Friday, April 8, 2016

CFP: Junior Scholars Conference at Tel Aviv

[We have the following CFP.]

The 4th Annual TAU Workshop for Junior Scholars in Law: Law in a Changing Society, November 21-23, 2016, Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law, Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Tel Aviv, Israel

The Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law is pleased to invite submissions to its fourth annual workshop for junior scholars in law. The workshop provides junior scholars with the opportunity to present and discuss their work, receive meaningful feedback from faculty members and peers and aims to invigorate the scholars’ active participation in the community of international junior scholars in law.

Human society is constantly changing, and in recent decades the change seems all the more rapid. The transformation of social, political and economic structures, institutions and perceptions poses significant challenges for law. The workshop will explore the interface between legal change and social change: the ways in which law adapts itself to a changing society and the ways in which law changes society - how it reacts to technological and scientific advancements, how it supports and facilitates new institutions, and when and why it fails to do so.

Relevant papers may discuss a variety of legal fields such as criminal law, corporate law, environmental law, international & human rights law, intellectual property law, family law, etc. For example, papers could discuss the effects of the global financial crisis on corporate and financial regulation; changes in perceptions of borders and obligations to ‘others’ in the international realm; the effect of states' growing need for protection against cyber-crime on human rights law; the response of environmental law to global warming; the effect of information-sharing platforms and social media networks on intellectual property law; or the adaptation of family law to the demise of the traditional family and the development of advanced fertility technologies. Papers could also discuss legal history: historical instances of legal responses to social change or instances in which a change in law resulted in changes in society. We also welcome papers examining more theoretical questions, for example, whether law only reacts to social change or actively precipitates it (e.g., is sexual harassment law a result of change in social perceptions or did the development of such law lead to social change)? How do or should scientific research and technological advancement affect our interpretation of traditional legal concepts (e.g., mens rea, consent, causality, privacy, property)?

We welcome junior scholars (doctoral candidates, VAPs, writing fellows and recent graduates of doctoral programs) from universities and research institutions throughout the world to submit abstracts engaging with the general theme of the workshop.  Limited travel grants and accommodation will be available for participants with no institutional funding.

Submissions: Abstracts of up to 700 words of the proposed presentation (with a short bio and your current institutional affiliation(s)) should be submitted by email to TAU.junior.scholars@gmail.com by May 16, 2016. Applicants requesting travel grants and/or accommodation should indicate so in their submission, along with the city they expect to depart from and an estimate of the funds requested.  Applicants will be informed of acceptance or rejection by June 16, 2016.  Selected presenters must submit their papers up to 10,000 words in length by October 25, 2016.  For further inquiries contact us at TAU.junior.scholars@gmail.com.