An International Conference and PhD Workshop Organized by Retfærd

Thursday 16 September to Friday 17 September 2010.

Host: University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, Odense, Denmark

Retfærd: Nordic Journal of Law and Justice is pleased to invite you to a two-day international workshop, and a recognized PhD course, for senior researchers and postgraduate students, hosted by the University of Southern Denmark. This multidisciplinary workshop will examine the role of justice in legal research, in general, and the relationship between positive law and justice, in particular,

The focus of this workshop is motivated by the increasing marginalization of the concept of justice in legal research. The workshop, therefore, aims at critically exploring and discussing the possibility of applying the empirical tools of social sciences to the study of justice. It also hopes to encourage debate and reflection on the relationship between jurisprudence and legal sociology, on the one hand, and law and social sciences, on the other. Legal realism considers concepts such as justice and rights are linguistic constructs which do not correspond with any tangible phenomena in the ‘real’ world. Within the doctrinal studies of law, the sharp distinction between legal science and legal politics bears witness to the difficulties of incorporating normative standpoints in legal research. Only legal philosophy and (political) philosophy in general continue to promote discussions concerning the concept of justice and its role in legal systems.

PhD students and early career researchers are welcome to present papers in the workshop.

Program

Thursday 16 September
9.00-12.00 Retfærd. Nordic editorial board meeting (everybody is welcome)
12.00-13.00 Arrival and registration + lunch
13.15-13.45 Introduction by Ole Hammerslev & Reza Banakar
13.45-15.00 Gunther Teubner ‘Self-subversive Justice: contingency or transcendence formula of law?’ Discussant Inger-Johanne Sand
15.00-15.15 Coffee and cake
15.15-16.30 Reza Banakar ‘Studying Rights in Context: Law and Justice in Late modern Society’ Discussant Håkan Hydén
16.45-18.00 Henrik Palmer-Olsen ‘Justice: Conceptual and Constitutional Issues’ Discussant Kaarlo Tuori
18.00-19.00 Reception
19.00 – Dinner at Restaurant SDU

Friday 17 September
9.15-9.30 Introduction
9.30-10.45 Melanie Williams ‘Martha Nussbaum, Justice and Virginia Woolf’ Discussant Hanne Petersen
10.45-11.00 Coffee
11.00-12.00 Mikael Rask Madsen ‘Justice Reconsidered: The Need for an “Epistemological Break”’ Discussant Margareta Bertilsson
12.00 -12.45 Lunch
12.45-15.00 PhD-paper presentations in small workshops with discussants (Håkan Hyden, Inger-Johanne Sand, Hanne Petersen, Mikael Rask Madsen)
15.00-15.15 Conclusion
 

Practical information
Registration deadline: 1 June 2010. Registrate here.

Conference fee (which includes meals) 650 DKK.

Deadline for submitting papers for the conference: 15 August 2010. Papers should be sent to retfaerd@sam.sdu.dk.

Retfærd is planning a special issue on The Concepts of Justice in Legal Research in vol. 3, 2011 with publishing date in September 2011. We attempt to publish some of the papers from the conference. Deadline for submitting papers for publication in the special issue is 1 January 2011. All papers will be peer-reviewed. About publishing in Retfærd please see www.retfaerd.org.

ECTS for PhD students:
With paper presentation: 5 ECTS
Without paper presentation: 3 ECTS

Literature for PhD students:
A collection of papers will be distributed by 1 July 2010.

Further information
Information about the conference will continuously be published on www.retfaerd.org.

For further information please contact Ole Hammerslev ohv@sam.sdu.dk