Call for Papers: India and International Law

The Leiden Journal of International Law has issued a call for papers inviting contributions for a special issue on "India and International Law." Here's the call:

The Editorial Board of the Leiden Journal of International Law (LJIL) invites contributions to the third in the LJIL's Periphery Series: special issues of the LJIL dedicated to the work of leading international legal scholars from regions conventionally cast as 'peripheral' to the discipline's metropolitan 'centre'. The next in the series - Issue 1 of Volume 23 - will focus on the work of Indian international lawyers and the place of India in the disciplinary geography of international law.

The Periphery Series was launched in 2007, with a special issue on the Chilean jurist Alejandro Álvarez. The second special issue in the series concentrated on the work of Nigerian international lawyer Taslim Olawale Elias. In each case, the goal of these special issues has been to foster engagement with the discursive function of centre-periphery oppositions in public international law in their various iterations, and through this to confront questions of resource allocation, dependency, geography, and power. The series has also encouraged contemporary readers of international law to engage with contributions to the field from outside Europe, North America and the 'White Commonwealth'.

By focusing on India and Indian international lawyers, the third installment in the Periphery Series will adopt a slightly wider lens to re-examine centre-periphery dynamics in international law, dispensing with the focus on a single scholar. Nonetheless, this special issue will once again invite engagement with the difficult questions raised by adoption of a 'peripheral' analytic. Among these is the question of how stable or persistent might be the notion of India as peripheral in the international legal imaginary, notwithstanding its obvious power in contemporary geopolitical, economic, and cultural terms. Also pertinent are questions concerning whether and how an Indian approach to international law teaching, scholarship and practice might be articulated, and possible implications of doing so.

Contributors are invited to submit articles of up to 10,000 words (including footnotes) focusing on India and international law from any angle. Articles should be prepared in a manner consistent with the 'Instructions for Contributors' accessible by clicking here.

Contributors should be mindful of the LJIL's particular commitment to publishing international legal writing that engages with legal and political theory, conceived broadly. Contributors should also be aware that word limits will be strictly enforced.

The deadline for submissions to this special issue is 1 June 2009. All contributions will be subject to peer review in accordance with the usual procedures of the LJIL. Please respond to this call for papers by email to LJIL@law.leidenuniv.nl by 28 February 2009 to advise whether you intend to contribute an article to this Special Issue, attaching a 200-word abstract of the article you propose to contribute.