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Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2024
Print publication year:
2024
Online ISBN:
9781009516914
Creative Commons:
Creative Common License - CC Creative Common License - BY Creative Common License - NC Creative Common License - ND
This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Book description

Right in the middle of the German constitution, a group of ordinary citizens discovers a forgotten clause that allows them to take 240,000 homes back from multi-billion corporations. In this work of creative non-fiction, scholar-activist and Nine Dots Prize winner Joanna Kusiak tells the story of a grassroots movement that convinced a million Berliners to pop the speculative housing bubble. She offers a vision of urban housing as democratically held commons, legally managed by a radically new institutional model that works through democratic conflicts. Moving between interdisciplinary analysis and her own personal story, Kusiak connects the dots between the past and the present, the local and the global, and shows the potential of radically legal politics as a means of strengthening our democracies and reviving the rule of law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Reviews

‘In this fascinating book, Joanna Kusiak weaves together the story of how residential housing was turned into a financial asset, the struggle for recovering it for human dignity by invoking a long-forgotten provision of Germany’s constitution, and her life as a social advocate, scholar and mother. She offers hope, a strong dose of humour, and a strategy for others in search of a more humane world.’

Katharina Pistor - Columbia Law School

‘We live in an age when many citizens might feel powerless in the face of powerful financial corporations. However, Kusiak's account is an inspiring analysis of how the public good can be championed. Written in an engaging, first-person style, it shows how the law can be used to protect people - not just control them. A novel blend of legal sociology and political anthropology, this is highly useful for anyone who wants to make sense of the clash between private equity and public good - or is curious to know what our future cities may look like.’

Gillian Tett Source: Financial Times

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Contents

Full book PDF
  • Radically Legal
    pp i-ii
  • Radically Legal - Title page
    pp iii-iii
  • Berlin Constitutes the Future
  • Copyright page
    pp iv-iv
  • Dedication
    pp v-v
  • Epigraph
    pp vi-vi
  • Contents
    pp vii-vii
  • Figures
    pp viii-ix
  • About the Nine Dots Prize
    pp x-xii
  • 1 - Taking the Tram Home
    pp 1-10
  • Prelude to Change
  • 2 - We Are All Staying Put
    pp 11-40
  • Property and Freedom
  • 3 - Berlin Becomes High-Risk Capital
    pp 41-70
  • The Law and the Movement
  • 4 - Who Constitutes Power?
    pp 71-102
  • Checks and Balances
  • 5 - Berlin Is the Greatest Extravaganza
    pp 103-136
  • Sexy and Solidaristic
  • 6 - The Rule of Law Is Having a Midlife Crisis
    pp 137-164
  • Shadow and Difference
  • 7 - Before the Law
    pp 165-170
  • Franz Kafka feat. DWE
  • Love and Gratitude
    pp 171-174
  • Soundtrack
    pp 175-176
  • Notes
    pp 177-188

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