After Abstraction: Intellectual Thought in International Law
Date and time
Location
Room 3.1, Third Floor
Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London
67-69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3JB
United Kingdom
Description
After Abstraction: Intellectual Thought in International Law
Date and time: Thursday, 17th October | 2.20pm - 6pm
Venue: Room 3.1, Third Floor, Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), 67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB
Organisers: Eva Nanopoulos/Isobel Roele (QMUL, hosts/co-organisers), Jörg Kammerhofer (Freiburg, ESIL IGILTP)
The Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context (CLSGC) and the ESIL Interest Group in International Legal Theory and Philosophy are delighted to host a two-day workshop at Queen Mary University of London.
Description
If current international law scholarship could be captured in one phrase, we could do worse than adopt the cry, “Abstraction is dead! Long live contextualism!”. From critical sociologies, geographies and anthropologies, to the superannuation of the generalist international lawyer, through Chicago empiricism, past impact case-studies and key-stakeholder involvement, and all the way to Left and postcolonial histories, intellectual thought in international law seems to have forsaken abstraction and dedicated itself to contextualism. Our workshop sets out to investigate this impression and to consider what, if anything, is at stake in the loss of abstraction - if indeed it is lost.
The workshop investigates three aspects of this: The relationship between epistemology and doctrine in international legal theory; historical methods and methodologies; and the causes, contexts and implications of the ‘crisis’ of international legal theory. The format of the workshop is informal and intended to encourage dialogue. PhD students, early career academics, and established scholars from any institution or discipline are equally welcome to join the conversation
**Please be aware that the workshop will be held at a different venue on Day Two**
Day 1 Programme
Location: Room 3.1, Centre of Commercial Law, Lincoln’s Inn Field, Queen Mary, University of London
2.20pm - 2.30pm Welcome
Eva Nanopoulos/Isobel Roele (QMUL, hosts/co-organisers)
Jörg Kammerhofer (Freiburg, ESIL IGILTP)
2.30pm - 4pm Split Loyalties or Dual Reliance? Today’s International Legal Theory between Epistemology and Legal Doctrine
Chair: Paul Gragl (QMUL)
Pauline Westerman (Groningen)
Thomas Kleinlein (Jena)
Tilmann Altwicker (Zurich)
Rapporteur: Lea Raible (Maastricht)
4pm - 4.30pm Coffee break
4.30pm - 6pm Methodology and the Rise of Method
Chair: Isobel Roele (QMUL)
Martin Clark (LSE)
Megan Donaldson (UCL)
Rapporteur: Roxana Banu (Western Law School)