Moritz Koenig
@moritzkoenig.bsky.social
Legal historian: colonial law, critical theory, land tenure, Indonesia. PhD from SOAS. Currently land rights at Oxfam.
Just published this article in which I show how an oscillation between the frames of legal ‘contraction’ (model contracts, textual forms) and ethnographic ‘expansion’ (‘the art of observation’) constituted colonial legal knowledge in Sumatra. For free access click www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9UQNG...
An Archaeology of Land Tenure in Colonial Minangkabau
This article investigates juridical engagement with land tenure in Minangkabau (West Sumatra) in the late colonial period. I argue that the scholarly encounter with adat (customary) land tenure was...
www.tandfonline.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Just published this article in which I show how an oscillation between the frames of legal ‘contraction’ (model contracts, textual forms) and ethnographic ‘expansion’ (‘the art of observation’) constituted colonial legal knowledge in Sumatra. For free access click www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9UQNG...
Good news: chatgpt does not understand the difference between Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical phase yet. Bad news: thanks to pure pedantry and my inability to let things go, I think I just taught it to.
August 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Good news: chatgpt does not understand the difference between Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical phase yet. Bad news: thanks to pure pedantry and my inability to let things go, I think I just taught it to.
Excellent points on how the mathematisation of economics as a discipline since the advent of neoliberalism hides its ideological work.
‘How could such a traumatic shock to the system as the global financial crisis, and the discredit into which its leading agencies and nostrums inevitably fell, have been followed by so complete a reversion to business as usual?’
Perry Anderson on neoliberalism: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Perry Anderson on neoliberalism: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Perry Anderson · Regime Change in the West?
Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures –...
www.lrb.co.uk
April 7, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Excellent points on how the mathematisation of economics as a discipline since the advent of neoliberalism hides its ideological work.
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
Becoming a “thank you for your service” guy for a car dealership is the logical endpoint of American conservatism
March 26, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Becoming a “thank you for your service” guy for a car dealership is the logical endpoint of American conservatism
There’s a cohort of lib American podcasters desperate to be seen as intellectuals(incessantly referring to their ramblings as intellectual labour) but who display a first year undergrad’s grasp of theory (misappropriating concepts such as genealogy or cultural anthro) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/b...
Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?
In “Abundance,” Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson prod fellow liberals to think beyond their despair over Trump’s return to power.
www.nytimes.com
March 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
There’s a cohort of lib American podcasters desperate to be seen as intellectuals(incessantly referring to their ramblings as intellectual labour) but who display a first year undergrad’s grasp of theory (misappropriating concepts such as genealogy or cultural anthro) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/b...
If you’re being told for decades by the entire political mainstream that it cannot possibly be neoliberalism or the capitalist system that makes your life so difficult (and vilified if you dare suggest it might be) then ofc an imaginary past and alternative scapegoats fall on fertile ground.
‘When authoritarians promise a return to an imaginary past, they stoke a furious nostalgia in those who have no better way to understand what is actually undermining their sense of a durable and meaningful future.’
Judith Butler on Executive Order 14168: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Judith Butler on Executive Order 14168: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Judith Butler · This Is Wrong
We need a better understanding of the fears exploited by authoritarians: who is this ‘migrant’, so dangerous they...
www.lrb.co.uk
March 21, 2025 at 6:24 AM
If you’re being told for decades by the entire political mainstream that it cannot possibly be neoliberalism or the capitalist system that makes your life so difficult (and vilified if you dare suggest it might be) then ofc an imaginary past and alternative scapegoats fall on fertile ground.
Is this couch purposefully designed to make everyone sitting on it look really weird?
March 1, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Is this couch purposefully designed to make everyone sitting on it look really weird?
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
The term card is out for our Peace Histories Seminar Series! Students, colleagues, and anyone interested in the history of peace movements, please join us at @leidenhumanities.bsky.social for three amazing speakers AND a film screening! Details here: www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/events/serie...
February 14, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The term card is out for our Peace Histories Seminar Series! Students, colleagues, and anyone interested in the history of peace movements, please join us at @leidenhumanities.bsky.social for three amazing speakers AND a film screening! Details here: www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/events/serie...
One revelation in this book that blew my mind: the very idea of species extinction (chaos, radical change) was only made possible by the fervour of the French Revolution. That’s why Britons (Darwin, Lyell) panned the idea and insisted on gradual adaptation www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Over the last half-billion years, there have been five …
www.goodreads.com
January 30, 2025 at 7:29 AM
One revelation in this book that blew my mind: the very idea of species extinction (chaos, radical change) was only made possible by the fervour of the French Revolution. That’s why Britons (Darwin, Lyell) panned the idea and insisted on gradual adaptation www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
12 February (16-18h) at the Maastricht Centre for Law & Jurisprudence in @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social at @maastrichtu.bsky.social: Colloquium with Eva Bernet Kempers: (U of Antwerp). Title: Do rights of nature include animal rights?
On-site and online. Register here: aanmelder.nl/159956/subsc...
On-site and online. Register here: aanmelder.nl/159956/subsc...
January 27, 2025 at 6:54 AM
12 February (16-18h) at the Maastricht Centre for Law & Jurisprudence in @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social at @maastrichtu.bsky.social: Colloquium with Eva Bernet Kempers: (U of Antwerp). Title: Do rights of nature include animal rights?
On-site and online. Register here: aanmelder.nl/159956/subsc...
On-site and online. Register here: aanmelder.nl/159956/subsc...
Great review of recent books on economism and how economics came to posture as an objective science: ‘When citizens and their representatives oppose received economic wisdom, they can count on being dismissed as ignorant, irrational, or silly.’ www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Too Close for Comfort | Caitlin Zaloom
Why are economists are in the US today uniquely able to exercise such sway over the state?
www.nybooks.com
January 25, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Great review of recent books on economism and how economics came to posture as an objective science: ‘When citizens and their representatives oppose received economic wisdom, they can count on being dismissed as ignorant, irrational, or silly.’ www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Marc Andreessen is the perfect representative of one of the most pernicious ideas capitalism has produced: taking an anthropology class in college is dangerous radicalism while believing in unfettered untaxed capitalism is apolitical human nature. podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/m...
How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley Into Trump’s Arms
Podcast-Folge · Matter of Opinion · 17.01.2025 · 1 Std. 1 Min.
podcasts.apple.com
January 17, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Marc Andreessen is the perfect representative of one of the most pernicious ideas capitalism has produced: taking an anthropology class in college is dangerous radicalism while believing in unfettered untaxed capitalism is apolitical human nature. podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/m...
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
I wrote about classic Shanghainese western food for the FT! (Article will be in this weekend’s magazine) www.ft.com/content/20ab...
How Shanghai’s ‘western food’ became a cuisine all of its own
Europeans have come and gone from China’s most populous city, but their food has gone local
www.ft.com
January 17, 2025 at 10:38 AM
I wrote about classic Shanghainese western food for the FT! (Article will be in this weekend’s magazine) www.ft.com/content/20ab...
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
It's bonkers that successive governments have taken one thing the UK was genuinely very good at and simply trashed it, destroying thousands of livelihoods, weakening teaching, and gutting cultural life in the process, all out of self-destructive obedience to the paranoid fantasy of marketization
Just found out that as of today that History as a whole is being notified that we’re at risk of redundancy. This’ll be the second time I’ve had to reapply for my own job in under 5 years! Our sector is at breaking point.
The University of Northampton is making significant cuts that put many programmes at risk, including our MA in History. Our Union branch has started a petition about these cuts in general, please sign and share. chng.it/HmQLFK8Lry We also have letters from learned socs & groups supporting History. 🗃️
January 16, 2025 at 10:11 PM
It's bonkers that successive governments have taken one thing the UK was genuinely very good at and simply trashed it, destroying thousands of livelihoods, weakening teaching, and gutting cultural life in the process, all out of self-destructive obedience to the paranoid fantasy of marketization
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
😻 DEAR ACADEMIC ACTIVISTS/COMRADES 😻
The second edition of our Law & Marxism Spring School will be held at SOAS from 8 to 10 May 2025! Deadline 10/2!
We look forward to receiving your applications and cannot wait for the best days in May!
✊Help us to spread the word to reach all the comrades we can✊
The second edition of our Law & Marxism Spring School will be held at SOAS from 8 to 10 May 2025! Deadline 10/2!
We look forward to receiving your applications and cannot wait for the best days in May!
✊Help us to spread the word to reach all the comrades we can✊
January 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
😻 DEAR ACADEMIC ACTIVISTS/COMRADES 😻
The second edition of our Law & Marxism Spring School will be held at SOAS from 8 to 10 May 2025! Deadline 10/2!
We look forward to receiving your applications and cannot wait for the best days in May!
✊Help us to spread the word to reach all the comrades we can✊
The second edition of our Law & Marxism Spring School will be held at SOAS from 8 to 10 May 2025! Deadline 10/2!
We look forward to receiving your applications and cannot wait for the best days in May!
✊Help us to spread the word to reach all the comrades we can✊
is it just me or is Susan Pedersen’s close reading of @tsasson.bsky.social personal acknowledgements in The Solidarity Economy a bit creepy? Also, opening paragraphs rambling about her pet peeve, current conventions in titling books, are quite self-indulgent and tedious www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Susan Pedersen · Slim for Britain: Solidarity Economy
No one who has lived in Britain would contest that Oxfam (and Save the Children, War on Want, Live Aid and the other big...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
is it just me or is Susan Pedersen’s close reading of @tsasson.bsky.social personal acknowledgements in The Solidarity Economy a bit creepy? Also, opening paragraphs rambling about her pet peeve, current conventions in titling books, are quite self-indulgent and tedious www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
The African Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its 14th Annual Conference, to take place October 17-18, 2025, in Maputo. The theme is: "Africa, Culture, and International Law." The call is here 👇🏾
www.afsilsadi.org
About | The African Society of International Law
The African Society of International (AfSIL) is a network of practitioners, scholars, technocrats and students engaging with international law as practiced, implemented, and forged in Africa. The Society seeks in particular to...
www.afsilsadi.org
January 9, 2025 at 1:06 AM
The African Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its 14th Annual Conference, to take place October 17-18, 2025, in Maputo. The theme is: "Africa, Culture, and International Law." The call is here 👇🏾
www.afsilsadi.org
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
Humbled to see many new followers here! Normally I am rather quiet but today I have exciting news:
Just signed the book contract for a Cambridge Handbook on the League of Nations and International Law (co-edited with Haakon Ikonomou and Morten Rasmussen).
Pls bear with us until early 2026..
Just signed the book contract for a Cambridge Handbook on the League of Nations and International Law (co-edited with Haakon Ikonomou and Morten Rasmussen).
Pls bear with us until early 2026..
a man with glasses and a mustache is wearing a white shirt that says finally on it
ALT: a man with glasses and a mustache is wearing a white shirt that says finally on it
media.tenor.com
November 14, 2024 at 9:30 AM
Humbled to see many new followers here! Normally I am rather quiet but today I have exciting news:
Just signed the book contract for a Cambridge Handbook on the League of Nations and International Law (co-edited with Haakon Ikonomou and Morten Rasmussen).
Pls bear with us until early 2026..
Just signed the book contract for a Cambridge Handbook on the League of Nations and International Law (co-edited with Haakon Ikonomou and Morten Rasmussen).
Pls bear with us until early 2026..
Reposted by Moritz Koenig
Interested in writing a short paper on interdisciplinary legal studies? Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies at HKU is creating a digital encyclopedia covering topics related to interdisciplinary legal studies. 👇 cils.law.hku.hk/law-and/
Law & - The Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
Law & an encyclopedia of interdisciplinarylegal studies Contribute. If you would like to contribute an entry to “Law &” please contact us at cils@hku.hk. Entries on any aspects of interdisicplinary le...
cils.law.hku.hk
September 4, 2024 at 6:39 AM
Interested in writing a short paper on interdisciplinary legal studies? Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies at HKU is creating a digital encyclopedia covering topics related to interdisciplinary legal studies. 👇 cils.law.hku.hk/law-and/
I recently saw Hall’s conversation with James on YouTube. Incredible to think Channel 4 in the 80s was happy to fill an hour of prime time TV with them discussing Trotsky’s account of the Russian revolution, Trinidadian labour leaders, and The Black Jacobins. www.nybooks.com/online/2024/...
A Microcosm of the World | C.L.R. James, Stuart Hall, Phoebe Braithwaite
In May 1976, the Jamaican-born cultural theorist Stuart Hall sat down in the BBC’s studios in West London to interview the Trinidadian-born intellectual
www.nybooks.com
January 9, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I recently saw Hall’s conversation with James on YouTube. Incredible to think Channel 4 in the 80s was happy to fill an hour of prime time TV with them discussing Trotsky’s account of the Russian revolution, Trinidadian labour leaders, and The Black Jacobins. www.nybooks.com/online/2024/...