Legal Entanglements

During the division of Germany, law became the object of ideological conflicts and the means by which the two national governments conducted their battle over political legitimacy. Legal Entanglements explores how these dynamics produced competing concepts of statehood and sovereignty, all centered on citizens and their rights. Drawing on wide-ranging archival sources, including recently declassified documents, Sebastian Gehrig traces how politicians, diplomats, judges, lawyers, activists and intellectuals navigated the struggle between legal ideologies under the pressures of the Cold War and decolonization. As he shows, in their response to global debates over international law and human rights, their work kept the legal cultures of both German states entangled until 1989.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Trenches

Chapter 1. Legal Rubble
Chapter 2. Old and New Law

Part II: Internationalization

Chapter 3. The Clash of Legal Universes
Chapter 4. Entangled Citizenships

Part III: Universalisms

Chapter 4. International Networking
Chapter 5. Separated by Law

Conclusion: License to Legislate

Bibliography
Index