CALL FOR PAPERS: Juris Diversitas 6th General Conference (Potchefstroom – South Africa, 15-17 April 2019) (DEADLINE: 30 September 2018 (panel proposals), 30 November 2018 (individual proposals)

(Source: Juris Diversitas)

We received news of a Call for Papers for the 6th Conference of Juris Diversitas (“Law, Roots & Space”), to be hosted in South Africa from 15-17 April 2019. Here the Call:

The Theme:

A couple of lawyers’ old friends: ‘Sources’ and ‘Jurisdictions’. In their parlance, these notions are often associated to modern, ‘positive’ law.

The idea of ‘legal formants’ has been introduced to complete the picture, flexibilising it, making it more accurate, nuanced, realistic; an idea associated to comparative, socio-legal, anthropologic studies.

With ‘Roots’ and ‘space’ geographers, historians, political scientists get involved. These are certainly less frequent notions in legal circles: we may still wish to make friends with them, to enrich our perception of legal phenomena.

‘Roots’ is often associated to history of law and related discourses – if legal formants may complete a picture, legal roots do complete the movie, so to speak.

‘Space’: an open notion, perhaps a non-notion in modern legal discourse, generic enough to include every spatial dimension of legal phenomena: dissemination of movie theatres and other forms of diffusion of the various show-biz products could be the appropriate metaphor here, including space law and virtual property.

A legal discourse that goes beyond the checkboards, or the series of juxtaposed swimming pools – Tetris-style – containing water from their respective individual sources, produced by modern, Westphalian conceptions of the law. It goes, instead, to normative forces producing their effects without a precise geographic boundary: like radio stations, magnetic or gravitational fields. Or like intricate sets of rivers, lakes, canals, ponds, infiltrated wetlands, oceans, weather, all contributing to a locally diversified but still unitary eco-system and bio-sphere of water, landscape, vegetation, fauna.

A discourse on normative forces and the fuzziness of their historic and geographic reach.

Submissions:

Panel proposals and interdisciplinary presentations are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law. While parallel sessions featuring three presentations of twenty-minute each will be the pattern, we welcome creative arrangements.

Panel Proposals of circa 1000 words and a short biography (in English or in French) should be submitted electronically by 30 September 2018. You will be informed of the outcome by the end of October 2018. Click here https://goo.gl/forms/JnRqHQOHFnTuBz5w2 to submit panel proposal.

Individual Proposals of circa 500 words and a short biography (in English or in French) should be submitted electronically by 30 November 2018. You will be informed of the outcome by the end of December 2018. Click here https://goo.gl/forms/Wutow8SR4CqTDDhh2 to submit individual proposal.

Registration Fees:

General:

€ 200 or € 125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2018. 

Special rate for young scholars under the age of thirty coming the first time: € 150 or € 75 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2018.

Note that fees do not cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€ 30).

Scholars from Africa:

ZAR 1,800 or ZAR 1,500 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2018.

Note that fees do not cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (ZAR 300).

Additional Information:

Information regarding accommodation options, travel, other conferences in South Africa, payment methods, etc. will be provided after participants have been notified of the outcome of their proposals.

For more information contact Christa Rautenbach at: Christa.Rautenbach@nwu.ac.za.

About Potchefstroom and the North-West University:

The town Potchefstroom or Potch (as most people call it) is a University town of about 128,253 people, about 120km or 75miles to the south-west of Johannesburg. The greater Potch (including all the suburbs) consists of 676,004 people. 70% of the population's first language is Afrikaans but almost everyone speaks English as a second language.

It is the oldest town in the old Transvaal Province and has a rich history dating back to 1838. The town was established in 1838 by a group of Voortrekkers led by Andries Hendrik Potgieter. The name was derived from POT (gieter), the Voortrekker leader, CHEF (the leader, referring to Potgieter), and STROOM (the Mooi River). Another version is that the POT comes from pieces of pots left behind by nomadic peoples which were later found by the first residents of Potch.

Until 1960 it was the capital of the old South African Republic of which the first president, Marthinus Wessel Pretorious, was sworn in at Potchefstroom.

Potchefstroom was the first town north of the Vaal River. The town was originally built on the position of the present "Oude Dorp". After the flood in 1840, it was decided that Potchefstroom would be developed one hour horse-ride south from "Oude Dorp" next to the Mooiriver.

The first Government Gazette was printed and published in Potchefstroom. The Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal (at that time) was founded in Potchefstroom in 1842 and since 1905 the town has been the theological seminary of the Gereformeerde Kerk.

People like Totius who translated the Bible from Dutch to Afrikaans, also worked here and made their irreplaceable contribution to the Afrikaans language and culture.

This city on the banks of the Mooiriver, with its 24 declared national monuments, has a rich history. A noteworthy fact is that the first shots of the First War of Independence were fired in Potchefstroom in 1880 and that the town also played a prominent role during the guerilla phase of the Anglo Boer War (1899 -1902).

Potchefstroom boasts many "firsts". It includes the following:

• the "Vierkleur" was designed and hoisted here for the first time;
• the first constitution of the "South African Republic" was drafted here;
• the first coat of arms of the Republic was designed here;
• the first church building in Transvaal was erected here;
• Potchefstroom was the first town in the Transvaal to obtain municipal management; and
• the first "Staats Courant" (Government Gazette) was printed here and the first public press in Transvaal was established here.

The North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) dominates the town which also boasts a permanent military base. Potch has for many years produced top sportsmen and women. Potch is also known as the "Home of Sport in the North West Province" with many provincial federations based locally. The town has already become "home-away-from-home" to many international athletes participating in many different sport codes.

Potch is popular for many reasons including being a university town with much to offer. It has very few industries and thus clean air and also a low crime rate. It has a good climate (especially during the cold northern hemisphere winters when it is our summer) and at 1400m altitude it offers a good balance between Altitude and Quality training.

The NWU officially came into being on 1 January 2004 as part of the South African government’s plan to transform higher education. In our case, this saw a historically white university and a historically black university merging to create a new university where South Africans from all walks of life have come together. The Potch campus' history dates back from 1869. For more information on the historical development of the Potch campus, see http://www.nwu.ac.za/content/history-potchefstroom-campus-potchefstroom-campus-nwu.

In 2018, almost 70 000 students are registered at the NWU, making it the second largest university in the country. Almost 3000 students are enrolled at the Faculty of Law.

All information can be found here