The Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its 2011 Annual Conference, to take place in Canberra, June 23-25, 2011. The conference theme is "The Promise and Limits of International Law." Here's the call:
AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
19th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
CANBERRA, 23-25 JUNE 2011
THE PROMISE AND LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The 19th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (‘ANZSIL’) will take place from Thursday, 23 June 2011 to Saturday, 25 June 2011 at University House, The Australian National University, Canberra, hosted by the Centre for International and Public Law, ANU College of Law. The Conference Organising Committee now invites proposals for papers to be presented at the Conference.
Call for Papers – Deadline 15 February 2011
It is customary in calls of this sort to adopt one of three postures in relation to international law. The first is to affirm international law, to express faith in its capacity for doing good, hope in its expansion, and to espouse a commitment to ensuring its continued efficacy, force and range in the world. The second posture is one of anxiety, expressing disquiet about law’s unavoidable intimacy with suffering and strife. The commitment in this instance is to critique, with the objective of damage control or dismantling for the pessimists, rehabilitation and reconstruction for the optimists. The third posture is one of deliberation and judgment, offering a call to take stock of international law, to catalogue its failures, achievements and likely prospects, either by looking back from the anniversary of a significant event, or by projecting forward from contemporary crises to the likely challenges of the future.
This conference wishes to combine these registers, to bring certainty and anxiety together and to marry contemporary context with both backward glance and forward prediction. To that end, we invite papers which consider the limits and limitations of international law as well as papers which tease out the promise international law makes. The limits of law can be understood technically, politically, historically or philosophically, its promise interpreted sceptically or in good faith. The sphere of consideration can be specific or general, the frame past or present.
So whilst in one sense general, the call is also specifically asking presenters to reflect, in their own way and in their own area of interest, specialisation or expertise, on what they understand to be the promise of law, and how they think the question of limit plays out in relation to it.
Our aim is to produce uncommon combinations, and to generate enough uncertainty for fruitful discussion. To this end, in addition to the usual abstracts for individual papers, or proposals for complete panels, we are also specifically inviting people to volunteer to speak from the self-defined perspective of a ‘practitioner’ or ‘academic’ on the following topics:
- International law and the Promise of the Market
- International Law and the Limits of the Earth
- The Political Limitations of Human Rights
- Private International Law: Promise and Limits of International Harmonisation
- Regulating Violence
- The Hopes of international legal doctrine
- The Promise and Limits of Capitalism: International law and the Regulation of Financial Markets
Panels will be composed with a view to uncommon combinations.
Those proposing papers for presentation at the Conference should submit a one-page abstract and brief one- page curriculum vitae by email to the Conference Organising Committee (anzsil[at]law.anu.edu.au) by no later than Tuesday, 15 February 2011. Please include the heading on your email message ‘ANZSIL Conference 2011 Paper Proposal: [Your Name]’. The Conference Organising Committee will inform applicants of the outcome of their proposals by early March 2011. Further information about the Conference, , including program and registration details, will be available here.
Postgraduate research students wishing to present their postgraduate thesis work are encouraged to submit their proposals (marked 'PG Workshop') for presentation at the Postgraduate Workshop (to be held on Wednesday, 22 June 2011 – for further details and call for papers, see the ANZSIL website. The closing date for applications to the Postgraduate Workshop is 15 February 2011.
