*CALL FOR PAPERS*
*Graduate Conference*
*10th Anniversary Conference of the Human Rights Institute*
* *
September 18, 2013
University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
*Deadline for Proposals: April 22, 2013*

The Human Rights Institute is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a
conference (September 19-21) that will showcase the “Connecticut School of
Human Rights,” an interdisciplinary, contextual approach to human rights.
Interest in human rights has expanded beyond law schools throughout the
academy, and in particular into the social sciences and humanities. The
conversations that will take place at the conference point toward new
horizons for the Institute and for the interdisciplinary study of human
rights for decades to come.

The Graduate Human Rights Conference will kick off the interdisciplinary
conversation on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at the Dodd Research Center
at the University of Connecticut. We aim to bring together graduate
students interested in human rights, from multiple disciplines, to present
and share their research interests. The Graduate Conference will include a
workshop on publishing in the field of human rights as well as
complimentary breakfast and lunch. We encourage Graduate students to come
to these events on Wednesday and stay for the 10th Anniversary Conference
which will include many prominent human rights scholars.

Panel Themes: The Graduate Conference encourages interdisciplinary social
science, law, and humanities approaches to understanding human rights
issues. Panel themes may include, but are certainly not limited to, the
following:

– Economic and Social Rights
– Education and Human Rights
– Environmental Rights
– Foundations of Human Rights
– Gender and Human Rights
– Group Rights
– Health and Human Rights
– Human Rights and International Law
– Humanitarianism
– Literature and Human Rights
– Political and Civil Rights

If you would like to present a paper, please submit a 300-500 word abstract
and short bio to the Human Rights Institute at humanrights@uconn.edu by
April 22, 2013:

Please feel free to contact us at humanrights@uconn.edu if you have any
further questions.

Limited travel assistance may be available for accepted panelists.

The relevance of interpretation to the academic study and professional practice of international law is inescapable. Yet interpretation in international law has not traditionally been examined as a distinct field. Given that international law is constituted, in practical terms, by acts of interpretation, there is a need for greater methodological awareness of interpretive theory and practice in international law.

The ‘Interpretation in International Law’ conference at the University of Cambridge in August 2013 aims to attract submissions focusing on the divergent processes of interpretation that exist in international law, whether these be differentiated linguistically, culturally, politically or socially.

Submissions will be encouraged that deal with the interpretation process per se, as well as the place of interpretive process within the larger scheme of international law (such as divergent interpretations of concrete provisions, or the impact of interpretation on the sources of international law). The conference welcomes submissions from both philosophical and practical perspectives ensuring exposure of ideas and concepts that may otherwise have been confined to their own sub-fields.

The following speakers will give keynote presentations:

• Sir David Baragwanath (President, Special Tribunal for Lebanon)
• Professor Andrea Bianchi (The Graduate Institute, Geneva)
• Dr Ingo Venzke (University of Amsterdam)

A wide variety of proposals are welcomed. Proposed panels include:

• Interpretation and Legal Doctrine: this panel will highlight the doctrinal exposition of particular contested legal standards – for example, “fair and equitable treatment” and “cruel and unusual punishment” – as well as the methodologies behind such expositions in a range of international and regional courts and tribunals.
• Interpretation and the Sources of International Law: this panel will focus on how interpretive practice interacts with, and institutes hierarchies amongst, the sources of international law. Where can the line be drawn between “dynamic” and “progressive” interpretive practice and law-making? Submissions dealing with treaty interpretation and the place of interpretation in the formation of custom are encouraged.
• Interpretation and the Interpreters: this panel will examine how disparate interpretations of international law are granted the imprimatur by functionally specialized interpretive communities who use international law as a professional vocabulary (for example, judges, diplomats, legal advisers, arbitrators and regulators). To what extent is the interpretation of international law a competition for “semantic authority” (Ingo Venzke)?
• Interpretation and the International Legal Order: this panel will consider the extent to which one’s interpretive posture depends on the vision of the international legal order that one advocates, such as constitutionalism or global administrative law. How are particular values, such as dignity and comity, foregrounded or neglected in the interpretive process? Do interpretive practices have the potential to bridge conceptual divides between public and private international law?
• Interpretation and Cultural Contingency: James Crawford has recently stated that international lawyers must possess a “technique of plurilingual interpretation”. This panel will provide a forum for the exposition of culturally distinct interpretive practices, as well as a consideration of the benefits and drawbacks of divergent interpretations stemming from cultural differences.
• Interpretation and Indeterminacy: this panel focuses on interpretation in light of the critical challenge to international law. How is interpretive practice affected by the allegation that apolitical rules are impossible and that values used to justify such rules are subjective? Given the fragmentation of international law, is an interpretive lingua franca attainable or is interpretive pluralism inevitable?

Abstract submissions must be between 300-500 words in length and should be accompanied by a short resume. Please submit your documents to cambridgeinterpretation@gmail.com. Any queries may be directed to the conference conveners, Daniel Peat (dcp31@cam.ac.uk) and Matthew Windsor (mrw48@cam.ac.uk).

The closing date for submissions is 1 May 2013. We will notify successful applicants by late May 2013, who must submit their papers by early August 2013. Conference papers should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words. Selected submissions will be considered for publication in an edited volume on the conference theme.