CALL FOR PAPERS
COSMOPOLITAN JUSTICE
Free Online International Conference
NOVA SCHOOL OF LAW
4-5 July 2022
Critical cosmopolitan law concerns the consecration of the individual as a subject of international law, especially regarding human rights and international criminal law, but also in areas such as minority rights, environmental law and the common heritage of humanity. The notion of international law is considered inappropriate for nominating relations in which the individual becomes the main subject of law: the stake is not an international law governing relations between states, but a cosmopolitan law, which gives an individual a power against the state, or which confers power on international forums against individuals despite their states. In some respects, the individual's status as a subject of international law is compatible with state-centred theories of international law. In the case of cosmopolitan rights and duties, in contrast, it is necessary to carry out a thorough review of all legal categories based on state sovereignty constructed in the last two hundred years. Firstly, it’s necessary to explore the situations in which it is possible to consider in international law the individual as a subject of law – especially individual responsibility in international criminal law and individual petition in human rights - and how the traditional categories of international law should be completely transformed regarding this "cosmopolitan law". Secondly, it is necessary to analyse the difference between international rules regarding international crimes and human rights treaties. The individual in international criminal law could be considered a subject of law as bearer of the obligation not to commit international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and terrorism. Rules regarding international crimes confer rights and obligations directly on individuals, even if the national system does not adopt them. Whoever violates such rules can be tried by the courts of any country in the world or, when applicable, an international criminal court. These obligations impose individual responsibility, in contrast to the collective responsibility that prevails in international law.
Therefore, a full-fledged cosmopolitan approach has to develop a concept of cosmopolitan law, reformulating all the modern state-centered categories of international law, and concomitantly to construct the normative and legal justifications for the claim that violations of human rights should imply international individual responsibility (as in international criminal law). Apart from this, it has to elaborate on further a precise concept on how to protect the human person against its own governments, what is the responsibility of the international community for individuals suffering in another place, what kind of intervention is possible and who can intervene.
We invite contributions exploring the potentiality of thinking and implementing a cosmopolitan law from a plurality of perspectives and resources.
Languages of communication include English, French,
Portuguese and Spanish.
The abstract for a 20-minutes presentation has to submitted by
20 May 2022
by using the 'SUBMIT ABSTRACT HERE' button below.
The list of the selected participants will be posted on the conference website, section 'Participants', on 31 May.
