Law and Society in the 21st Century: The functions of law in a global society 10th to 12th June 2015 Oslo, Norway

Law increasingly transcends national boundaries, with closer interactions between national, inter- and transnational legal regimes, actors and practices. This applies to human rights, trade and competition law, internet law, environmental law, criminal law, refugee law as well as many other areas of law. On the inter- and transnational level, an increasing number of new legal actors have emerged side by side of the nation-states such as NGOs, transnational corporations and international organizations.

International migrants and refugees, climate and environmental change, the Internet, new biotechnologies and ethics, the financial crisis, transnational corporations and ethics, sovereign wealth funds (such as the Norwegian Pension Fund) are merely some of the urgent contemporary societal and political challenges where inter- and transnational law and cross-boundary legal practices play a vital role. The conference invites papers on the sociology of international law as well as on the interaction between the Nordic legal model and new international legal regimes and institutions.

Promoting the rule of law and human rights in combination with a comprehensive and tax financed welfare state and a market economy has become a major part of Nordic efforts to spread the practices of democracy and social equality globally. Still, empirical and theoretical knowledge about which factors ensure success, and why they do so, remains scarce. More cross-disciplinary and comparative research and discussion is needed on how to combine a high degree of social and economic equality with liberal and economic rights, and on how to stabilize such a model. In this setting the role of law and the various forms of law should be in focus.

A positive view of citizen action was once a major justification for the use of lay people as judges and members of jury trials and is now also manifest in restorative justice movements. Restorative justice programs and participatory policy forums have become attractive to reformers. Questions remains though to what extent, if any, participatory institutional designs can increase civic responsibility and suggest alternative paths forward for increasingly professionalized legal systems in late modern societies.
Our natural environment and the future welfare of societies depend on sustainable and fair use of nature and natural resources. Legal regulations in many areas – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally - are crucial preconditions for sustainability and environmental justice.

These are but a few areas where law currently develops in complex and non-hierarchical ways among several actors rather than in state hierarchies. The new inter- and transnational dynamics of law need to be understood by socio-legal and political theories and empirical studies.
“Law and Society in the 21st Century: The functions of law in a global society” welcomes studies on the emergence of transnational law, the interaction between domestic and trans- and international law and its implications for late modern societies.
 
“Law and Society in the 21st Century” invites papers on the following topics:
 

• What is the function of law in the 21st Century?
  
• Gender and law
  
• Lay Participation in Professionalized Legal Systems
  
• What is the function of law in the Nordic model? How is law in Nordic countries affected by Europeanization, inter- and transnational law?
  
• Globalization, Professionalization and Citizenship.
  
• Changes in the legal professions due to internationalization of law and professionalization of legal actors
  
• International human rights, international criminal law, “crimmigration” and law and human trafficking
  
• Environmental law and climate change.
  
• Teaching Sociology of Law and Socio-Legal Studies
  

Sociologists of law, socio-legal researchers, philosophers and historians of law develop theories and empirical methods to assess and challenge fundamental assumptions about law. To ensure that such theories and methods impact on legal scholarship and educational practices at law faculties, new forms of education, educational technology and methods of teaching for today's students and practitioners are needed.
We therefore especially welcome papers that critically discuss and assess the relevance of current teaching practices and how they can be improved to increase their impact on legal scholars and students without formal training in the humanities and the social sciences.
 
Abstracts to be submitted by email to Per Jørgen Ystehede p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no 

Deadline: February 1st 2015

If you would like any further information regarding the conference please contact: Per Jørgen Ystehede p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no

http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences/2015/socio-legal-studies-conference/call-for-paper.html