Evil, Law and the State - Project Conference 2009

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference will explore issues surrounding evil and law, with a focus on state power and violence. Perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of law and legal culture: anthropology, criminology, cultural studies, government/politics, history, legal studies, literature, philosophy, psychology, religion/theology, and sociology, as well as those working in civil rights, human rights, prison services, politics and government (including NGOs), psychiatry, healthcare, and other areas.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to the following themes:

when and why is law evil or a source of evil?
state violence and coercion
enforcement of criminal law and other legal prohibitions
law, citizenship, and political identity
justifications for punishment, including capital punishment
whether and under what circumstances the adversary or inquisitorial models of legal process generate, tolerate, or allow evil outcomes
issues of equality and distributive justice in law
the consequences of legal error
the intersection of law with issues of choice, responsibility, and diminished responsibility
state responsibility for terrorism, war, intervention, ethnic cleansing, and other problems of international law and international relations

Papers on any other topic related to the theme will also be considered. 500 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 3rd October 2008. The abstract will be double blind peer reviewed (where appropriate). If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 6th February 2009.

500 word abstracts should be submitted to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

We 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.

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers will be invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

Evil, Law, and the State is part of a larger series of on-going publishing and research conferences run under the At the Interface banner. This series aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.