New Book on IR Theory and International Law by A Sincliar

Adriana Sinclair, International Relations Theory and International Law: A Critical Approach (Cambridge Univ. Press 2010).

International law is playing an increasingly important role in international politics. However, international relations theorists have thus far failed to conceptualise adequately the role that law plays in politics. Instead, IR theorists have tended to operate with a limited conception of law. An understanding of jurisprudence and legal methodology is a crucial step towards achieving a better account of international law in IR theory. But many of the flaws in IR's idea of law stem also from the theoretical foundations of constructivism – the school of thought which engages most frequently with law. Adriana Sinclair rehabilitates IR theory's understanding of law, using cases studies from American, English and international law to critically examine contemporary constructivist approaches to IR and show how a gap in their understanding of law has led to inadequate theorisation.

seven postdoctoral fellowships in Berlin

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites scholars to apply for seven postdoctoral fellowships for the research project

RECHTSKULTUREN: CONFRONTATIONS BEYOND COMPARISON for the academic year 2011/12 in Berlin.

Please find the call for applications below, or as a PDF document attached to this message or via the following link:
http://www.forum-transregionale-studien.de/fileadmin/pdf/rechtskulturen/pdf-Rechtskulturen-cfa.pdf

The Forum Transregionale Studien is a new research platform of the Land of Berlin designed to promote research connecting systematic and region-specific questions in a perspective that addresses entanglements and interactions beyond national, cultural or regional frames. The Forum works in tandem with established institutions and networks engaged in transregional studies and is supported by an association of the directors of research institutes and networks mainly based in Berlin. It started its activities in 2010 by supporting three research projects in the fields of law, philology, and urban sociology.

For more information, please see our website (under construction) www.forum-transregionale-studien.de

Call for Papers - Global Constitutionalism (new journal)

Global Constitutionalism – World of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law


A new journal – forthcoming in January 2012

Editors:
Mattias Kumm, WZB Berlin, Germany and New York University, School of Law, USA
Anthony F. Lang Jr, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Miguel Poiares Maduro, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
James Tully, University of Victoria, Canada (consulting editor)
Antje Wiener, University of Hamburg, Germany

Global Constitutionalism – World of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (GlobCon) seeks to promote a deeper understanding on the foundations, limitations and principles of political order and their dynamics over time on a global scale. The journal is interested in work that refers to constitutionalism as a template for empirical, conceptual or normative research on past, present and future political and legal practices, within and beyond the state.
Constitutionalism is understood here not as the study of a legal document, but as a reference frame for interdisciplinary research with a particular focus. Constitutionalism in a wide sense is associated with the study of the constitutive elements of legal and political practice that are central for the assessment of its legality or legitimacy. Constitutionalism does not presuppose the existence of a written constitution. It merely presupposes the interplay between social and institutional practices in which claims to legality and, therefore, legitimate authority, and democracy are central. Constitutionalism analyses the role of fundamental norms, the type of actors, and the institutions and procedures through which legal and political decisions are made. In a more narrow modern sense constitutionalism focuses on the basic ideas relating to justice (such as human rights), procedural fairness and participation (e.g. democracy) and the rule of law as they relate to institutional practices and policies in and beyond the state.
GlobCon invites submissions from scholars of International Law, Political Science, International Relations, Comparative Constitutional Law, Comparative Politics, Political Theory and Philosophy for its first issue to be published in January 2012. GlobCon is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that seeks to develop interdisciplinary discourse about global constitutionalism. It welcomes submissions on a wide range of topics related to constitutionalism, human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The Journal's editorial board is comprised of scholars from International Law, International Relations, International Political Theory and Philosophy: Mathias Albert, Richard Bellamy, Seyla Benhabib, Armin v. Bogdandy, John Borrows, Jutta Brunnée, Michael Byers, Carlos Closa, Gordon Christie, Jean L. Cohen, Grainne de Burca, Avigail Eisenberg, Michelle Everson, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, Rainer Forst, Friedrich Kratochwil, Jürgen Neyer, Konrad Ng, Nicholas G. Onuf, Robert Post, Susan Rose-Ackerman , Kim Rubenstein, Joanne Scott, Rainer Schmalz-Bruns, Jo Shaw, Quentin Skinner, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Stephen Toope, Neil Walker, Jeremy Webber and Michael Zürn.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Manuscripts for consideration should be submitted via email to the journal’s managing assistant Mr. Sassan Gholiagha. His E-Mail address is sassan.gholiagha@wiso.uni-hamburg.de.
GlobCon will review articles up to 15,000 words (including notes and bibliography), although authors will be encouraged to reduce their papers to fewer than 12,000 words before publication. Brevity is encouraged and shorter papers will be advantaged in acceptance decisions. Please include a word count with submission, along with an abstract of approximately 200 words which is not repeated from the paper itself. Please include up to five keywords for the article. Authors should submit both a complete version of the manuscript and an anonymous version, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) that can be sent to reviewers. The citation style of the submission should either be Chicago or Harvard Style. Please do not use endnotes. Submissions are accepted now.

Any enquiries can be sent via email to the journal’s managing assistant Mr. Sassan Gholiagha. His E-Mail address is sassan.gholiagha@wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Frankfurt Conference on Justice and or Peace

Annual Conferences
Justice and/or Peace

November 18-20, 2010
Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, Westend Campus

In ordinary language peace usually stands for "freedom from disturbance" or "a state or period in which there is no war". Justice, in turn, is generally associated with "the quality of being fair and reasonable". In ethical and moral discourse the two are often discussed together, suggesting an internal, if delicate relationship. Consider three different voices: When, in addressing the United Nations, Pope Benedict quotes the prophet Isaiah that "justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security" the mere invocation of peace and justice as mutually interdependent already portends that the realities of global life probably do not (yet) live up to Catholic normative standards.

more information

Jan Klabbers, Global Governance Colloquium at the Hertie School of Governance Berlin

November, 10th, Wednesday, 06:00 pm
Global Governance Colloquium

Global Governance Colloquium at the
Hertie School of Governance Berlin
Friedrichstr. 180
room 2.61.

Jan Klabbers is professor of International Organisations Law and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research at the University of Helsinki. He will speak on
“Rethinking Functionalism: Paul S. Reinsch and the Making of International Institutional Law“

In the law of international organizations, functionalism has attained near-paradigmatic status. Yet, over the last two decades or so, it has become clear that functionalism is ill-equipped to address the control of international organizations. On the twin assumptions that it might be useful to spell out what functionalism stands for and that it might be possible to re-think functionalism in order to integrate control, this paper discusses the ideas and methods developed by the auctor intellectualis of functionalism, Paul Reinsch (who wrote in the early 20th century). It discusses the comparative method, the inaptitude of the federal analogy, and the influence of colonial theory, and then aims to re-align functionalism and control by enriching legal thought through the introduction of virtue ethics.

For more information, see http://www.hertie-school.org/content.php?nav_id=2901

Out NOW: Neyer, J and A Wiener, Political Theory of the European Union

Neyer, J and A Wiener, eds, 2010, Political Theory of the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Debate about the theory underpinning the nature, workings, and development of the European (EU) has in many ways been hampered in recent years by an intellectual divergence in the two main ways that the EU is conceptualized. On the one hand is a political science and comparative government oriented strand that sees the EU as a political system in its own right. On the other is the international relations tradition which conceptualizes it as another international organization. Alongside this, the EU itself has developed a significant constitutional dimension. Indeed, the debate surrounding the 'Constitutional Treaty' presented several challenges to our capacity to grasp the normative change of this non-state polity. Despite the eventual contestation of the EU's 'constitutional turn' through the French and Dutch no-votes and the cumbersome procedure of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty in their aftermath, debates about the EU's constitutional quality have not ceased. In the light of these developments, the editors of this volume, along with their distinguished contributors, have attempted to create a more decisively interdisciplinary theoretical approach to studying the EU within the wider world-political context. The volume brings together scholars in a range of disciplines across the social sciences to offer, not a complete theory, but rather a theoretical approach combining different stands of political and legal theory. The book's aim is to inspire further engagement with the central tenets of political authority and world order, sovereignty and constitutional change and democracy and justice, in the context of the EU's political development.

"This book is a welcome attempt to bring together a range of different disciplinary insights with a view to developing a political theory of the European Union. The attempt is animated by both empirical and normative concerns: to better understand what kind of entity the EU is and the nature of the authority it exercises, as well as to assess the EU's claim to legitimacy and the quality of its democracy and justice. There are excellent contributions from leading scholars across the fields of international relations, law and political theory which interrogate these and other questions. While not purporting to provide a fully-fledged political theory of the EU, the book helps to identify some of the building blocks for a political theory of the EU, as well as setting out a rich array of research questions for the future." - Gráinne de Búrca, Harvard Law School

New book on "Beyond Constitutionalism" by N Krisch

Nico Krisch, Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law (Oxford UP, 2010).

Under pressure from globalisation, the classical distinction between domestic and international law has become increasingly blurred, spurring demand for new paradigms to construe the emerging postnational legal order. The typical response of constitutional and international lawyers as well as political theorists has been to extend domestic concepts - especially constitutionalism - beyond the state. Yet as this book argues, proposals for postnational constitutionalism not only fail to provide a plausible account of the changing shape of postnational law but also fall short as a normative vision. They either dilute constitutionalism's origins and appeal to 'fit' the postnational space; or they create tensions with the radical diversity of postnational society.

more information at the OUP homepage