Classic state theory defines the state as a territory with a population and a bureaucracy which makes a variety of claims about a monopoly over the legitimacy of violence. As EU states have transferred increasing competence for the designation and management of the borders of Europe (the EU), movement of persons across them has become a site of increasingly extreme friction between conceptualizations of state sovereignty as including an inherent entitlement to prevent (some) people from entering the territory and a Europeanisation of external (and internal borders) as places where EU law determines the rules. In the keynote, Guild will examine how these frictions regarding the conceptualization of the state are resulting in death at the EU external borders and what can be done to prevent these deaths.

The public keynote takes place in the context of the Kickoff Conference of the Research Group „Internalizing Borders: The Social and Normative Consequences of the European Border Regime„. Details about the conference can be found here, and about the Research Group here on the website.

The keynote will also be streamed and is open to the public and free of charge. Prior registration is requested by 7 November, 2023.

Contact: Sebastian Lemme (sebastian.lemme@uni-bielefeld.de).