Ongoing research

Restrictive Migration Law and its Implications for Democracy in Sweden. Elena Namli and Per Sundman in collaboration with Professors Sofia Näsström (Political Science) and Patricia Mindus (Philosophy).

The restrictive migration policy, which today is justified in the name of democracy and the rule of law, has led to a powerful weakening of migrants’ rights – something that has been demonstrated in several academic studies. This project explores how the weakened right to migration affects democracy, citizens’ rights and our understanding of the rule of law. Its purpose is to examine the implications of the acceptance of the weakened right to migration for democratic constitutional identity and the meaning of human rights.

Law and Political Morality – Critical Normativity in Law, Ethics, and Politics. Elena Namli

The project aims to propose a new model for understanding the relationship between law, morality, and politics. Such a model – a form of critical positivism – builds upon what contemporary research describes as ‘soft legal positivism’ combined with a new form of ethical constructivism. It allows for a moral review of the law without accepting either the metaphysics of natural law or its rationalism.

Fiction and Ethics. Helen Andersson

This project explores the ability of the world of fiction to disturb our ingrained conceptions of the world. The aim is to illustrate how the line between fiction and reality can be crossed in order to create new forms of perception and knowledge.

Critical Ethics and Realistic Politics Carl-Henric Grenholm

The project aims to analyse and critically review various theories about morality’s relevance to politics. The project argues for critical political ethics, where the normative core is a Kantian principle of human dignity. One central assumption is that ethics should not provide politics with direct moral guidance. Nevertheless, it can provide a perspective for critically reviewing political structures and political actions of those in power.

JUSTNORTH – Toward Just, Ethical and Sustainable Arctic Economies, Environments and Societies. Johanna Ohlsson et al. (www.justnorth.eu)

This multidisciplinary international EU Horizon project addresses questions on ethics, justice and sustainability in the Arctic. It aims to identify, problematize and discuss the conditions necessary for a better understanding of the challenges that Arctic economies, environments and communities encounter within the domain of social justice.

The Duty to Give Reasons – Reason Giving as Justification for Decisions in Administrative Law. Johanna Romare, Johanna Ohlsson, Olof Wilske (Faculty of Law).

Ethicists and legal scholars work together in this multidisciplinary project exploring the question of how decisions are justified in Swedish public administration and governance. When the new Administrative Procedure Act was introduced, the requirement to give reasons for decisions was tightened. However, the demands that can be placed on these reasons remain unclear. We argue that the way public administration decisions are motivated should be understood as a form of justification, which we address from both legal and ethical perspectives.