Living (up to our) Constitutions?

President of the German Federal Constitutional Court Stephan Harbarth, in conversation with Dr. Catherine Lotrionte, will discuss current dynamics of constitutional law and the similarities and differences between the German and the American legal systems and constitutional jurisprudence. He will delve into the notion of a “living constitution,” what this means in the German context, and how it compares to interpretations in the United States. Other topics might include the relationship between the Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, the jurisprudence around vaccination mandates, and the new precedent of intergenerational justice as exemplified in the Court’s 2021 ruling necessitating changes to the German government’s climate legislation.

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Prof. Dr. Stephan Harbarth has been the president of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court since June 2020 and chair of the First Senate since November 2018. After completing his legal studies at the University of Heidelberg and Yale Law School, he practiced law (including as a partner of a major U.S. law firm) and was a member of the Federal Parliament from 2009 until 2018.

Dr. Catherine Lotrionte is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She was previously a Brent Scowcroft Scholar at the Atlantic Council with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at CSIS. She is also the founder and former director of the CyberProject at Georgetown University, where she has taught and written on international and national security law, international affairs, and technology. She founded the CyberProject in 2008, focusing on the role of international and domestic law in recent and emerging developments in the proliferation of weapons, technology, and threats. Dr. Lotrionte previously served as counsel to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House, on the Joint Inquiry Committee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as an assistant general counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, and in the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Lotrionte holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from New York University.

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AGI is partnering with the Department of Government, Georgetown University for this event.

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