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

Event
13.11.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

When Design Gets Political

Exhibition, Conference, Panel Discussion, Lecture, Workshop

Der dritte Tag der Design Policy Days an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt richtet sich an alle, die Design als politische Kraft denken. Gemeinsam mit dem Deutschen Designtag und der World Design Capital 2026 widmet er sich in Roundtables, Projektpräsentationen, Workshops und Ausstellungen der institutionellen Politik: Wie lässt sich Design methodisch, strukturell und normativ in politische Entscheidungsprozesse integrieren – und wie kann Politik selbst als Gestaltungsfeld verstanden werden?

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Publication
21.09.2026 | Working Paper

Dimensionen wehrhafter Demokratie in unsicheren Zeiten

Abich, Leon; Adams, Cosima; Biebricher, Thomas; Britz, Gabriele; Daase, Christopher; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Dönges, Jan; Krause, Leon; Nitzschner, Patrick; Siebert, Hannes; Siefert, Julian; Stephanblome, Isabelle (2026): "Dimensionen wehrhafter Demokratie in unsicheren Zeiten". DemoReg Working Paper 3.1.

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Event
10.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

Shifting Visions of Peace and Security

Panel Discussion, Lecture Series

Podiumsdiskussion im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times” mit Lisbeth Zimmermann (Goethe University/Normative Orders), Antonia Witt (PRIF), Siddarth Tripathi (University of Erfurt). Moderation: Jonas Wolff (Goethe University/PRIF/Normative Orders).

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Event
03.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

AI, War, and Big Tech

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Ingvild Bode (University of Southern Denmark)im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
16.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

International arms control in a world of uncertainties

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Malte Göttsche (TU Darmstadt/PRIF) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
02.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Enabling Authoritarianism: UN Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Sarah von Billerbeck (University of Reading) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
25.11.2026 | Frankfurt

Deterrence in “Post-Liberal Times“

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Maria Mälksoo (Copenhagen University) (Goethe-Universität/PRIF/Normative Orders) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
18.11.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

The Case for (Neo)colonialism: Neotrusteeship in International Relations as the ‘Imperial Mind’ of the ‘Colonial Present’

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Nick Lemay-Hébert (Manchester University) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
28.10.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Postliberal vs. liberal Perspectives on Peace and Security and Crises

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase (Goethe-Universität/PRIF/Normative Orders) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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