Quo Vadis Constitution? – Toronto

Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) hosts the Graduate Law Students’ Association Annual Conference May 9-10, 2008. The conference’s theme is Quo Vadis Constitution? The Boundaries of Modern Law. The call for papers deadline is March 3, 2008.

The borders of modern law are no longer territorial. Law has become increasingly transnational and at the same time theories of centralization in law have proliferated in the past 60 years. Originally, the constitution developed as a set of written and unwritten norms designed to bind the inhabitants of particular sovereign borders. With the emergence of international and transnational law, however, a global sense of constitutionalism has spawned. As a result, in all areas of law, both at the domestic and international level, in the public and private spheres, key actors and organizations seek to establish “quasi-constitutional” universal legal norms within their respective fields.

This year’s conference seeks to explore the ways in which modern law confronts and intersects with such transnational and international legal trends, without disregarding the extended challenges constitutionalism faces at a domestic level. Possible areas of interest include but are not limited to: corporate governance; centralization vs. regulatory competition; intellectual property; public and private international law; environmental law; constitutional law and foreign relations; energy law; human rights law; gender and law; law and religion; international trade law; law and economics; transgovernmentalism and law and development; the north-south debate; aboriginal law; critical approaches to law and legal/political theory; legal pluralism; legal transplants; health law; third world approaches to international law and comparative legal studies.