Increasingly in today's world we are experiencing intensifying antagonisms around religious and ethno-cultural differences. The confrontation between political Islam and the so-called 'West' has replaced the rhetoric of the Cold War against communism. This new constellation has not only challenged the hypothesis that 'secularization' inevitably accompanied modernity but has also placed on the agenda political theology as a potent force in many societies. This article analyzes the contemporary revival of political theology by focusing on the headscarf debate in comparative constitutional perspective. It compares the well-known decision of the French Parliament banning the wearing of the headscarf in public schools (2004) with the decision of the German Constitutional Court concerning whether Fereshta Ludin, an Afghani-German teacher wearing the hijab, could teach in German schools (2003) and with the more recent judgment of the Turkish Constitutional Court (summer 2008) upholding the ban on the wearing of the scarf or the turban in institutions of higher learning. At stake in these debates is not only the meaning of fundamental human rights but also why women and their bodies become the object of disciplinary conflicts in culture, law and religion.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Raphael (Ralph) Lemkin (1900-1959) were witnesses to the European catastrophes of the twentieth century. By juxtaposing her concept of 'plurality' to Lemkin's concept of 'the group', the essay analyzes the ontology of human groups which underlies Lemkin's view of genocide. Lemkin is heir to a Herderian tradition of viewing groups in culturalist terms, while Arendt is an "associationist." What implications does the ontology of groups have for conceptualizing genocide in juridical as well as ethical terms? In conclusion I address the problem of "universal jurisdiction" in prosecuting the crime of genocide.

An essay is presented on practical definitions of human rights. The author analyzes the differences in defining human rights between philosophers such as John Rawls and the United Nations (UN) in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Other topics include moral, cultural and legal cosmopolitanism, substantive and justificatory minimalism, democratic iterations, and legal rights.

This essay examines recent debates concerning the emergence of cosmopolitan norms such as those pertaining to universal human rights, crimes against humanity as well as refugee, immigrant and asylum status. What some see as the spread of a new human rights regime and a new world order others denounce as the “spread of empire” or characterize as “law without a state”. In contrast, by focusing on the relationship of global capitalism to deterritorialized law this essay distinguishes between the spread of human rights norms and deterritorialized legal regimes. Although both cosmopolitan norms and deterritorialized law challenge the nation-state and threaten to escape control by democratic legislatures, it argues that cosmopolitan norms enhance popular sovereignty while many other forms of global law undermine it. It concludes by pleading for a vision of “republican federalism” and “democratic iterations”, which would enhance popular sovereignty by establishing interconnections across the local, the national and the global.

The author comments on the justification for the bondedness of democracies, human rights concepts within a proceduralist discourse ethics and economic citizenship and cosmopolitanism. The author explains that the struggles for democratization and the rise of multicultural and ethnocultural movements suggest conflicts over gender identities. She concludes that conflict among some world organizations leads to global governance.

The aim of 'The Claims of Culture' is to reconcile the many discontents of late modern culture with a continuing commitment to liberal democracy. It does so in face of the separation of the value-spheres of ethics and aesthetics, theology and law, brought about by nature and cognitive rationalism. This led Max Weber to warn that a consequent search for the old gods, allied to the longing for their transcendent power, would lead to a retreat from democracy in the form of a charismatic politics of leadership. Following Max Weber, I emphasize the intrinsic fluidity and heterogeneity of cultural narratives. Responding to the comments of María Herrera Lima, James Bohman and Eduardo Mendieta, this article addresses the common theme of cosmopolitanism and global citizenship.