University College Dublin invites postgraduate researchers to submit proposals for an intensive one day interdisciplinary workshop on Transnational Regulation of Food Safety and Quality issues of harmonisation, diversity and legitimacy. The workshop will be held at the School of Law, University College Dublin Dec. 4-5, 2009. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Sept. 18, 2009.
Background and Objectives
During the medieval period, European private actors in the form of guilds mobilised to regulate the safety and quality of food and agricultural products to protect both consumers and traders from the risks associated with unsafe foodstuffs and commercial practices. As the scale and geographies of commerce expanded between the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the regulation of food safety and quality by guilds died out and consumer demands for increased public oversight were answered from the nineteenth century onwards by what is known by historians of food regulation as “the legislative period.? Since then, we have seen the globalisation of trade in food and agricultural products and the concomitant exercise of governance over these areas by international and supranational institutions such as the World Trade Organisation and the European Union. Furthermore, over the past two decade we have seen the re-emergence of private actors in the form of private food safety and quality standards organisations such as GLOBALGAP engaged in the governance of food safety and quality. As such, the governance of food safety and quality is now exercised at the transnational, supranational and national level by a variety of both public and private institutions, organisations and actors.
This policy sphere represents a fascinating case for analysis given the multiple occupation of regulatory space by a multitude of public and private actors who regulate, on various levels, through both binding and non-binding norms. The current configuration of regulatory space in this policy area raises a number of important issues which this workshop aims to address. Firstly how, and to what extent, can coordination and harmonisation of these regulatory systems be achieved given their current diversity and the fragmented nature of the regulatory space? Secondly, what are the appropriate roles for public and private actors in the regulation of food safety and quality? Finally, and related, what issues of legitimacy are raised by the shifts in the location, mechanisms and forms of regulation of food safety and quality which we have witnessed? Given the need for cross-disciplinary inquiry into these issues, the workshop organisers welcome submissions from postgraduate researchers from all disciplines who have an interest in these issues or who are addressing these issues in their current research.
Format
The workshop will open on the 4th December with a welcome reception and a keynote address. The workshop sessions will commence on Saturday 5th December at the School of Law, University College Dublin. During the sessions, each presenter will be given approximately 15 minutes to present their research. A prominent academic (who will be appointed as a discussant) will then address various aspects of each paper and provide feedback. Following this, the floor will be opened for the remainder of the session in order to allow the maximum amount of time for discussion, debate and feedback. In order to facilitate this, all papers will be circulated a sufficient amount of time prior to the workshop in order for all participants to have read each paper.
Call for papers submission of abstracts
The workshop organisers invite interested postgraduate researchers to submits abstracts of approximately 400 words, together with contact details to submissions [at] ucdconference.com. The closing date for submission of abstracts is Friday 18th September 2009. Notification of acceptance/non-acceptance of papers will be sent no later than Friday 25th September 2009. The deadline for submission of final papers is Friday 30th October 2009.
