March 21, 2025

Visiting Scholar Talk

The Contradictions in EU Sustainability Law

by Dr. Kate O'Reilly

Join us next Friday, March 28 at 2pm in G114a (across from the Welcome Center) for a Visiting Scholar Talk by Dr. Kate O'Reilly, Assistant Professor of Private Law at Maastricth University and current VHC/FLT Visiting Scholar.

A note from Dr. O'Reilly:

During this talk I will explore the contradictions in EU sustainability law using the Right to Repair as a case study. Taking the ordoliberal foundations of the EU supranational legal order as my starting point, I will position the Right to Repair Directive (RRD), as both a consumer law and sustainability measure, in the (neo)liberal economic constitution of the EU’s social market economy. Through vulnerability theory, the RRD can be framed not as a step towards circularity but as a reinforcement of the inequalities and market-based governance structures that undermine the EU’s commitment to a just transition for a sustainable Europe. I hope to think further with you on the insights that vulnerability theory can bring on the institutional structure of dependency in the EU order and on the creation of an EU society around the collective interests of two social groups: consumers and workers.

Email vhc-flt@emory.edu to attend via Zoom.

New VHC Publications

Translating The Illusion of Equality

Martha Albertson Fineman's first book, The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform, is being translated into Chinese by Xinyu Wang, professor of law at China University of Political Science and Law. It will be published by Shanxi People’s Publishing House.

Image Left: Professor Xinyu Wang

Law, Vulnerability, and the Responsive State Beyond Equality and Liberty (Routledge, 2024)

Edited by Martha Albertson Fineman and Laura Spitz

“This book considers how vulnerability theory provides the basis for a reconceptualization of the liberal ideas of autonomy, equality, and freedom. … This book’s reorientation of the subject, as well as the central objectives of law and policy, will appeal to scholars and students in law, vulnerability studies, gender studies, critical legal and political theory, politics, philosophy, and sociology.”

Find the book here.

Vulnerability and the Organisation of Academic Labour (Routledge 2025)



Edited by Graham Ferris and Martha Albertson Fineman

“Vulnerability theory identifies structural and institutional factors that build or undermine the resilience of individuals and organisations. This volume uses vulnerability theory to explore how the organisation of the teaching and research activities of universities impact the resilience of academics and also how these activities themselves are impacted by contemporary developments in universities and educational policy.”

Read more here.

VHC Scholar Presentations and Publications

Postdoctoral Fellow Bojan Perovic Spoke at Law & Society Symposium

Postdoctoral Fellow Bojan Perovic at the Vulnerability and Human Condition Initiative, Emory University School of Law, participated in the 17th Annual Law & Society Symposium, hosted by the Charleston School of Law and the Charleston Law Review, in partnership with the Riley Institute at Furman University.

The symposium, titled "Digital Delay: How to Address the Law’s Lag Behind Social Media’s Rapid Revolution," took place on Friday, February 21, 2025, in the Charleston Museum Auditorium. Discussions focused on regulatory frameworks governing social media, flaws in platform algorithms, and the broader societal effects of digital engagement.

Perovic’s contribution brought a vulnerability theory perspective to the conversation, examining how legal frameworks should account for human dependence in the digital sphere and the role of a responsive state.

Postdoctoral Fellows at VHC Publish on Vulnerability and Conservatorship

Postdoctoral Fellows Helena Moradi and Bojan Perovic at the Vulnerability and Human Condition Initiative, Emory University School of Law, have published their latest article in the South Carolina Law Review.

Titled "Britney Spears and Systemic Reform: Embracing Vulnerability in Conservatorship Laws," the article applies vulnerability theory to the U.S. conservatorship system. Moradi and Perovic argue that the current legal framework prioritizes autonomy while failing to account for the universal nature of human vulnerability.

The article challenges the individualistic approach of traditional legal subjectivity and advocates for a more just, adaptive, and humane system of guardianship. It also proposes systemic legal reforms to ground vulnerability as a foundational principle in conservatorship laws.

Read the article here.

Voices in Vulnerability Podcast Episode:

Land As Kin with Dana Lloyd

"If the land is not free and not safe, we are not free and not safe." Listen to Professor Dana Lloyd discuss property and religion, environmental law, growing up in Israel, and her most recent book, Land Is Kin: Sovereignty, Religious Freedom, and Indigenous Sacred Sites.

Listen to the podcast episode here.