CALL FOR PAPERS: Historicization of International Law and its Limits: Preconditions, Modes and Legacies (Dornburg, 4-5 June 2020) (DEADLINE: 31 January 2020)

(Source: Universität Jena)

Historiographical debates about international law have been flourishing in the international legal literature over the last two decades. Following what international lawyers described as a ‘turn to history’ – and which is probably better understood as a turn to historiography –, it has become common for international lawyers to discourse and theorize about the specific forms and the meanings provided to the past and the ways in which such a past is created and organized by international lawyers. Such prolific historiographical debates have led to a wealth of new histories and counter-histories of international law. Being mostly produced in circles deemed (or self-labelled as) critical, this new body of literature has been promptly portrayed as an offspring of critical legal thought. Indeed, many international lawyers have considered that the historical turn constituted a natural continuation of the linguistic turn and the rise of critical thought witnessed a few decades earlier in international legal scholarship. And yet, the recent interest in the history of international law is no monopoly of (critical) international lawyers. Mention must be made of the growing interest for global histories among historians.

This workshop is premised on the idea that a continuity between critical thought and critical history is far from obvious and that it remains unclear whether all the new histories and counter histories produced after the ‘turn to history’ can be appropriately called critical. Arguably, their disruptive nature is compromised because they have all remained articulated around the same European markers and figures. Questioning the kinship between critical thought and the turn to history in international law allows this workshop to take a hard look at the ‘critical’ character of the new histories and counter-histories of international law. The aim of this workshop is to shed a new light on the historicization of international law and its limits. To that end, participants are invited to reflect on the preconditions, modes and legacies of the ‘turn to historiography’.  

Particular attention will be paid to the interaction between the turn to history and post-colonial studies, in particular the works of scholars affiliated with the so-called ‘Third World Approaches to International Law’ (TWAIL). The legacy of the historical turn cannot be evaluated independently from TWAIL engagements with the history of international law. The workshop will be held in an informal setting with a group of 15-20 participants, enabling open and mutually stimulating discussions. The questions of particular interest include (but are not limited to): − The genealogy between the linguistic turn to the turn to history in international law − The move from theory to the history of international law − The distinct generations of engagements with history among international lawyers − The genealogy between the linguistic turn, TWAIL and the turn to history − The methodological challenges associated with the writing of critical histories − The possibility of new modes of critique − The use of global history − The use of micro-histories and macro-histories, narratives and counter-narratives, local impact − The role of aporias, fundamental assumptions, ‘positionality’ of historicization, agendas of historicization − The challenge of ‘anachronism’ − The modes of historicization of TWAIL vs. other modes of historicization in international law

Submissions: Interested scholars should submit an abstract of no more than 800 words by 31 January 2020. Abstracts should contain the title of the paper, as well as the name, title and affiliation of the author(s). Please send abstracts and a CV including a list of publications to susanne.prater@uni-jena.de. If you wish to discuss topics or ideas informally, please thomas.kleinlein@uni-jena.de and/or jean.daspremont@sciencespo.fr. Speakers will be informed by 15 February 2020 whether or not their paper has been accepted.

Venue: The workshop will be held in the Old Castle in Dornburg/Thuringia (Altes Schloss von Dornburg, 25 min from Jena) on 4 and 5 June 2020. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered on the basis of the Thuringia public-sector regulations governing travel expenses.

Timeline: Abstract submission by: 31 January 2020 Selection of papers by: 15 February 2020 Workshop: 4–5 June 2020

The call can also be found here

CALL FOR PAPERS: Decolonial Comparative Law Workshop (6 October 2020, Johannesburg) (DEADLINE: 6 February 2020)

(Source: MPI for Comparative and International Private Law)

We learned of a call for papers for a new collaborative research project on decolonial comparative law by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. Here the call:

Call for papers: Decolonial Comparative Law Workshop 6 October 2020

Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract submission deadline: 6 February 2020 Draft paper submission deadline: 20 August 2020

The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Law (Hamburg) and the University of the Witwatersrand

School of Law will host a one-day workshop on decolonial comparative law on 6 October 2020 at the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). The workshop precedes the International Academy of Comparative Law Thematic Congress on “Diversity and Plurality in Law,” which takes places 7-9 October in Pretoria (South Africa). (Our workshop is not connected to the International Congress and participation in our workshop is not limited to or dependent on attendance of the International Congress.)

THEME: Although traditional comparative law methods have been criticized for several decades now, a clear alternative has not emerged. Debates between doctrinal, functionalist, and culturalist comparatists remain unresolved. One reason may be that despite such differences, a deeper, and problematic, agreement remains intact: agreement on certain ideas of law (as a matter of expertise) and of society (as either already or seeking to be liberal/democratic) that emerged within a European colonial context. Conventional comparative law—with all its valuable methodological and theoretical disagreements—remains mired within a Eurocentric paradigm encompassing the objects of comparison (too often civil vs common law) and theoretical and methodological presuppositions (the concept of law, the role of the state and of community, the mode of thought, etc.). Because conventional comparative law is mired in colonial epistemologies, we seek to explore decolonial comparative law. Decolonial theory is a school of critical theory developed by scholars (primarily in South America) engaging with the epistemological distinctiveness of coloniality in settler-colonies, as compared to colonies. (Decolonial theory is related to, but different from, decolonization, a historical process by which colonized states become formally independent. By way of example, whereas decolonization necessitates redistribution of property, decolonial theory necessitates a radical rethinking of property.) Decolonial scholars emphasize that modernity and coloniality are inseparable, such that the world today is dominated by the epistemic assumptions of modernity/coloniality. To overcome the hegemony of modernity, decolonial theorists call for pluriversality. Pluriversality rejects universality and emphasizes the simultaneous legitimacy of multiple traditions and social orderings from intellectual—not only geographic—borderlands. A basic presumption of decolonial theory is that the native/indigenous societies that were nearly eradicated by settler-colonialism are important sources of resistance to European epistemological hegemony. Our project brings together the broad insights and challenging ideas of decolonial theory to the field of comparative law. We are interested in both identifying the colonial structures and presuppositions in conventional comparative law and examining what a decolonial comparative law could look like and what it could achieve. Such a program operates both on a theoretical and a practical level, bringing together concrete case studies and theoretical considerations. Most importantly, decolonial comparative law is a pluriversal project that includes multiple voices and perspectives, rather than reinforcing coloniality through a European-dominated effort of decolonization. To that end, our project emphasizes giving voice and authority to legal scholars in the global South. (We invite those interested to view and to suggest additions to our work-inprogress bibliographies of decolonial theory and decolonial legal studies: http://www.mpipriv.de/decolonial)

We invite papers that address any aspect of decolonial comparative law, including: • How was the development of the modern discipline of comparative law in nineteenthcentury Europe intertwined with European colonialism? • How do legal transplants manifest coloniality? • How do both functionalist and culturalist methods reflect particular colonial ideas of the relation between law and society? • What were the premodern precursors to the modern discipline of comparative law? • How is the bifurcation between secular law and religious law implicated in coloniality? • How do neo-colonial relationships of power continue to shape conventional comparative law? • How can indigenous and native legal traditions transform the conventional discipline of comparative law? • How can a decolonial comparative law be theorized and practiced? • What are the decolonial alternatives to the use of the modern nation-state as the key analytical category of comparison in conventional comparative law?

Attendance in the workshop is open. We ask those interested in attending to register as engaged listeners by emailing decolonial@mpipriv.de with “Decolonial comparative law, engaged listener registration” in the subject line. Please indicate your full name, your institutional affiliation (if any), and your preferred email address. (Engaged listeners are asked to attend the entire workshop and read all the papers in advance.)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: Please send your title and abstract in any language of no more than 750 words (including a bibliography of up to five entries) to decolonial@mpipriv.de as an attachment by 6 February 2020. Authors of accepted papers will be asked to submit a draft paper by 20 August 2020. Please indicate if you will need funding in order to attend the workshop. (MPI will provide two-nights of accommodation for participants; some needs-based reimbursement for travel will also be available.)

ORGANIZERS: The Decolonial Comparative Law Workshop is co-organized by Tshepo Madlingozi (tshepo.madlingozi@wits.ac.za), Ralf Michaels (michaels@mpipriv.de), Lena Salaymeh (salaymeh@mpipriv.de), and Emile Zitzke (emile.zitzke@wits.ac.za). ABOUT the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law : Wits School of Law is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Alongside equipping students with critical thinking skills across our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching offerings, we host three Centres – the Wits Law Clinic, the Mandela Institute and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). Our centres help us to produce locally significant and globally important interventions, research and advice. We are based at Wits University’s Faculty of Commerce Law and Management on West Campus. Our roots go back to 1922 when our initial offering was the Law Certificate for attorneys and the Civil Service Lower Law Examination. As we approach 100 years of existence our modern day offering is vast. We teach a variety of undergraduate programmes, specialised master’s degrees, PhD programmes and international exchanges.

ABOUT the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law: The MPI in Hamburg is dedicated to performing foundational research and promoting the transfer of knowledge in the field of comparative law. The results of the Institute’s research are reflected in academic publications as well as in the recommendations and expert opinion papers prepared for commissions, governments and courts. Additionally, the scholars employed at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Law regularly play a role in the formulation of laws at both the national and international level. MPI is committed to international partnerships and the establishment of academic networks with domestic and foreign research institutes and universities in order to foster new directions in scholarly inquiry.

More info with the Max Planck Institute

BOOK REVIEW: W.S. Utama on Luis Eslava et al., Bandung, Global History, and International Law. Critical Pasts and Pending Futures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2017

(Source: Hsozkult)

Hsozkult has published a review of the book Bandung, Global History, and International Law. Critical Pasts and Pending Futures by Wildan Sena Utama (Universitas Gadjah Mada)

On 18–24 April 1955, the Asian-African Conference, with delegates from twenty-nine independent and nearly independent Asian and African countries, took place in Bandung, Indonesia. This conference, widely known as the Bandung Conference, was the first endeavor in the postcolonial era to gather the leaders of Asian and African countries. President Sukarno of Indonesia, who delivered the opening speech of the conference, described it as “the first international conference of colored peoples in the history of mankind […]

Read the full review here