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Webinar on “The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It”

We, the Institute for Law and Governance, the Institute for Spatial and Social-Ecological Transformations (ISSET), and the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) cordially invite you to join our 


 
Webinar on “The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It”
With
  • Katharina Pistor (speaker),
  • Anne Sanders (discussant), and
  • Verena Madner (moderator)
Monday 13 April 2026, 6pm CET via Zoom 
Please register here by 10 April 2026 to receive the Zoom link.

The webinar will present and discuss Katharina Pistor’s new book “The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It” and its implications for understanding and overcoming the erosion of democratic institutions across the globe.

In her book, Katharina Pistor argues that capitalism is not just an economic system; it is a deeply entrenched legal order that enables private wealth accumulation and shields it from democratic oversight. She demonstrates how legal codes privilege capital and corrode social cohesion by favouring certain assets, markets, and property relations, with far-reaching implications for democracy and the climate crisis. This places law at the centre of any response to these converging challenges.

The webinar will explore if and how legal and economic structures need to be transformed to counteract these challenges. What roles can lawyers, economists, legislators, and civil society play in reshaping the legal foundations of capitalism? And, how feasible is such a transformation in the current political conjuncture?

Katharina Pistor is Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia University. She is a leading scholar and writer on corporate governance, money and finance, property rights, and comparative law and legal institutions.

Anne Sanders holds the Chair of Civil Law, Corporate Law, Family Business Law and Judicial Research at Bielefeld University. Her research focuses, among other things, on legal issues of sustainable entrepreneurship and the concept of steward ownership.

Verena Madner, Head of the Institute for Law and Governance at WU, will moderate the discussion with Katharina Pistor and Anne Sanders.

The webinar is being held in preparation for the conference on “Democracy Under Pressure: Lessons From Past Authoritarian Crises” which will take place 24 to 26 May 2027 in Vienna, organized by the Institute for Law and Governance, the Institute for Spatial and Social-Ecological Transformations (ISSET), and the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS). 
Please find the save the date for the conference here.