Parenthood (or the pursuit thereof) remains one of the defining aspects in the lives of many individuals and couples across Europe. At the same time, voluntarily childlessness is on the rise in a number of EU countries, driven e.g. by changing lifestyles but also considerations about climate change. The understanding of parenthood and its different facets differs across the European societies. In this seminar, we will rely on an interdisciplinary approach and perspectives from different policy fields to address – among others – the following questions:
• What fertility rates and the resulting demographic trends can be observed across Europe?
• How do national regulatory frameworks approach parenthood? Who – according to the national laws – has the ‘right’ to become a parent in different countries? Which groups are encouraged and discouraged to have children? (e.g. heterosexual couples? Same-sex couples? Ethnic minorities?)
• If faced with infertility, which ways to parenthood (e.g. assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy) are seen as acceptable and financially supported by public policies?
• What are the social characteristics of individuals who decide to have children?
• Once pregnant, what type and quality of care can women expect from the public healthcare system? Where can they give birth and how? Which professionals will assist them?
• Once the child is born, who is expected to take care of it, and who actually does? Which public policies are put in place to support parents? Can parents rely on maternal, paternal and parental leaves? How long and how generous are these leaves? Can the parents count on access to public childcare? Do they receive financial support?
• How different factors (e.g. culture, religion, historical legacies, ethno-nationalist ideologies) influence these norms and policies?
• How do these norms and policies seem to be affecting fertility rates and demographic trends in Europe?
The seminar is organized in monthly block meetings and will take place online via zoom. Readings and course material will be made available on Stud.IP.
Depending on their needs, individual students can earn between 3 and 9 ECTS for the seminar. The course requirements will be adjusted accordingly.

One of the most recognizable examples of morality policy regulation, the issue of access to abortion remains controversial in most societies. It has been sparking popular mobilization in Europe and the Americas, engaging both pro-abortion as well as anti-abortion activists. While most countries have pursued a road to permissiveness in the last decades (Nebel and Hurka 2014), including Ireland and Argentina, some countries (like Poland) and US states (like Arkansas and Texas) have re-introduced restrictions on access to abortion, effectively banning the procedure (see Calkin and Kaminska 2021). Moreover, countries have displayed different policy responses to the COVID pandemic: in some national contexts access to abortion has been alleviated while other countries have imposed restrictions.
Recent media reports suggest diverging developments:
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-approves-new-abortion-law/a-47611468
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/24/thousands-join-poland-protests-against-strict-abortion-laws
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/ireland-votes-by-landslide-to-legalise-abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/09/arkansas-abortion-ban-supreme-court-roe-v-wade
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/argentina-legalises-abortion-in-landmark-moment-for-womens-rights
In this seminar, we will discuss the issues behind morality policy regulation. We will examine how access to abortion has been regulated in selected European and South-American countries as well as in the US, by tracing the developments in abortion governance in comparative perspective.
We will look into the role of different factors and actors in liberalizing and restricting access to abortion: courts, social movements, health professionals, religious institutions (mainly Catholic Church), and – in historical perspective – of the communist and fascist ideologies. Transnational aspects, including cross-border abortion trails and the role of transnational organizations and networks in providing and restricting access to abortion, will also be considered. Finally, we will discuss how the COVID pandemic influenced access to abortion, both within and across national borders.
The seminar is organized in monthly block meetings and will take place online via zoom. Readings and course material will be made available on Stud.IP.

The European Union is defined as a legal community. In fact, law and courts have fundamentally shaped and continue to shape European integration. This undergraduate seminar addresses students that wish to understand how and why law and courts matter for the polity, politics and policy of the EU. In the first section of the course, we will critically examine the purported function of courts, such as resolving disputes or enforcing legal norms. We will then turn to the role of the supranational European Court of Justice and its interaction with ordinary courts in the Member States, reflecting on the importance of their interaction for constructing a legal order in the EU. Subsequently, we will deal with the role of constitutional courts and reflect on the delicate balance between EU law and constitutional law. In a next step, we will discuss the emergence of a so-called European constitutional network composed of national constitutional courts, the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In a final section of this course, we will apply the acquired knowledge to constitutional politics and the current crisis of the rule of law in selected EU Member States.

Parenthood (or the pursuit thereof) remains one of the defining aspects in the lives of many individuals and couples across Europe. At the same time, voluntarily childlessness is on the rise in a number of EU countries, driven e.g. by changing lifestyles but also considerations about climate change. The understanding of parenthood and its different facets differs across the European societies. In this seminar, we will rely on an interdisciplinary approach and perspectives from different policy fields to address – among others – the following questions:
• What fertility rates and the resulting demographic trends can be observed across Europe?
• How do national regulatory frameworks approach parenthood? Who – according to the national laws – has the ‘right’ to become a parent in different countries? Which groups are encouraged and discouraged to have children? (e.g. heterosexual couples? Same-sex couples? Ethnic minorities?)
• If faced with infertility, which ways to parenthood (e.g. assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy) are seen as acceptable and financially supported by public policies?
• What are the social characteristics of individuals who decide to have children?
• Once pregnant, what type and quality of care can women expect from the public healthcare system? Where can they give birth and how? Which professionals will assist them?
• Once the child is born, who is expected to take care of it, and who actually does? Which public policies are put in place to support parents? Can parents rely on maternal, paternal and parental leaves? How long and how generous are these leaves? Can the parents count on access to public childcare? Do they receive financial support?
• How different factors (e.g. culture, religion, historical legacies, ethno-nationalist ideologies) influence these norms and policies?
• How do these norms and policies seem to be affecting fertility rates and demographic trends in Europe?
The seminar is organized in monthly block meetings and will take place online via zoom. Readings and course material will be made available on Stud.IP.
Depending on their needs, individual students can earn between 3 and 9 ECTS for the seminar. The course requirements will be adjusted accordingly.

One of the most recognizable examples of morality policy regulation, the issue of access to abortion remains controversial in most societies. It has been sparking popular mobilization in Europe and the Americas, engaging both pro-abortion as well as anti-abortion activists. While most countries have pursued a road to permissiveness in the last decades (Nebel and Hurka 2014), including Ireland and Argentina, some countries (like Poland) and US states (like Arkansas and Texas) have re-introduced restrictions on access to abortion, effectively banning the procedure (see Calkin and Kaminska 2021). Moreover, countries have displayed different policy responses to the COVID pandemic: in some national contexts access to abortion has been alleviated while other countries have imposed restrictions.
Recent media reports suggest diverging developments:
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-approves-new-abortion-law/a-47611468
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/24/thousands-join-poland-protests-against-strict-abortion-laws
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/ireland-votes-by-landslide-to-legalise-abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/09/arkansas-abortion-ban-supreme-court-roe-v-wade
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/argentina-legalises-abortion-in-landmark-moment-for-womens-rights
In this seminar, we will discuss the issues behind morality policy regulation. We will examine how access to abortion has been regulated in selected European and South-American countries as well as in the US, by tracing the developments in abortion governance in comparative perspective.
We will look into the role of different factors and actors in liberalizing and restricting access to abortion: courts, social movements, health professionals, religious institutions (mainly Catholic Church), and – in historical perspective – of the communist and fascist ideologies. Transnational aspects, including cross-border abortion trails and the role of transnational organizations and networks in providing and restricting access to abortion, will also be considered. Finally, we will discuss how the COVID pandemic influenced access to abortion, both within and across national borders.
The seminar is organized in monthly block meetings and will take place online via zoom. Readings and course material will be made available on Stud.IP.

This seminar will address the relationship between social class and gender-based forms of stratification in modern societies and in historical perspective. Overall, the question of interest is why the inequalities at the intersection of class and gender in paid and unpaid work persist across industrialized societies despite some impressive policy achievements over the past half century. The primary literature source will be the book “Gender-Class Equality in Political Economies”. In this book, Lynn Prince Cooke places gender inequality in a context that is historically shaped by the intersections of multiple inequalities and the particularities of six countries: Germany (East and West), Spain, Australia, the UK and the US. Gender-class inequalities persist in paid work hours, wages, and the division of housework. The study shows how values, choices, and behaviors of individual men and women in various national contexts are enabled and constrained by state policies that effectively structure relative group advantage and disadvantage from birth through old age.

As part of the International Module Social Sciences, this spotlight lecture is held by visiting Professor Dr, Maya Hadar from Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. The number of students will be limited according to the capacity of the classroom during the pademic.
In dieser Veranstaltung kann eine englischsprachige Prüfungsleistung erbracht werden. Bitte verlassen Sie sich nicht zu 100% darauf, dass dieser Kurs in diesem Semester stattfindet, da Reisebeschränkungen den Aufenthalt der Dozentin in Bremen erlauben müssen. Er wurde schon mehrfach Pandemie-bedingt verschoben.