CFP: International Law and Global Justice, Oxford

On the 20th and 21st of May 2009, The Global Justice Network, with the support of the Centre for the Study of Social Justice and the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford, will host a two-day interdisciplinary workshop on 'International Law and Global Justice'.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Debates on international law and on global justice have for the most part proceeded separately. Only very few theorists have suggested that the project of designing principles of international/global justice is closely related to that of designing principles of international law. Taking the lead from this often underappreciated suggestion, in this workshop we aim to explore the connections between international law and global justice. In particular, we welcome papers - both legal and philosophical - discussing the following topics:
*The relation between coercion, law and (global) justice - An increasing number of political theorists have argued that obligations of justice only apply within political communities by virtue of the existence of a coercive legal system. What are the implications of this view for the question of global justice? Can we plausibly claim that international law is coercive in the same way in which domestic law is? If not, does this mean that principles of justice should not apply to it?
*The effectiveness of international law as a means to realising global justice - If international law is one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal to bring about a morally better world, what sort of reforms of the current international legal system would be necessary to move closer to the goal of global justice? Given the sui generis nature of the international legal system, how can such reforms be most fruitfully brought about?
*Global justice, international law and state sovereignty - Is the principle of the sovereign equality of states itself a principle of international/global justice or a hindrance to the quest for global justice? Would a world inhabited by states which are genuinely - as opposed to merely formally - equally sovereign be a just world? Or does the realisation of a just world require us to transcend the very idea of state sovereignty, moving from a system of international law to a global legal system?

Confirmed keynote speakers
Prof. Allen Buchanan (Duke University)
Prof. Terry Nardin (University of Singapore)

Submission instructions
If you wish to present a paper, please email a 600 word proposal and a short biographical note to the workshop convenors at globaljustice@politics.ox.ac.uk by February 29th 2009.Updated information will shortly be available on the Conference Website.

CFP: Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress

The second annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress:

An international conference geared to offer the highest quality, highest altitude discussion of ethics, broadly conceived.

August 6-9, 2009. Boulder, Colorado

The Center for Values and Social Policy in the Philosophy Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder is pleased to present the second annual RoME congress. Papers from all areas of ethics and political theory are invited. To encourage the participation of junior scholars, the University of Colorado will be awarding a Young Ethicist Prize of $500 for most meritorious submission. The prize competition is open to any participating untenured philosopher (including, but not limited to, tenure-track faculty, instructors, and graduate students).

Keynote speakers:
Speaker 1: Judith JarvisThomson (MIT)
Speaker 2: Thomas Pogge (YaleUniversity)
Speaker 3: TBD

Deadlines
Submission of abstracts: Feb 15, 2009.
Notification of acceptance: April 25, 2009.
Full paper submission for Young Ethicist Prize Consideration: June 1, 2009.

Format
Abstracts (750-1000 words). Shorter or longer abstracts will not be accepted. Double spaced, prepared for blind-review. (Anticipate full papers at half-hour reading time or 4500 words, whichever is shorter.) In order to be considered for the Young Ethicist Prize, complete papers must be submitted by June 1, 2009 and must have already been accepted for participation. Announcement of a winner will be made at the event. Indicate in your submission whether you would consider being a commentator on another paper, should your paper not be accepted to the conference for presentation. Please submit abstracts electronically (in Word format) to Benjamin Hale (bhale@colorado.edu) and Alastair Norcross (Alastair.Norcross@colorado.edu).

Click here for a pdf of the Call for Papers.
Click here for information about last year's RoME Congress.

Crossovers in Applied Ethics

Another interesting post, this time on the Oxford Uehiro Centre's Practical Ethics Blog, from Roger Crisp on the crossovers between different debates in applied ethics. In particular, he argues that thinking about an issue like climate change can help us to see what is going on in debates surrounding abortion. The general point, that issues in practical ethics shouldn't be considered alone, is an important one. As he says, we must be conscious of the implications of our conclusions in one area on what we can consistently conclude in another. 

Philosophy and Science

There's an interesting post (as well as a good follow-up discussion) on Public Reason from Colin Farrelly arguing for stronger links between philosophy and science. 

To summarise very briefly, he argues that philosophers (especially moral and political philosophers) should be paying much more attention to developments in science and technology, rather than spending all of their time worrying about abstract ideas. I'd agree broadly with his general contention, although I think the relationship should work both ways, in that moral and political philosophy has important implications for science, as well as science having implications for philosophy. In particular, philosophy can and should guide our interpretation of scientific discovery. We must be wary of assuming too much about the implications of scientific investigation. Philosophy has an important role to play here.  

Philosophers' Carnival

The 83rd Philosophers' Carnival is here.

CFP: Warwick Annual Grad Conference in Political Theory

Warwick 11th Annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory
14th February 2009

On Saturday 14th February 2009 from 10.00am to 6.30pm, the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick will host its eleventh annual conference for postgraduate students working in political theory or political philosophy. Previous events have been very successful, attracting a wide range of high quality papers, and participants from many countries. Past participants have reported that the conference provides a useful opportunity for graduate students to gain experience and receive feedback on work in progress. As well as postgraduate papers, there will be two plenary sessions:

Mathew Humphrey, University of Nottingham: 'Ideal Democratic Theory and Citizen Behaviour'
Leif Wenar, King's College London: 'Property Rights and the Resource Curse'

Postgraduates interested in giving papers should send abstracts (400-500 words) by no later than 21st January 2009. Papers may deal with any area within contemporary political theory, political philosophy, or the history of political thought, but should take no more than twenty minutes to present. It would be appreciated if those wanting to attend the conference would reserve a place no later than 6th February 2009. Attendance is free of charge and the Department will provide lunch.

All correspondence and further inquiries should be addressed to Matthew Clayton.

Postrad CFP: Northern Political Theory Association Conference

The annual conference of the Northern Political Theory Association will be held at the University of Stirling on 20 February 2009 .

Programme:
Elizabeth Ashford (University of St Andrews) , Title to be confirmed
Dudley Knowles (University of Glasgow), 'Good Citizens and Good Samaritans'
Cillian McBride (Queen's University, Belfast), 'Rethinking the Politics of Recognition'
Fabienne Peter (University of Warwick) , 'Democratic Legitimacy'

Postgraduate Paper Competition:

One fully-funded place is reserved for the presenter of a postgraduate paper. Postgraduates who wish to enter the competition should submit a 500 word abstract by Monday 12 January to Rowan.Cruft@stir.ac.uk and Andrea.Baumeister@stir.ac.uk .

CFP: Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship

8th Global Conference
Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship
Friday 10th July - Sunday 12th July 2008
Mansfield College, Oxford

Call for Papers
Environmental Ethics, Sustainability and Education
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference aims to explore the role of ecology and environmental thinking in the context of contemporary society and international affairs, and assess the implications for our understandings of fairness, justice and global citizenship. 'Environmental justice' is conceived broadly as reflecting not only justice in the context of human communities but also towards other species, ecosystems, habitats, landscapes, succeeding generations and the environment as a whole. The 8th Global Conference on Ecological Justice and Global Citizenship will explicitly explore environmental ethics and sustainability. We are looking for papers which investigate and question the relationships of power and equity in the environmental context. Among these relationships, our environmental ethic has a central role, not only in terms of explaining current attitudes towards the environment, nature and natural resource use, but also the potential role it may play in shaping the future and enabling us to live more sustainably. In particular papers are sought which explore the role of education in shaping a modern environmental ethic, and the inherent challenges which accompany that role.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on any of the following indicative themes:
* Environmental ethics
o New and emerging thinkers and trends of thought on environmental ethics
o The role and place of environmental protest in shaping our ethic
o Indigenous environmental ethics: relations between humans and 'nature'
o Property rights and private interests vs. pooling of human and ecological resources
o The need for greater multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration
* Sustainability
o Engaging citizens in the processes of achieving increased sustainability
o The role of civil society: communities taking responsibility for the local environment
o Corporate Social Responsibility: transparency and accountability
o Achieving responsible consumption and production
o The role of NGOs in environmental and sustainability awareness raising
* Environmental education
o Teaching citizenship, identity and ethics
o Designing the ecological curriculum
o Integrating the concept of ‘sustainability’ and environmental awareness and education in the primary, secondary and higher education sectors
o The integration of distinct disciplines: The role of behavioural science in environmental education

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 6th February 2009. If your paper is accepted for presentation at the conference, an 8 page draft paper should be submitted by Friday 5th June 2009. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to all Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstractWe acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs: Erika Techera, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail: erika.techera@law.mq.edu.au
S. Ram Vemuri, School of Law and Business,Faculty of Law, Business and Arts, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia. E-mail: ram.vemuri@cdu.edu.au
Rob Fisher, Network Founder and Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. E-mail: ejgc8@inter-disciplinary.net

Perspectives are sought from
* people engaged in actor network theory, agriculture and agricultural economics, the built environment disciplines, conflict resolution and mediation, critical geography, environmental studies, human development and ecology, industrial relations and design, law and the legal professions, philosophy and ethics, political science and international affairs, public policy and advising, social sciences, sociology of science, theology, urban studies and western European studies
* people in the public and private sectors who are involved in planning and project development, policy-making and implementation, and negotiation and mediation at national and international levels
* people in Governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, voluntary sector bodies, environmental charities and groups, business and professional associations

All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be published in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed ISBN hard copy volume. Multiple themed volumes are in print and/or in press from previous meetings of the project.The conference is sponsored by Inter-Disciplinary.Net as part of the 'Probing the Boundaries' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

For further details about the project please visit: http://www.interdisciplinary.net/ptb/ejgc/ejgc.htm
For further details about the conference please visit: http://www.interdisciplinary.net/ptb/ejgc/ejgc8/cfp.htm

CFP: Philosopher's Rally

CALL FOR PAPERS
Philosopher's Rally 2009
12-13 May 2009
University of Twente campus, Enschede, the Netherlands
http://www.ssf-philosophersrally.nl

The third Philosopher's Rally is a two-day international student conference for philosophers, students and for all whose interests are in the field of philosophy. After two successful years in Groningen and Utrecht, now the University of Twente, Enschede will bring together aspiring and vested names in philosophy. The Rally aims to bring those people together to share their latest philosophical ideas, theories and approaches with the audience. The theme of this edition of the Philosophers’ Rally will be “Future Philosophy”. The Philosopher’s Rally 2009 seeks papers representing a broad range of topics covered by this theme. Further, because the University of Twente has a leading position in the philosophy of technology and philosophy of engineering science, presentations in these fields of philosophy are particularly welcomed, though presentations can cover any area of philosophy. Researchers, PhD, master and bachelor students are invited to hand in digital abstracts of approximately 500 words (with a maximum of 800) for a presentation during one of the two days. Presentations will be about half an hour, after whichthere is time for questions and debate.

Abstracts can be sent to: abstracts@ssf-philosophersrally.nl

Deadline for submissions: 12-12-2008.
Notification of Acceptance deadline: 30-01-2009.

Organizing Committee:· Matthew Vuijk· Bernd Kottier· Erik Baaij

Information and contact: info@ssf-philosophersrally.nl