Sibylle Léonard

Please tell us about your research project
I am currently in the third year of my PhD at the CEVIPOF (Sciences Po), where I investigate what a formal commitment to recognising past injustices may entail for present-day politics. Overall, my research is situated in political theory, engaging with constitutionalism, literature on transitional justice and reparations, as well as feminist philosophy.
My dissertation examines the duties that arise for constitutional democracies that have committed grave wrongs. I focus specifically on the duty to ensure that these wrongs do not recur, often described in the literature as the provision of “guarantees of non-repetition”. Drawing on the German case, I make two interrelated claims. First, I argue that constitutional entrenchment in post-atrocity contexts can play an important reparative role as a "guarantee of non-repetition". This is illustrated by the post-war German Basic Law and its first article on the respect of human dignity, placed beyond amendment through an “eternity clause”. Yet, I also show that, in the process of interpreting the entrenched provision on concrete issues, constitutionalization can generate path-dependent constraints on other justice claims, particularly in domains (such as reproductive rights) that have not been conceived as central to the original trauma narrative. As an example, I analyze how the Federal Constitutional Court has mobilized Germany's exceptional duty to protect human dignity in order to justify restrictive abortion legislation. These rulings demonstrate that, although constitutional commitments are framed in universal terms, they can be translated into asymmetric constraints on particular groups, potentially obscuring or reproducing other forms of injustice (in this case, gendered ones). On this basis, I argue for the need to develop a more robust theoretical understanding of the conditions under which post-atrocity constitutional entrenchment can remain responsive to its reparative purpose, without hardening into a justificatory shield for other forms of harm and exclusion.

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?
I am here thanks to the OxPo (Oxford-SciencesPo) program, which supports research exchanges between the University of Oxford and Sciences Po. As part of the doctoral visiting scheme, I am affiliated with the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR). I am also a Research Associate at the Holywell Manor (the Graduate Center of Balliol College).

First impressions of Oxford/the University?
As a political theorist, I have been struck by the sheer number and diversity of political theory seminars offered in Oxford. The density of discussion and the coexistence of different methodological styles (analytical political theory, critical theory, history of ideas) create a remarkably stimulating environment for developing my work. I am also very fortunate to be staying at the Maison française d’Oxford: beyond offering a welcome sense of cultural familiarity, it provides an ideal setting for focused writing and simultaneously encourages engagement with a lively community of scholars, fostering conversations and encounters beyond my immediate field of research.