Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Conference: A Jurisprudence of Complexity? Rethinking the Relationship between Law and Society

On September 24-25, 2015, Lancaster University Law School will host a conference on "A Jurisprudence of Complexity? Rethinking the Relationship between Law and Society." Here's the idea:

On 24-25 September 2015, the Law School at Lancaster University will be hosting a conference on the possibilities of developing “A Jurisprudence of Complexity”. The keynote speaker will be JB Ruhl (Vanderbilt Law School, USA), who has written widely on the subject of complexity theory and law. Other participants will include Sionaidh Douglas-Scott (Oxford); Lucy Finchett-Maddock (Sussex); Neville Harris (Manchester); and Paul Cairney (Stirling) as well as Jamie Murray, Tom Webb, and Steven Wheatley (all Lancaster) The conference will also hear from experts in complexity theory in other disciplines including Sylvia Walby (Sociology) and, Robert Geyer (Politics).

The conference will be of particular interest to international law and human rights scholars examining the significance of systems theory in general and complexity theory in particular to the discipline. Relevant papers include:

  • ‘Complexity theory and human rights’
  • ‘The ‘Consensus Approach’ of the ECtHR as a Rational Response to Complexity: Taming Uncertainty through Collective Intelligence’
  • ‘Human Rights Outcomes in Complexity and the Problem of Causation’
  • ‘Using Critical Mass in Collective Decision Making to Better Understand the Formation of Customary International Law’
  • ‘Prosecuting Transnational Terrorist Groups before the International Criminal Court: How Complexity Theory Can Explain the Accountability Gap’