Exploitation as Domination?

Workshop

Anfahrt
  • Datum: 03.12.2025
  • Uhrzeit: 14:30 - 18:00
  • Vortragender: Nicholas Vrousalis (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
  • Ort: Freiburg, Fürstenbergstr. 19
  • Raum: Seminarraum (F 113)
  • Gastgeber: Unabhängige Forschungsgruppe „Strafrechtstheorie” & unabhängige Forschungsgruppe „Behavioral Economics of Crime and Conflict“
  • Kontakt: m.schmitt@csl.mpg.de
Exploitation as Domination?
What does it mean to exploit someone, and why is exploitation important in terms of law and policy? This joint work­shop, hosted by the Independent Research Groups 'Criminal Law Theory' and the 'Behavioral Economics of Crime and Conflict' at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, brings together legal theorists, philosophers, and economists to ex­am­ine exploitation through the lens of domination.
  • Presentation by Nicholas Vrousalis
  • Comments by George Pavlakos, Max Schmitt, and Till Vater

Our keynote speaker, Nicholas Vrousalis from Erasmus University Rotterdam, will present key argu­ments from his pioneering book, 'Exploitation as Domination', engaging with leading economic and political theories of exploitation and defending a domination-based approach. The talk will explore how relations of power and dependence structure exploitative transactions as well as the implications for markets, contracts and the design of legal institutions.

Critical commentary will be provided by George Pavlakos (University of Glasgow), Max Schmitt (MPI-CSL), and Till Vater (Maastricht University), opening a dialogue between normative legal theory, political philosophy, and behavioral economic modelling of exploitative interactions. An in-depth open discussion with the audience will enable participants to relate these theoretical debates to issues in criminal law, regulatory design, and empirical research on lay perceptions of unfair advantage.

Anyone interested is warmly invited!


Publication

Vrousalis, Nicholas. 
Exploitation as Domination: What Makes Capitalism Unjust.
(Oxford, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 15 Dec. 2022), 212 pp.
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