Call for Papers: Has International Law Something to Say About Revolution?

The European Society of International Law's Interest Group on Peace and Security has issued a call for papers for its third workshop, which will take place in Valencia, just before the opening of the 5th ESIL Biennial Conference. The topic is: "Has International Law Something to Say About Revolution?" Here's the call:

The ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security (IGPS) has the pleasure to announce that its third Workshop will take place in Valencia, Spain, just before the opening of the 5th ESIL Biennial Conference, on the topic: "Has International Law Something to Say About Revolution?"

The recent revolts in the Arab world and the international reactions that followed them demonstrated, according to some commentators, the limits of International Law in dealing with revolutions. This workshop will try to test and challenge this idea. Potential topics include: Is there a right to democracy in International Law? Legitimacy, recognition and de-recognition of governments and the principle of effectiveness; The continuing relevance of the principles of non intervention/non-interference in domestic affairs; The threshold of applicability of jus in bello; The International Human Rights implications posed both by the revolutions themselves and by outside responses; The role of the UN Security Council and the problem of interpretation of its resolutions.

The Workshop panel will consist of four or five participants and a chairperson. The languages used will be English and French.

The IGPS invites the submission of abstracts from ESIL members or other scholars or practitioners interested in participating in this special workshop. Priority will be given to IGPS members. Papers presented at the workshop will be selected through a competitive process involving the submission of abstracts. The selection process will be based exclusively on the scholarly merits of the submitted proposals. Each submission should include the following:

A) An abstract of no more than 600 words in English or French, specifying the intended language for the paper; and

B) A short CV in English or French including the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address.

All applications should be submitted to the IGPS chairman, Prof. Theodore Christakis (christakis@wanadoo.fr). The deadline for submission of proposals is Thursday, 1 March 2012. The outcome of the selection process will be notified to all applicants by Monday, 19 March 2012. The selection Committee will be composed only of members who do not intend to present an application. Its composition will be notified to all applicants with the results.

Strategy and publication

Please note that the strategy of the IGPS has always been to organize important events during the ESIL biennial conferences. The general idea is not to transform these workshops to a kind of “à default” solution for members unable to present papers during the main ESIL Conference but, on the contrary, to organize events of high quality which can be followed by publications in major (and peer-reviewed) journals of International Law. In October 2009 the IGPS published in the Revue Belge de droit international [(2008) 1/2, at 353–458] the Symposium on ‘Insurgency and International Law’ organized at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg during the September 2008 ESIL Conference. This Symposium included papers in English and in French. In February 2011 the IGPS published in the Leiden Journal of International Law (vol 24, 2011, at 71-161) the Symposium on the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Kosovo held during the ESIL Conference at the University of Cambridge. We welcome any expression of interest for the publication of this new event and we invite eventual editors to be part of the Selection Committee.

Registration to the main ESIL Conference

Interest Group attendees are under no obligation to attend the main ESIL 2012 conference. We nonetheless invite IGPS members who wish to attend the conference to register following the instructions on the conference website. Please note that there should be no waiver from registration fees for ESIL IG panelists. The ESIL Secretariat also asked us to remind all IG members to renew their membership of the society for the year 2012.