{"id":2103,"date":"2025-03-24T20:33:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T19:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2025-03-24T20:35:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T19:35:35","slug":"rereading-kafkas-the-trial-responsibility-reflection-and-the-case-of-the-dutch-childcare-allowance-scandal-by-lukas-van-den-berge-jeanne-gaakeer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/rereading-kafkas-the-trial-responsibility-reflection-and-the-case-of-the-dutch-childcare-allowance-scandal-by-lukas-van-den-berge-jeanne-gaakeer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00ab\u00a0Rereading Kafka&rsquo;s The Trial: responsibility, reflection, and the case of the Dutch childcare allowance scandal\u00a0\u00bb, by Lukas Van den Berge &amp; Jeanne Gaakeer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Note : this is an open access article and it is available only in English<sup data-fn=\"a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce\" id=\"a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce-link\">1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract <\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As standard interpretation has it, Kafka&rsquo;s novel <em>The Trial<\/em> depicts how an innocent and defenceless individual is crushed by powerful and absurdly bureaucratic institutions. No wonder, therefore, that <em>The Trial<\/em> is often linked to the British Post Office Scandal, the Australian Robodebt Scheme, the Dutch Childcare Allowance Scandal and other such affairs that rendered many people helpless in their fights against flawed systems and disinterested governments. This paper explores the significance for judicial ethics and legal practice of an alternative interpretation of <em>The Trial<\/em> \u2013 and of Kafka&rsquo;s works more in general \u2013 that has been most compellingly proposed by Walter H. Sokel. An important conclusion will be that Sokel&rsquo;s alternative understanding of Kafka and the Kafkaesque yields even more important insights into the workings of modern law and government than the standard interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To read more, please click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/17521483.2025.2477931?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true#abstract\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/17521483.2025.2477931?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true#abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-footnotes\"><li id=\"a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce\">van den Berge, L., &amp; Gaakeer, J. (2025). Rereading Kafka\u2019s <em>The Trial<\/em>: responsibility, reflection, and the case of the Dutch childcare allowance scandal. <em>Law and Humanities<\/em>, 1\u201327. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/17521483.2025.2477931 <a href=\"#a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce-link\" aria-label=\"Aller \u00e0 la note de bas de page 1\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note : this is an open access article and it is available only in English. Abstract : As standard interpretation has it, Kafka&rsquo;s novel The Trial depicts how&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002851,"featured_media":2106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"a9eb3f63-51cf-437f-be39-e6983d9982ce\",\"content\":\"van den Berge, L., &amp; Gaakeer, J. (2025). Rereading Kafka\\u2019s <em>The Trial<\\\/em>: responsibility, reflection, and the case of the Dutch childcare allowance scandal. <em>Law and Humanities<\\\/em>, 1\\u201327. https:\\\/\\\/doi.org\\\/10.1080\\\/17521483.2025.2477931\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2105,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/droitetlitterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}