Call for Abstracts: The 1917 Russian Revolution and Its Impact on Law: International and Comparative Perspectives

St. Petersburg State University, together with the European Society of International Law and Threefold Legal Advisors LLC, has issued a call for abstracts for a workshop on "The 1917 Russian Revolution and Its Impact on Law: International and Comparative Perspectives," to be held October 21, 2017, in St. Petersburg. Here's the call:

The impact and legacy of the 1917 Russian Revolution are of crucial significance across the world. For Russia and countries of the former socialist bloc, the revolution led to the foundation of a completely new legal tradition which influences are still felt today. For the rest of the world, the Russian Revolution led to emergence of new international legal norms, transformation of the whole international law system and its eventual democratization, and caused some of the most significant changes in domestic law and politics of various countries in the first half of the XXth century.

Among the manifold of its effects, the 1917 Russian Revolution also became the starting point of the disconnection between scientific communities of the socialist bloc of countries and other regions of the world. Such isolation persisted throughout the Soviet time, and to a significant extent continues today.  

The workshop is intended to bring together Russian and international academics and practitioners in the fields of law (international, constitutional or otherwise), international relations, history, sociology, philosophy and political science. We aim to mark the 100 years of the 1917 Revolution in St Petersburg - a city where the revolution started - with an international interdisciplinary academic discussion about the influence of the 1917 Revolution on the development of law in Russia and elsewhere, including on the development of international law.

The organizers issue a call for abstracts on the following topics:

- How did the 1917 Revolution transform the international law system? How do the international legal norms that emerged from the 1917 Revolution function today?
- What was the impact of the 1917 Revolution on contemporary Russian approaches to international law?
- How did the 1917 Revolution’s influence domestic law and policies of various countries in the first half of the XX century? Why has one country’s historical event affected the whole world?
- How has the 1917 Revolution influenced Soviet law compared to other legal systems? Is its impact still present in Russian law?
- What mechanisms related to revolution has international law developed? Is it efficient in countering or containing revolution?
- Was the 1917 Revolution a Marxist revolution? What was the influence of the 1917 Revolution on the Western left in the XX century?
- Is there a place for philosophy in studying historical events like the 1917 Revolution and its legal impact? Should the interdisciplinary approach be adopted when studying the revolution?
- How did the 1917 Revolution develop the Russian identity? Is it possible to objectively evaluate the 1917 events a hundred years later or is the red and white division inevitable?
- The 1917 Revolution and Soviet totalitarianism: was the turn to totalitarianism unavoidable?
- What is the value of fiction against the legal documents and non-fiction literature in understanding the 1917 Revolution?
- Gaps in studying the 1917 Revolution – is there still information not available for research?

Working language of the workshop: English.

Email abstract submission of no more than 1,500 words (minimum 500 words) to main@threefold.ru by 15 September 2017. Please submit your short bio (up to 250 words) together with the abstract.

Successful applicants will be notified by 25 September 2017.

The workshop is held in partnership with the Russian Law Journal. The journal is accepting articles for publication in the special issue on the 1917 Russian Revolution by 31 August 2017. A separate call for papers for publications in the Russian Law Journal can be found here.