Stefan Kadelbach

Projects and positions at the research center
Principal Investigator

Funding period 2019-2021
Project management: The State as Arbitrator – From Fundamental Rights as Defense Rights to a Strengthening of the Objective Dimension of Fundamental Rights | Research focus 4 – Overstretched Orders: Global Governance between De- and Renationalization
Project management: The State as Arbitrator of Disputes – From Fundamental Rights as Defensive Rights to a Strengthening of the Objective Dimension of Fundamental Rights | Research focus 1 – Contested Orders: The Future of Democracy

Funding period 2012-2017
Project management: Legitimation through International Law and Legitimization of International Law | Research Field 3
Coordination Research Field 3

Funding period 2007-2012
Project management: The Normativity of Law in Transition | Research Field 1

Fields of study
Law

Main areas of research
Public law, European law, international law

  • Biografische Angaben

    Prof. Dr. Stefan Kadelbach, LL.M., has been a university professor at the Faculty of Law of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Chair of Public Law, European Law and International Law; Co-Director of the Wilhelm Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic Order since winter semester 2004/05.

    Curriculum vitae:
    Born 1959.
    1979-84 Studied literature, then law in Tübingen and Frankfurt am Main.
    1986 Hague Academy of International Law; Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften in Speyer.
    1987/88 University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
    1984-87 Legal clerkship.
    1991 Dr. jur., 1996 Habilitation in Frankfurt.
    1997-2004 o. Professor of Public Law, International and European Law at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
    Since 2004 at Goethe University.
    Visiting professorships and lectureships at the University of Virginia (1999), the European University Institute in Florence (2000), the Institute for State and Law in Moscow (2002/03) and Chuo University in Tokyo (2004), among others. Since October 1, 2004 Professor of Public Law, European Law and International Law and Managing Director of the Wilhelm Merton Center for European Integration and World Economic Order at the University of Frankfurt am Main.

    Other activities:
    Dean of Studies (2005-2007).
    Member of the Board of Directors and Coordinator of Research Field 4 of the Cluster of Excellence 243 (Formation of Normative Orders).
    Liaison Lecturer of the German National Academic Foundation.
    Managing Director of the Institute for Public Law.

News from the research center

Event
19.06.2026 | Frankfurt

„Dass niemand wirklich frei ist, bevor es nicht alle sind.“

Symposium

International Symposium in Memory of Jürgen Habermas. Featuring international panels on the rise of authoritarianism and the threats to democracy as well as on the communicative turn in philosophy and sociology, followed by a keynote from by Axel Honneth.

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Event
23.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

AI Truth Regimes

Panel Discussion

Artificial intelligence is currently transforming the way knowledge and truth are produced and understood. With the advent of AI, people are progressively transitioning from being active subjects and producers of epistemic processes to becoming their mere objects. The of this discussion will be critical engagements towards these developments as well as opportunities for resistance. With Antonio Somaini, Júlia Nueno Guitart (Forensic Architecture) and Medico International.

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Event
23./24.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

The Legacy of Kant’s Political Philosophy

Workshop

A two-day workshop on Howard Williams‘ new book about Immanuel Kant‘s political philosophy.

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Event
23.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Wehrhafte Demokratie: Chancen und Grenzen des Parteiverbots

Panel Discussion

Im Mittelpunkt des Abends steht die Frage, ob und unter welchen verfassungsrechtlichen, politischen und gesellschaftlichen Voraussetzungen ein Verbot einer demokratisch gewählten, rechtsnational ausgerichteten Partei als legitimes Mittel in Betracht gezogen werden kann oder nicht. Ausgehend von den normativen Grundlagen des Parteienverbots im Grundgesetz, möchten wir die hohen rechtlichen Hürden und demokratietheoretischen Spannungsfelder dieser Maßnahme erörtern – zwischen Pluralismus und Selbstverteidigung, zwischen Meinungsfreiheit und Schutz der freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung.

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Event
22.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Rechtsextremismus und Polizei - Erscheinungsformen, Umgangsweisen, Perspektiven

Panel Discussion

Die Diskussion knüpft an den Sammelband „Rechtsextremismus als Herausforderung für Polizei und Gesellschaft“ an, der aktuelle Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Praxis und Zivilgesellschaft zusammenführt.

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News
18.05.2026

Videopodcast-Reihe „Our Planet, Our Health“ gestartet

Mit „Our Planet, Our Health“ startet eine neue Videopodcast-Reihe zu Fragen globaler Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Die Reihe, gehostet von Dr. Romina Rekers, ist eine Initiative des Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme (GHJ), gefördert von der Höppschen Stiftung.

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Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

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Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

DGTF Conference 2026: Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC 2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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