Conflict of Legal Norms and Interests: European and International Perspectives
Date: Thursday, July 3, 2014 - 9:00am to Friday, July 4, 2014 - 9:00pm
Location: University of Bristol, UK
Submission Deadline: March 7, 2014
Description:
The University of Bristol Law School invites postgraduate researchers and early career professionals to address the creation and development of international law from European and International perspectives. We seek to bring together junior researchers from across the world to discuss in a friendly environment, elaborate on running legal issues and promote their work.
The key idea is that international law develops in distinct legal orders. Trade rules develop separately from environmental law, EU law from national legal orders, human rights from investment law, community rules from international law, counter- terrorism responses from human rights. These orders are autonomous to the extent that they have different regulatory domains and aims, law-making procedures and arbitrators, represent different groups of actors and comprise different legal epistemic communities. Very often however, conflicts arise between the norms or interests of two legal orders, challenging the autonomy of the latter.
The conference aims to explore how these conflicts arise and which legal or extra- legal methods are employed by the relevant actors, such as arbitration tribunals, international organisations and states, to resolve them. Both theoretical and practical approaches are relevant to investigate the effects of norm collisions on the separate legal orders and the development of the international legal system more general. Is international law fragmented, threatening the coherence and effectiveness of the international legal order? Or has this pluralism resulted in the constitutionalisation of the international legal order?
The keynote address will be given by Professor Malcolm Evans OBE, Professor of Public International Law, University of Bristol and Chair of the United Nations Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
Additional Information: http://uoblawconference.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/7/6/25768622/call_for_papers.pdf
Venice Academy of Human Rights: Judicial Legitimacy and the Rule of Law
Dates: Monday, 7 July - Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Location: Monastery of San Nicolò, Venice - Lido, Italy
Submission Deadline: 4 May 2014
Description:
The Venice Academy of Human Rights is a center of excellence for human rights education, research and debate. It forms part of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) which is an internationally leading institution for research and education. The Venice Academy provides an enriching forum for emerging ideas, practices and policy options in human rights research, education and training. The Academy hosts distinguished experts to promote critical and useful research, innovation and exchange of current knowledge.
The Academy offers international and interdisciplinary thematic programmes open to academics, practitioners, Ph.D./J.S.D. and master students from all over the world who have an advanced knowledge of human rights. Participants attend morning lectures, participate in discussion sessions and workshops and can exchange views, ideas and arguments with leading international scholars and experts. This includes the opportunity for a number of participants to present and discuss their own “work in progress” such as drafts of articles, chapters of books or doctoral theses and receive comments from faculty members and peers.
At the end of the programme, participants receive a Certificate of Attendance issued by the Venice Academy of Human Rights.
Theme: Judicial Legitimacy and the Rule of Law
Over the last decades, courts and tribunals have increased in number and influence on regional and international level in an unprecedented way. Entire new legal orders have been promoted, if not created, by courts and tribunals and have been accompanied by new theories of integration, constitutionalisation and the exercise of public authority. This increase in judicial activity and influence poses, however, also complex questions about the legitimacy of this ‘judicialisation’.
The Venice Academy of Human Rights 2014, in co-operation with PluriCourts – Centre of Excellence for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order, will discuss questions of judicial legitimacy and challenges to the rule of law from a multi-disciplinary perspective. What does legitimacy mean in the context of judicial activities, where do legitimacy deficits exist, how do complex multi-level relationships foster or endanger perceptions of legitimacy, how can courts and tribunals legitimately function as the guardian, promoter and interpreter of the rule of law, and what does this burgeoning judicialisation mean for our understanding of international law and international relations. These are some of the questions that the Venice Academy of Human Rights 2014 will address.
Additional information: http://www.eiuc.org/research/venice-academy-of-human-rights.html
The PSA Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group 2014 Conference:
Scaling and Innovation: Contemporary Difficulties and Future Prospects for Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
Dates: 9-11 July 2014
Location: Culture Lab, Newcastle University
Submission Deadline: March 15, 2014
Description:
The intersection of participatory and deliberative perspectives and their key differences has long been an issue of vibrant discussion and debate. Today, however, both perspectives are being challenged by the increasing scale (and number of scales) at which political engagement is enacted and, at the same time, by decreasing levels of public enthusiasm for traditional modes of political engagement. In response, scholars and practitioners have begun to think much more systematically about the nature and role of (inter alia) contemporary protest movements, random assemblies or mini-publics, deliberative systems and trans-national networks. In principle, the proliferation of digital technologies and the Internet allows for additional methods and tools to be developed to both extend the reach of participatory processes and, in addition, secure the quality that deliberative democrats envision. Yet in practice, the seemingly ineluctable diffusion of technology inevitably raises a host of new and thought-provoking questions concerning who exactly is participating and why exactly governments should listen.
This conference explores the connection between participation and deliberation in the light of these and other contemporary challenges. The aim is to facilitate a conversation between the fields of deliberative and participatory democracy, and in particular to open a discussion around the use of digital technologies to facilitate greater political engagement.
Themes include (but are not limited to):
- Conceptual innovations: In what ways, if any, do the concepts of participation and deliberation need to be reframed in response to contemporary challenges and developments?
- Practice and innovation: How can existing social and political institutions be reformed to better support democratic deliberation and participation? What might the deepening of a deliberative system involve?
- Scaffolding political engagement: How can we develop tools and methods to encourage and support participation? How can these tools be embedded in already existing social and political structures? What have we learned about the architecture of deliberation and where do we go from here?
- Democracy and scale: The proliferation of digital and online technologies opens up new possibilities for participatory methods and practices to engage a broader public. Can the quality of deliberation be correspondingly improved? What, if anything, is lost when we attempt to ‘upscale’ democracy?
Additional information: http://pdd2014.co.uk/
The Strasbourg Conference on International Law & Human Rights
"Human Rights-Based Approach as a Basis for Development, Justice and International Law"
Dates: April 14th - 16th, 2014
Location: Strasbourg, France
Submission Deadline: No later than 7 days before Conference
Description:
The post WWII international framework witnessed the emergence of a set of liberal norms and values conceptualized today as the international human rights regime. Hopes for the effective functioning of such legal instruments at the international level are high; however the lack of universality in practice and the inherent difficulties of their implementation have increased the need for greater cooperation between coalitions active in this area to come together under a developed set of rules. In that sense, contemporary international law serves as a campaigning mechanism for the development and application of the process of achieving functioning universal human rights. Some of the main obstacles posed to the implementation of human rights are the economic interests and inequalities that permeate the international community. Therefore, any efforts at supporting international law must be accompanied by sustainable development through economic empowerment. In addition, issues of global justice must be incorporated in an integral way into the process in order to assure its positive progress and long term success.
The Strasburg Conference on International Law & Human Rights will gather a broad range of stakeholders to explore and analyze these issues and to formulate joint strategies for immediate and future implementation, thus framing the future path of the human rights based approach as a basis of international law, global justice, and sustainable development. The Strasburg Conference will create and publish a proposal document that will be presented to world leaders and the international community.
Participation in the summit is open to governmental & diplomatic officials, academics, artists, journalists, civil society practitioners, private sector representatives, young professionals and students as well as other interested individuals from across the world.
Additional information: http://www.ipahp.org/index.php?en_lhrs-2014
International Journal of Arts & Sciences: Annual Multidisciplinary Conference in Boston
Location: Harvard University Campus
Dates: May 26-30, 2014
Submission Deadline: March 26, 2014
Description:
The IJAS Conference Series takes place annually in several cities across Europe and North America. The series has three primary aims.
The first aim is to provide opportunities for academics from a range of disciplines and countries to share their research both through the conference podium and IJAS' double-blind refereed publications. All IJAS conferences are inter- and multi-disciplinary.
The second aim of the Conference Series is to provide opportunities for academics to receive informal in-depth feedback through discussions, and to enable them to establish contact with professionals in other countries and institutions. The tours are the main way of "breaking the ice" away from the formalities of the conference hall, providing an informal setting for discussing different points of view. Even in an increasingly networked world of internet and satellite conferences, there is no substitute for personal interaction—what Edward R. Murrow calls "the last three feet of communication." It is individuals, not data streams, who must ultimately build the connections that in turn create lasting international research partnerships.
The third aim of the Conference Series is to introduce academics to educational premises in locations that are suitable for study abroad programs and which may meet their students’ educational needs. IJAS draws its inspiration from the Fulbright Program, an integral part of the United States' foreign educational relations, where face-to-face exchanges have proven to be the single most effective means of engaging international publics while broadening dialogue between academics and institutions.
Our editorial board invites abstracts, papers, and proposals in any of the following four tracks:
Social Sciences and Humanities, Business and Economics, Teaching and Education, and Science and Technology.
The accepted submissions will be clustered around their common topics and areas of interest. As is typical of multidisciplinary conferences, the final program - released about three weeks before the conference - will mirror the research agendas of the delegates rather than a pre-conceived list of arbitrary topics.
Additional Information: http://www.internationaljournal.org/boston.html