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A GLOBAL THEORY OF REFLEXIVE DEBT (DELIBERATION)

Project description

Reworking debt as a means towards a sustainable economy

Debt, as an institution, is one of the central principles of modern capitalism. Unfortunately, debt is often perceived as limitless, perpetuating economic, political, cultural and ecological unsustainability. This presents the need to take measures to reshape the concept of debt in the context of a sustainable economy. The EU-funded RESOLVENCY project aims to provide the means through which debt can be reshaped, informing global insolvency law and reintroducing overburdened debtors into the economy while taking political, cultural and ecological concerns into account. The goal is to develop the methodology required to reframe debt, assess its impact on global society and promote sustainable practices.

Objective

Modern capitalism is essentially built on the institution of debt. The unlimited conception of debt reinforces an infinite growth logic and drives economic, political, cultural and ecological unsustainability. A crucial research question is how to constitute debt as more sustainable socio-economic medium. The RESOLVENCY project aims to shape a new (socially) reflexive debt paradigm by rethinking insolvency law as reflexive (democratic) debt deliberation. The project intends to set up a global theory of debt deliberation (for firms, consumers and states), which outlines a new RESOLVENCY paradigm for insolvency law reintegrating over-burdened debtors into the economic system (making them re-solvent) and incorporating other social (political, cultural, ecological) perspectives. Resolving debt conflicts requires a collective procedure including debtor, creditors and all other private (employees, inhabitants) and public (communities, environment) interests involved. Advancing PIs novel discursive normative grammar (DNG) methodology and combining it with empirical methods, the project has four main objectives: (A) to reconstruct a universal argumentative frame (an insolvency DNG) for debt deliberation integrating normative principles (values) from corporate, consumer and sovereign insolvency theories across different jurisdictions; (B) to newly classify insolvency laws worldwide with a global comparative insolvency law theory based on this DNG; (C) to model and experiment with legal designs of reflexive debt deliberation procedures (RESOLVENCY law); and (D) to outline a model of reflexive debt (RE:DEBT) and analyse its ex ante effects on credit markets. The project does not only impact any legal and economic research on insolvency, but also debt theory in all social and sustainability sciences. In advancing PIs DNG method, it enhances general understanding of deep normative architectures of legal reasoning and its constitutional effects for society at large.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG

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Host institution

FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 492 348,00
Address
KAISERSWERTHER STRASSE 16-18
14195 BERLIN
Germany

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Region
Berlin Berlin Berlin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 492 348,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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