In his attempt to bring liberalism up to date, Christoph Möllers tries to carve out forms of an order that allows for both freedom of movement and social variability. Thus equipped, he promises no answers but rather new perspectives on various phenomena, including the function of territorial borders. Freedom, according to Möllers, is a practice of open-endedness that makes possible processes whose outcomes must be uncertain.

Analysing the gradations of the concept of freedom, Christoph Möllers calls them degrees of freedom. His philosophy of law includes reflections on how law is interpreted and the consequences of this. Brilliantly and knowledgeably, Möllers reminds us of the democratic context of legal interpretation and how freedom works – specifically, freedom is not natural but has always been a phenomenon of social allocation. Where does that leave individuality? How can liberalism work? Möllers argues for liberalism to be redefined, because this readjustment alone can meet the challenges of the future as regards social justice and ecological perspectives. A powerful thesis for a necessary and urgent debate.

Christoph Möllers, born in 1969, teaches Public Law and Legal Philosophy at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. In 2015, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize, the most important research award in Germany.