Vulnerability and the Human Condition

Further, societal institutions are shaped by the recognition of, and need to respond to, this shared vulnerability.

Rethinking the balance between individual and state responsibility given the inevitability of human dependence on social institutions and relationships over the life-course and the inherent (even necessary) inequality in those relationships. - MA Fineman The concept of "vulnerability" at the heart of the Initiative is anchored in the realization that fundamental to our shared humanity is our share

d vulnerability, which is universal and constant -- inherent in the human condition. While vulnerability can never be eliminated, society through its institutions confers certain "assets" or resources, such as wealth, health, education, family relationships, and marketable skills on individuals and groups. These assets give individuals "resilience" in the face of their vulnerability. Thus our shared vulnerability is what legitimates claims upon the state by individuals, particularly the claim for meaningful equality of opportunity and access to institutions that provide assets and resources. As society now is structured, however, certain individuals and groups operate from positions of entrenched advantage or privilege, while others are disadvantaged in ways that seem to be invisible as we engage in law and policy discussions. By focusing on our common vulnerability, even while recognizing how it manifests itself in individualized and uneven ways, the Initiative insists that state policy and practice be grounded in an awareness of the interdependence between and among human beings and the institutions that support them. Further, we assert that current bases for determining when and what form of state action is appropriate are inadequate in that they only focus on discrimination and are built exclusively around limited categories of difference, such as race, gender, disability, and religion. While vulnerabilities may disproportionately cluster around some of these identitarian markers, they also transcend them via the shifting boundaries of age, dependency, economics, and social upheaval, among others. In centering the discussion of state responsibility on the commonalities of human experience, the Initiative may avoid some of the divisiveness of contemporary policy making and politics. Ensuring meaningful equality of opportunity and access requires a responsive state that actively and comprehensively monitors its asset-conferring institutions - one that addresses the unequal distribution of privilege that affects citizens across identity markers. Such an approach may help us transcend the limitations and political landmines of our current discrimination-based inquiry rooted in identity categories.

03/02/2026

VHC Digest - March 2, 2026 Email from The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative March 2, 2026 VHC Digest PhD Course in Norway using Vulnerability Theory: Critical perspectives on welfare and care institutions Profe

03/02/2026

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02/16/2026

Learn about the legal imagination of property law with Dr. Thomas Coggin, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of the Witswatersrand, on our latest podcast episode of Voices in Vulnerability.

The Legal Imagination of Property Law with Dr Thomas Coggin Listen to Dr. Thomas Coggin (Senior Lecturer in Law, University of the Witswatersrand, South Africa) discuss urban spatial planning and the law.

01/12/2026

The latest VHC Digest

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11/03/2025

Join us this Thursday for a talk and discussion with Dr. Fei Feng, Professor and Vice Dean of Law School at Nanjing Normal University. Dr. Feng is a visiting scholar of the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative and the Center for International and Emory University Center for International and Comparative Law at Emory University School of Law.

10/08/2025

Read our latest digest here: conta.cc/4odiGuP

Martha Albertson Fineman

VHC Digest - October 8, 2025 Email from The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative October 8, 2025 VHC Digest Visiting Scholar Talk: Sharenting with Dr. Claire Bessant Join us this Wednesday, October 8th at 4pm for a

07/28/2025

Read our summer 2025 digest here: https://conta.cc/46wX7jk

Martha Albertson Fineman Emory University School of Law

06/10/2025

Registration is now open for our upcoming workshop in collaboration with the University of Witwatersrand, "The Impact of Constitutional Frameworks on Crisis Response Capacity: A Comparative Study of the United States and South Africa."
Session topics include the following:
- Constitutional Structures - Institutions, Ideas, and Interests: Balancing the Individual and the Collective
- Inequality – Context and Consequence
- Addressing Existential Threats within Constitutional Confines: Environment - Climate Crises, Responsibility, and Ecological Embeddedness
- Addressing Existential Threats within Constitutional Confines: Pandemic- State Fragmentation and the Limits of Rights-Based Governance
- The Possibility of Transformative Constitutionalism - Reimagining Legal Subjectivity, Constitutional Meaning, and State Responsibility
- Rethinking Constitutional Possibilities.

Register here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/hmwpn56

Albertson Fineman

05/13/2025

Our latest issue of the VHC Digest is available here: https://conta.cc/43BKyAb
Martha Albertson Fineman
Emory University School of Law

VHC Digest - May 13, 2025 Email from The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative May 13, 2025 VHC Digest New Book Publication Vulnerability Theory and the Trinity Lectures: Institutionalizing the Individual by Marth

03/21/2025

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/VHC-Digest---March-21--2025.html?soid=1107007864956&aid=3Ryam3bniVI

VHC Digest - March 21, 2025 Email from The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative March 21, 2025 VHC Digest Visiting Scholar Talk The Contradictions in EU Sustainability Law by Dr. Kate O'Reilly Join us next Friday,

08/13/2024

Welcome to our first Fall Semester edition of the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative Digest.

Today, we begin with a recent blog post written by our postdoc, Dr. Helena Moradi. We also highlight some of the exciting events that took place over the summer, as well as our latest “Voices in Vulnerability” podcast episode.

Please note the upcoming visiting scholar talk on "Re-Imagining International Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Access to Vaccines in the Global South in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic" by Chinwe 'Mary Joe' Maduabum.

Read more here: https://conta.cc/4dqfA1p

Martha Albertson Fineman
Emory University School of Law

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