Join us for an evening at the intersection of theology, law, and political philosophy with Antje Jackelén, Valentin Jeutner, and Matilda Arvidsson, Mårten Björk and Tormod Johansen. Wine and light refreshments will be served.

The End of Law: Political Theology and the Crisis of Sovereignty (Routledge 2025), by theologian Mårten Björk and jurist Tormod Johansen, will be presented and discussed by a panel of three scholars. The book examines three key legal theorists of the 20th century — Gustav Radbruch, H. L. A. Hart, and Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde — to investigate what happens when legal validity diverges from moral legitimacy, and when the liberal rule of law rests on conditions it cannot itself guarantee.

After World War II, the German legal philosopher Gustav Radbruch concluded that a law can be formally valid while remaining deeply unjust. The catastrophes of the 20th century showed that justice does not always fit within the legal order — in extreme cases, it can transcend it. The discussion takes its starting point in the ongoing crisis of the international legal order. Arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court go unenforced. The Geneva Conventions are invoked selectively in the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The Security Council is paralysed by great power vetoes while civilian targets are struck. European states tighten and reinterpret asylum law as the commitments of the Refugee Convention become politically inconvenient. Law persists — in courts, treaties, and institutions — but its authority is increasingly revealed to be a matter of power and diktat.

The panel includes:

• Antje Jackelén, Senior Advisor in Systematic Theology at CTR, Lund, and former Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
• Valentin Jeutner, Director of the Master's Programme in International Human Rights Law
• Matilda Arvidsson, researcher and associate professor at the Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University

The book is available open access via Taylor & Francis.

https://www.routledge.com/The-End-of-Law-Political-Theology-and-the-Crisis-of-Sovereignty/Bjork-Johansen/p/book/9781032266251