Call for Papers: Society of International Economic Law Biennial Conference

The Society of International Economic Law has issued a call for papers for its Third Biennial Global Conference, to be held July 12-14, 2012, in Singapore. Here's the call:

THE SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW

3rd Biennial Global Conference

SIEL 2012 - Singapore

12-14 July 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

The Third Biennial Global Conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) will be held in Singapore and hosted by the National University of Singapore’s Centre for International Law (CIL) and Faculty of Law on 12-14 July 2012. The CIL website for the conference may be found here.

The conference committee seeks proposals for paper presentations and conference panels under the following terms:

Conference Themes

Over the course of the last two decades, the communities of scholars, practitioners and others active in the area of international economic law have grown and diversified in ways that few could have predicted. The field of international economic law now includes a diverse array of participants and covers many new substantive issues. Inevitably, the term international economic law defies easy definition: it is at once both a fully integrated part of public international law and an identifiable field in its own right.

This conference provides an opportunity for exploring many different facets of international economic law. Given that the aim of the Society includes fostering research in the area of IEL and promoting cooperation among all parts within the field, the SIEL Global Conference offers a forum for those inside and outside academia to exchange pedagogical and research methods, as well as to explore greater cooperation among the many different constituencies of the field.

We welcome proposals for papers and panels on any topic related to international economic law, including:

• the three traditional pillars of IEL: international trade, investment, and monetary/financial policies;
• the relationship between these pillars, and between these pillars and other branches of law, such as intellectual property;
• the influence of disciplines such as those concerned with economics, the environment, political economy, development theory and other disciplines on international economic law;
• comparative economic law, focussing on how international economic law interacts with laws, institutions and actors at the domestic level;
• the function of international economic law in different parts of the world;
• the roles of law and legal practices in international economic governance, particularly in the monetary and financial international institutions;
• methods and trends in the research, teaching and learning of international economic law, including empirical methodologies; and
• interactions between scholars, practitioners, government officials and civil society groups active in international economic law.

We are particularly interested in integrating new voices with more established figures in the field, and therefore welcome works in progress from young or new scholars, as well as work from parts of the world not typically represented at such conferences, such as from developing and emerging economies.

There will be plenary and concurrent panels. Each panel will be moderated and may also have commentators on the papers presented. We anticipate that many of the eminent members of the SIEL Founding Executive Council and members of the present SIEL Executive Council will attend the conference - as presenters, commentators, and as Key Note Speakers (see www.sielnet.org for a full listing as information becomes available).

Submission Procedure

Paper and Panel Proposals must be submitted by 15 October 2011 via email to siel2012conference@gmail.com, in accordance with the following instructions.

Please, write “SIEL 2012 Conference Call for Papers/Panels” in the subject of the email.

Every paper and panel proposal will be reviewed by at least two members of the conference committee, on a double blind and confidential basis.

The organizers anticipate announcing between December 2011 and January 2012 the results of this call for papers and panel proposals.

Paper proposals should include a cover e-mail with full institutional affiliation and contact details of the proposer, and a WORD attachment with a paper abstract of no longer than 300 words. The abstract must not include any details identifying the proposer.

In evaluating proposals, please note that priority will be given to unpublished papers and works in progress. In your cover e-mail, please note whether the paper has already been published, or has been accepted for publication. No individual can participate on multiple panels.

Accordingly, if you submit a paper proposal and are listed also in a panel proposal, we will consider both proposals, but cannot accept both your paper proposal and the proposal that you speak as part of a panel.

Panel proposals should include two separate documents: (a) a panel title, a short description of the topics covered during the panel, and (b) a list of suggested panelists (no more than 5, which includes moderators, commentators and discussants), including concise information about the panelists and their specific contribution to the panel, as a presenter of a paper or in a different role. Suggested panelists must have been consulted by the organizer of the panel about the proposal. They must have confirmed their interest in serving on such a panel if it were to be selected. Please take into account the diversity of speakers and opinions reflected in your panel proposal. In assessing and selecting panel proposals, the organizers may take into account the diversity of speakers and the originality & topicality of the panel's topic and presentations. Only one panel proposal per person (panel organizer and speakers included) will be considered.

Based on past experience and the high number of panel proposals typically submitted, and taking into account the need to design a balanced conference program, the organizers reserve the right to accept panel proposals subject to conditions regarding the size and composition of the panel and the variety of topics covered during a single panel discussion.

Conference papers will be made available to conference participants prior to the conference. Accepted papers (from paper and panel proposals) must be submitted by 10 June 2012, in order to ensure the dissemination of papers among conference attendees. Papers from the previous conferences were published online as part of a working paper series on SSRN's Legal Scholarship Network (see here & here).

Conference Fees, Costs and Financial Support

All conference participants, including speakers, must cover their own travel, accommodation and attendance costs. Conference fees and associated attendance costs will be kept as low as possible.

Depending on financial support being available, before 15 October 2011, the Society will publish a funding application form on the SIEL 2012 conference website. To qualify for any available funding, the application form must be completed in full and submitted to the Society. Depending on financial support available, the Society hopes to provide a subsidy of the conference fee and/or travel costs for select speakers on the basis of need, particularly from developing countries. Any such support would be handled as reimbursements following a speaker’s participation in Singapore rather than as SIEL purchasing or assisting in the purchase of an airline ticket in the first instance. The Society cannot guarantee that any particular individual will be awarded funding, nor how much overall funding will be available.

Enquiries

Please submit enquiries to either of the SIEL Co-Executive Vice Presidents, Colin Picker (c.picker@unsw.edu.au) or Meredith Kolsky Lewis (meredith.lewis@vuw.ac.nz).

About the SIEL

The Society of International Economic Law is an organization for academics and academically-minded practitioners and officials in the field of International Economic Law. The Society is global and inclusive in terms of the expertise and interests of participants, and the many disciplines encompassed by IEL. Among other objectives, the Society also seeks to bring together its members in areas of common interest, as well as supporting academic activities in the field.

The SIEL’s previous conferences included in each case the presentation of almost 100 papers by IEL scholars, new and established, from around the world, covering the many different facets of the field. For more information on the SIEL Inaugural Global Conference (held in Geneva) see here and on the 2nd SIEL Biennial Global Conference (held in Barcelona) see here.

SIEL 2012 Singapore Conference Committee

Chairs: Douglas Arner; Michael Ewing-Chow; Meredith Kolsky Lewis; & Colin Picker.

Committee Members: Ichiro Araki; Freya Baetens; Laurence Boulle; Tomer Broude; Chris Brummer; Won-Mog Choi; Bradly Condon; Abhijit Das; Susan Franck; Henry Gao; Norah Gallagher; Tomohiko Kobayashi; Jurgen Kurtz; Doris Lopez; Shin-yi Peng; Julia Qin; Michelle Ratton Sanchez; Ed Sim; Vera Thorstensen; Tania Voon; Heng Wang; Rolf H. Weber; & Galina Zukova.

With the administrative support of Gerry Ng of NUS.