Call for Papers: Taking Stock of Global Constitutionalism – To What Extent Did It Really Change International Law?

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Taking Stock of Global Constitutionalism – To What Extent Did It Really Change International Law?," to be held November 29, 2018, in Amsterdam. Here's the call:

Call for papers

Taking Stock of Global Constitutionalism – To What Extent did it Really Change International Law?

A Workshop at the Annual Ius Commune Conference,

Amsterdam, Thursday 29 November 2018, 14.00-18.00h

Over the past twenty years or so the study of international law has been confronted with an abundant attention for ‘constitutionalism’. The main reason was that international law had changed, at least in the eyes of its observers. No longer was international law a law between states; it had become a law within states, with a clear impact on individuals. Examples include rules on terrorism, on climate change, on migration and refugees, on health and food safety, on trade or on technical standards. The idea was that with the transfer of the regulation of these issues from the state to the global level – using all kinds of formal and informal international cooperation fora – constitutional safeguards (mainly in terms of rule of law principles) needed to be reassessed and perhaps recreated at different levels. Studies on global constitutional law, global administrative law, post-national rule-making, the exercise of public authority or informal international lawmaking suddenly became a main focus of attention. Public international law was believed to change into international public law, underlining the more hierarchical public dimension rather than the original private or contract law dimension; and terms like law-making by international organizations and international legislation became more commonly used. It is very well accepted to think in terms of an existing global constitution, both in general terms or in relation to specific issue areas (e.g. the global economic constitution).

This workshop aims to collect papers that either clearly confirm that these developments (or at least our perception of them) have indeed changed the nature and/or the study of international law, or that argue that in the end nothing really changed in the nature or the study of international law. The workshop takes place in the framework of the research theme Constitutional Processes in the Global Legal Order.

Paper proposals (no longer than 500 words) can be sent to the organisers of the workshop: Cedric Ryngaert (UU), Denise Prevost (UM), Jan Wouters (KUL) and Ramses Wessel (UT) at r.a.wessel@utwente.nl by 15 June 2018. We welcome proposals by both Ius Commune members and other interested colleagues (hence, feel free to share this call). The result of the selection process will be made known by 1 July 2018. The deadline for draft papers is 15 November 2018. Depending on the quality of the papers, the organisers will consider drafting a proposal for a special issue of a journal in the field. Unfortunately, Ius Commune will not be able to cover travel and accommodation. Further information on the Annual Congress will soon be available here.