Why “traditional values” are today at the core of national and international law and politics debates?

Organized in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck (ERC – European Research Council) and St. John’s Law School, the workshop has compared traditionalism in the West, particularly the United States of America, with the understanding of tradition that the Russian Orthodox Church has advocated in its recent social teaching. Both versions of traditionalism are complex, with competing strands.

A fruitful comparison between scholars in law, political science, theology, and sociology, investigating how, and to what extent, tradition informs and influences political and legal developments.

Two ongoing research projects bear directly on these questions:

• The Tradition Project at St. John’s University Law School explores the value of tradition in a system of ordered liberty. Its basic objective is to develop a broad understanding of what received wisdom continues to offer for law, politics, and responsible citizenship.
• The Postsecular Conflicts Project at the University of Innsbruck explores the potential, both positive and conflictual, of tradition in a context of political transition. The project explores the concept of traditional values in the present day Russian context as situated at the intersection of national and transnational discourses on human rights, legal sovereignty and religion in the public sphere.

The conference has compared these two models to see how they converge and diverge, and how traditionalists in both models collaborate in common political projects.

We have met some of the invited speakers and asked them to sum up what emerged from the discussion and/or their peculiar point of view and contribute to the conversation:

• Stoeckl Kristina, Assistant Professor and leader of the project Postsecular Conflicts at the Department of Sociology, University of Innsbruck
• Chapnin Sergej, Journalist & Researcher Postsecular Conflicts Project, University of Innsbruck
• Dreher Rod, Journalist

Watch the videos!