich published in EJPT

The article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich has just been published open access in the European Journal of Political Theory (EJPT). Ulrich brings the perspective of radical realism into a productive dialog with Adorno's critical theory.

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News
30.06.2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Prize 2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay (Junior Professor of Ethnology with a focus on Political Anthropology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and former postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center Normative Orders at Goethe University) receives the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Award 2025 in the category Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Publication
25.06.2025 | Online article

Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?

Ulrich, Amadeus (2025): Ideology and suffering: What is realistic about critical theory? European Journal of Political Theory, 0(0).  https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851251351782

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News
24.06.2025

New series “Vertrauensfragen” in the Frankfurter Rundschau initiated by Hendrik Simon

Democracy thrives on debate - if it serves the joint search for solutions. There is often a problem with this cooperation. The new FR series “Vertrauensfragen”, initiated by Hendrik Simon (Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) Frankfurt location at Goethe University's Research Centre Normative Orders ), examines why this is the case and how we can do better.

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Publication
23.06.2025 | Working Paper

Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina

Moreno, Guadalupe (2025): “Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina”. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Discussion Paper 25/3.

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News
22.05.2025

Does deliberative democracy have a future in the age of oligarchs, autocrats and patriarchs?

On June 3, Prof. Simone Chambers will give a lecture on the value of democracies and the future of the form of government.

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Publication
19.05.2025 | Anthology

Klimaethik. Ein Reader

Sparenborg, Lukas; Moellendorf, Darrel (Hrsg.) (2025) : Klimaethik. Ein Reader. Suhrkamp.

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News
19.05.2025

What can a baroque tapestry tell us about colonial iconography?

Lecture by Cécile Fromone on May 21. The professor at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, director of the Cooper Gallery at the Hutchins Center and author will talk about the long-forgotten African origins of iconography and its colonial dimension.

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News
05.05.2025

Normative Orders Newsletter 01/25 published

The newsletter from Research Centre Normative Orders collects information on current events, reports, news and publications several times a year. Read the first issue 2025 here.

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