Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Operations of the Global - Workshop, University of Hamburg

Operations of the Global – Explorations of Dis/Connectivity
6th-8th October 2011


organized by:
Prof. Dr. Urs Stäheli
Dr. Sven Opitz
Ute Tellmann, PhD

How to Think the Global?

Recent debates on globalization have challenged the idea of the globe as a pre-existing and all-encompassing entity. The focus has turned towards different and situated modes of doing globalization. This conference suggests understanding the global as the effect of particular, fragmented and material operations. We seek to explore and compare different forms of dis/connectivity. Finance, diplomacy, law, consumption, transport and migration depend for their global reach on specific forms of connectivity. While finance is tied by networks of information; global commodity chains depend on logistical organization of space. Where political and legal norms travel by citation and standardization, security measures enlist contagious logics of affect. Each form of connectivity is constitutively linked to different materialities and media and is characterized by different temporalities and intensities. At this conference we will ask how different materialities and logics of connectivity intertwine. How do these modes differ in terms of density, speed and diffusion? How can we theorize the materiality of these connective links? Are there tipping points that turn connectivity into disconnectivity?

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Monday, September 26, 2011

Call: 2012 ECPR Joint Session Workshop on The institutions of international society revisited: theory, practice, performativity

ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops 2012
University of Antwerp, Belgium
10th - 15th April 2012

http://new.ecprnet.eu/Joint%20Sessions/2012_Antwerp/

Workshop Title: The institutions of international society revisited: theory, practice, performativity

Directors: Jorg KUSTERMANS, jorg.kustermans@ua.ac.be
ANTWERP, University of

Tanja AALBERTS, taalberts@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
LEIDEN, Universiteit

Abstract:
The purpose of this workshop is to re-assess the institutions of international society, as defined by Hedley Bull in the 1970’s, in light of recent theoretical advances in International Relations scholarship, viz. the focus on practice and performance. It will focus on two main issues: (1) which are the institutions of (contemporary) international or world society and how have these institutions evolved? (2) what does the deployment of analytical concepts such as practice and performativity add to our understanding of the institutions of international society, and thus of international society as such? Answers to these questions should yield a theoretical and empirical update of the concept of international society.
To this end, we invite papers that analyse a particular institution of international society (e.g. war, diplomacy, law, or less common entries like colonialism and multilateralism), or that analyse an emerging institution of world society, through the lens of practice and/or performance theory. Papers can be either theory-heavy, empirics-heavy, or evenly balanced, but all should preferably include both components.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

CGG Lecture Series 2011-12 on Global Constitutionalism: Thinking about Justice, Legitimacy and Democracy in Global Terms

The 2011-12 Lecture Series of the Center for Globalization and Governance at the University of Hamburg will focus on Global Constitutionalism: Thinking about Justice, Legitimacy and Democracy in Global Terms

Time and Place:
02.11.2011 – 25.01.2012 WEDNESDAY, 6 – 8 pm
University of Hamburg, Lecture Room K, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1

Participants: Robert Howse & Ruti G. Teitel, New York University; Richard Bellamy, University College London; Cecelia Lynch, University of California at Irvine; Christoph Möllers, Humboldt Universität Berlin; Neil Walker, University of Edinburgh; Richard Ned Lebow, Darthmouth College

Abstract: The 21st century has brought about a change from merely globalised to constitutionalised international relations. The shift comes with a paradox: While international organisations have undergone processes of constitutionalisation compliance with international law is highly contested. At the same time, most international actors including both states and none-states would be in broad agreement that legitimacy and legality matter in international relations. The paradox has been addressed by lawyers and political scientists from a range of theoretical angles who raised questions about the relationship between different legal orders and the role of international organisations. Specifically, recent studies of global constitutionalism have discussed ways in which the United Nations (UN) can be incorporated into a constitutional order and developed methods to assess the constitutionalisation of international organisations such as the World Trade Union (WTO, the European Union (EU), Mercosur and other. These academic debates are global. They reflect the pressing problem of legitimate governance for politicians and courts as contested UN Security Council decisions inside and outside European and other regional courts demonstrate (compare the debate about the Kadi case and its implications for law and politics). However, despite the wide-ranging interest and the political pressure to fix global problems with the intervening assistance of international institutions, there is little agreement on how to proceed (compare the UN Security Council decision on Libya). The observed change that is brought to the fore by global constitutionalism represents a particular challenge to international relations theory since it involves a distinct constitutional quality in an area not commonly addressed by constitutional theory.

COORDINATION: Professor Antje Wiener, Chair in Political Science and Global Governance, University of Hamburg

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

ZERP Working Paper on "The ICJ and Transnational Law" (Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities)

Andreas Fischer Lescano and Carsten Gericke 2011. The ICJ and Transnational Law: The “Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities” as an Indicator for the Future of the Transnational Legal Order. ZERP-Working Paper 2/2011.

Download from the ZERP Homepage

see also: www.zerp.uni-bremen.de

Abstract:
On 22 December 2008 the Federal Republic of Germany initialized proceedings against the Italian Republic before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. In January 2011 Greece applied for permission to intervene in the case. On 4 July 2011 the ICJ decided that Greece is permitted to intervene as a nonparty in the case, pursuant to Article 62 of the Statute. Public hearings in The Hague will take place from 12 to 16 September 2011.

The outcome of this “Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities” is of central significance for the future of the transnational enforcement of human rights insofar as the ICJ decision will determine the role national courts are to play in the enforcement of compensation claims under civil law in the field of “transitional justice.” Consequently, it will also determine how the tension between human rights, on the one hand, and state immunity, on the other, is to be adjusted. If one conceives “transnational law” in the vein of Philip C. Jessup – i.e. as law that breaks with the paradigm of an ius inter gentes, which can be invoked by individuals and which transcends the dualism of national and international law – it can be concluded that the future of transnational law and the leeway for the transnational enforcement strategies of civil societal actors depend significantly on the course of the proceedings in The Hague.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Vacancy: Research Coordinator at the CGG in Hamburg

The Center for Globalization and Governance at the University of Hamburg is seeking a research coordinator (part time). For more information (in German), see http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/institute/cgg/