Call for Papers: Law Between Normativity and Pragmatism

The Buchman Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University has issued a call for papers for the Second Annual TAU Workshop for Junior Scholars, to take place November 10-11, 2014. The theme is "Law Between Normativity and Pragmatism." Here's the call:

When courts are required to reach a decision, they are often faced with the dilemma whether to give primacy to the pragmatic implications of the litigation on the case or to its normative effects on society at large. This pull between normativity and pragmatism is not only the province of courts, but defines law in its essence throughout its diverse fields and manifestations.

How ought law deal with the inherent tension between solving specific cases and setting general rules? How do different fields of law, such as constitutional law, transitional justice and human rights, administrative law, civil law, corporate law, criminal law, transnational law, international law, environmental law and others consider and handle this tension? What are the obligations of states towards foreign individuals or communities under this framework? How do different actors, such as cause lawyers, political lawyers, state prosecutors, and human rights organizations, approach this tension? And what are the effects of historical, social, political, global and technological changes on this dilemma?

We invite junior scholars (doctoral candidates, VAPs, writing fellows, and post doctoral fellows) from universities and research institutions throughout the world to submit abstracts involving the leading theme of the workshop.

Limited travel grants and accommodation will be available for participants with no institutional funding.

Submissions: Abstracts of up to 500 words of the proposed presentation (with your institutional affiliation(s)) should be submitted by email to TAU.workshop2014@gmail.com by June 12, 2014. Applicants requesting travel grants and/or accommodation should indicate so in their submission, along with the amount asked for.

Applicants will be informed of acceptance or rejection by July 15, 2014. Selected presenters must submit their papers up to 10,000 words in length by October 10, 2014.

For further inquiries contact us at TAU.workshop2014@gmail.com.