Die neoklassische Theorie basiert auf dem Modell des homo oeconomicus, der eigennützig und rational handelt. Hinzu kommt die stillschweigende Annahme der unbegrenzten Wil-lenskraft, d.h. dass einmal gefällte Entscheidungen auch in die Tat umgesetzt werden. Zahl-reiche empirische Studien haben gezeigt, dass die Annahmen der neoklassischen Theorie in der Realität oft nicht zutreffen. Durch die Verhaltensökonomie wird in erster Linie die Ratio-nalitätsannahme hinterfragt. Daniel Kahneman unterscheidet zwei Denksysteme: einen schnellen, intuitiven Denkmodus (System 1) und einen langsamen, rationalen Denkmodus (System 2). Denkmodus 1 bedient sich kognitiver Faustregeln („heuristics“), die zu kognitiven Verzerrungen („biases“) führen können. Um die Entscheidungen der Individuen zu verbes-sern, schlagen Richard Thaler und Cass R. Sunstein vor, die Entscheidungsarchitektur („choice architecture“) der Individuen so zu gestalten, dass diese in…

The main focus of the lecture will be the concept of the best interests of the child, stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This concept is considered to be one of the most important and difficult to be applied in practice. In family-related situations, there are many factors that need to be taken into account when assessing what is in the best interests of a particular child. This task with regard to what is called ‘new forms of families’ or ‘alternative families’ is even much more difficult. At the same time this is increasingly becoming an evolving issue in Europe. Apart from that, it is often linked to another complicated and challenging topic – the…

European private law has been in the making for a number of decades. The main goal has been to serve the needs of the Single Market. Despite a variety of eorts to make national private laws converge, little unity has emerged. Nevertheless, the Single Market has survived and even grown. This talk oers a critical assessment of the EU’s achievements in the development of European private law. It will examine how the ECJ has interpreted the EU Directives in key areas of contract and tort, and ask to what extent the case law of the European court has harmonized the law in these elds. The presentation will also reect on possible alternatives to the Directives, and question the meaning and need…

There are many conceptions of constitutionalism, and many aspects of it even within particular conceptions. But one important dimension of constitutionalism is the way in which constitutions impose second-order constraints on first-order policy, political, and moral preferences. Policies or decisions that might on the balance of reasons be wise may still be unconstitutional because they are procedurally imperfect or, more importantly, because they violate rights-based side constraints on otherwise advantageous policies. Even welfare- or happiness- or utility-maximizing policies may still be unconstitutional because they infringe on, for example, rights to equality, or rights of freedom of expression or freedom of religion, or the rights of those charged with crimes. Sometimes constitutions impose such second-order constraints on first-order policies because of…