CALL FOR ENGAGED LISTENERS: The Individual in International Law – History and Theory (Berlin, 25-26 June 2020) (DEADLINE: 30 November 2019)

(Source: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law)

The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law has a call for engaged listeners.

WORKSHOP CONVENED BY PROFESSOR ANNE PETERS AND DR TOM SPARKS

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Harnack-Haus, Berlin

25th– 26th June 2020

Call for Engaged Listeners

Deadline: 30th November 2019

The interrelationship between international law and the individual has been the subject of a great

and growing interest by scholars in recent years. In many or most of international law’s subfields

and specialisms, the appropriate relationship between the interests of individuals and those of

other actors is the subject of important debates. On the other hand, we are currently witnessing a

return to statist principles in the debate and practice of international law, with an emphasis on

sovereignty, territory, and boundaries. Human rights and the idea of rights more generally are

under attack. Yet the analyses conducted of the individual’s position remain, in the main,

examinations of the positive law. A number of questions thus remain to be answered which go

beyond the individual’s treatment by various fields of international law in the present moment, in

particular from the perspectives of history and theory.

On the 25th-26th June 2020, an international workshop will be convened by Professor Anne

Peters and Dr Tom Sparks at the Max Planck Society’s premier conference venue, Berlin’s

Harnack-Haus. Selected scholars will present and discuss their papers on topics relating to the

individual in the history and theory of international law (a draft list of topics and speakers is

included below). These papers will subsequently be published as an edited volume under the

same title.

The Individual in International Law: History and Theory

Call for Engaged Listeners

A limited number of places are available for engaged listeners, who will participate in the

workshop as audience members and commentators (not as speakers). The organisers would like

to extend a warm invitation to participate to all those with an interest in the topics to be

discussed, in particular history of law, history of ideas, jurisprudence and legal theory, and critical

approaches to (international) law.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop as an engaged listener and thus in

contributing to our discussions, please send an application with a short letter of motivation

(maximum 400 words) explaining your interest in the conference and any links to your current

research, together with an up-to-date CV, to Ms Anette Kreutzfeld and Dr Tom Sparks, c/o

apeters-office@mpil.de. We particularly welcome applications from early-career scholars,

including current doctoral students, and from scholars working in institutions in the

global south.

The deadline for applications is 30th November 2019. Successful applicants will be notified

before 20th December 2019.

Participation in the workshop is free of charge, but will in general be at the expense of the

participant. Admitted engaged listeners will need to cover the costs of their own accommodation

and to arrange their own travel, and are strongly advised to do this early.

Thanks to the generous support of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsföderung we have a

small amount of funding available to contribute to the travel and accommodation costs of a

strictly limited number of scholars taking part in the workshop as engaged listeners. Due to our

intention to facilitate the attendance of early-career scholars and those without access to

funding, we kindly ask those that are able to do so to cover their own costs.

Date and Time: The workshop will take place from 09.00-18.00 on the 25th-26th June, 2020.

There will be an informal pre-conference get-together for speakers and engaged listeners on 24th

June.

Venue:Harnack-Haus, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany

http://www.harnackhaus-berlin.mpg.de/2316/en

For updated information on the workshop, see:

https://www.mpil.de/en/pub/research/areas/public-international-law/the-individual-in-

internationa.cfm

Anne Peters and Tom Sparks

Contact: apeters-office@mpil.de

The Individual in International Law: History and Theory

Call for Engaged Listeners

3

Provisional list of Topics and Speakers

(note: a confirmed programme with speakers and titles will be available online ahead of the workshop)

The Individual and International Law in Historical Perspective:

▪ International Law in Antiquity – Dr Eleanor Cowan, University of Sydney

▪ International Law 500-1500 – Dr Dante Fedele, KU Leuven/Professor Alain Wijffels,

KU Leuven

▪ International Law 1500-1648 – Dr Francesca Iurlaro, University of Milan

▪ International Law 1648-1789 – Dr Mark Somos, MPIL Heidelberg

▪ International Law 1789-1914 – Dr Inge Van Hulle, University of Tilburg

▪ International Law 1918-1945 – Professor Umut Özsu, Carleton University

The Individual in the Theory of International Law:

▪ The Individual in Contemporary International Legal Positivism – Professor Gleider

Hernández, KU Leuven

▪ The Individual in Contemporary Natural Law: Sacred Natural Law – Professor Rafael

Domingo, Emory University

▪ The Individual in Contemporary Natural Law: Secular Natural Law – Dr Tom Sparks,

MPIL Heidelberg

▪ The Individual in Third World Approaches to International Law – Professor B.S.

Chimni, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Emeritus)

▪ The Individual in Feminist Approaches to International Law – Dr Ruth Houghton,

Newcastle University

▪ The Individual in Marxist Approaches to International Law – Dr Ntina Tzouvala,

University of Melbourne

▪ The Individual in Global Law – Professor Ludovic Hennebel, Aix-Marseille/Ms Alice

Monicat, Aix-Marseille

▪ The Individual in the Constitutionalisation of International Law – Professor Başak Çalı,

Hertie School of Governance

▪ The Individual in Law and Economics – Professor Anne van Aaken, University of

Hamburg

▪ The Individual in Anthropological Approaches to International Law – Professor Miia

Halme-Tuomisaari, University of Helsinki

CALL FOR ENGAGED LISTENERS: Politics and the histories of international law (Heidelberg: MPI for Comparative Public Law and International Law, 15-16 FEB 2019); DEADLINE 30 SEP 2018

JHIL Journal of the History of International Law

Call for engaged listeners

Deadline: 30 September 2018

“Politics and the histories of international law”

Conference organised by the 

Journal of the History of International Law (JHIL)

Heidelberg, 15 – 16 February 2019

On 15 and 16 February 2019, an international conference will be held at the Max Planck Institute for International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, under the auspices of the Journal of the History of

International Law. Selected scholars will present and discuss their papers in different parallel panels (see draft programme attached). The aim is to publish these papers (upon peer review) in a focus issue on ‘Politics and the Histories of International Law’ in the journal. 

‘L’histoire n’est pas une religion. L’historien n’accepte aucun dogme, ne respecte aucun interdit, ne connaît pas de tabous. Il peut être dérangeant’

(Liberté pour l’histoire, 2005)

Almost all scholarship on international law and its history has political implications. Some say that international legal scholarship is inevitably ideological in nature and that its findings depend on concealed political preferences. Put differently, legal scholarship could be nothing more than the pseudo-objective defence of ruling ideologies. Most famously, Hans Kelsen had denounced a ‘tendency wide-spread among writers on international law’ to produce ‘political ideology’. Kelsen sought to escape this by writing books of a ‘purely juristic character’ (Principles of International Law, 2nd ed. 1967, ix). In his foreword to the commentary on the UN Charter of 1950, he stressed that ‘separation of law from politics in the presentation of national or international problems is possible’ (The Law of the United Nations, 1950, viii).

Many nowadays doubt that purging international legal scholarship of politics would work. Martti Koskenniemi in 2004 put this as follows: ‘The choice is not between law and politics, but between one politics of law, and another. Everything is at stake, but not for everyone’ (EJIL 16 (2005), 123). 

So which factors ‘politicise’ international legal scholarship? The first factor is that the object under investigation is itself a political matter. International law has throughout its history been political, because its content depends on the political power of the parties negotiating the treaties, and because it transports political values. 

Scholars themselves cannot completely avoid being more or less political actors, because their value judgements, which are inescapable, often carry political implications. However, an important difference between doing scholarship and doing politics lies in the authors’ main intention: It is, ideal-typically, not the primary purpose of scholarship to make politics and unbounded evaluation but to generate knowledge − which could then be used politically, by the author herself or by others. Along this line, most scholars of history seek to uncover various aspects of past events and debates and to contextualise them, thereby realising a modicum of objectivity and neutrality. Some consciously try to avoid judgment, while others are more prone to judging deliberately and to employing historical insights in contemporary political debates.

Research on the history of international law is not only inherently political but moreover specifically ‘risk-prone’. Writing on topics such as genocide, state of exception, failed states, humanitarian intervention, asymmetrical war, or cyber-attacks is especially liable to being used and abused by participants in political controversies. In fact, when it comes to writing history, the fight over master narratives is especially fierce, among governments, in different academic camps, and between governments and academics. The notorious example are memory laws which consecrate specific views on atrocities of the past (especially genocidal massacres) and which sometimes additionally criminalise the denial of those atrocities. These attempts to close historical debates by law has been criticised by historians, most famously in the petition ‘Liberté pour l‘histoire’ by French historians reacting against various French memory laws. 

To conclude, the interpretations of historical events are almost inescapably political, and potentially have the power to shape international relations: ‘On résiste à l’invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l’invasion des idées’ (Victor Hugo, Histoire d’un crime, 1877/2009, 639). It is against this background that the rights and responsibilities of those researching on the history of international law should be seen. 

The conference will be restricted to panellists and to a limited number of engaged listeners. 

If you are interested in participating in the audience (not as a speaker) and thus contribute to our discussion, please send an application with a short motivation letter explaining your interest in the conference and current research interests (maximum 400 words) along with your CV to the managing editor of the JHIL at conf.jhil.2019@mpil.de. The deadline for applications is 30 September 2018. Applications arriving after this date will not be taken into consideration. Successful applicants will be notified until the end of October 2018.

Participation is free of charge, but at your own expense. Please note that travel and accommodation costs cannot be covered by the organizers. Admitted engaged listeners must secure their own accommodation and are advised to do this early. 

The conference will last from Friday morning, 15 February to Saturday noon, 16 February 2019. It will start with an informal get-together of speakers and engaged listeners on Thursday evening, 14 February 2019.

Venue: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law, Im Neuenheimer Feld 535, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

For updated technical information on the conference see

http://www.mpil.de/en/pub/publications/periodic-publications/jhil.cfm

Anne Peters and Raphael Schäfer

Contact: conf.jhil.2019@mpil.de

19 July 2018

(source: ESILHIL-blog)