25th World Congress of Political Sciences
IPSA - AISP
Brisbane, Australia 21-26 July 2018
Panel
Sovereignty and borders
Organizers
Amarilla Márta Kiss
Jorge Emilio Núñez
Presentation
Sovereignty and borders are key concepts questioned in several disciplines. On the one hand, there are traditional territorial disputes, from the rise of Islamic State, the Ukrainian Crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the failure/potential dismemberment of states in the Caucasus and the Middle East to maritime disputes like the South China Sea. These events indicate that the recognition of sovereignty as a bounded legal norm is not static. On the other hand, in particular since 911, new forms of terrorism and transnational crimes−e.g. cyber-terrorism−have appeared resulting in a challenge to the concept of borders.
International relations and legal and political scholarly literature offer a plethora of views on sovereignty and borders, both nationally and internationally. Many scholars of legal and political theory and international relations use the terms “sovereignty” and “borders” and similar terminology to refer to various different realities. However, such conceptions fall short in offering common grounds for debate. Sovereignty and borders are unquestionably complex, both conceptually and in substance. There are at least two realms intertwined in all of these views: politics and law.
Simply put, the panel intends to explore a major gap in international relations, law, and political sciences: it will be a multi-disciplinary platform for debate to the different views of sovereignty and borders offered by different sciences (law, political sciences, international relations).
Aims
The rationale for the workshop is simple, yet potentially of very high impact.
1. Conceptual debate in law and political sciences:
a) To review and challenge the current understanding of the concept of “sovereignty” in international relations, jurisprudence, and political theory.
b) To offer a conceptual common ground for future discussions on sovereignty.
2. Substantive debate in law and political sciences:
a) To review concrete territorial debates in which sovereignty issues have a central role.
b) To share, compare and contrast empirical research that relates to territory and sovereignty.
Notes: Open to additional interested participants. The abstracts and brief academic biography
should be submitted by no later than Friday 22nd September 2017.
Language/word limit: The abstracts must be written in English and should be under 350 words.
The sessions will be held in English.
Organizers
Amarilla Márta Kiss (Co-Chair)
Lecturer in Public International and European Law. (Pazmany Peter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary). Areas of research: international courts and tribunals, maritime piracy, unique socio-legal nature of public international law.
Jorge Emilío Núñez (Co-Chair)
PhD in Law (Manchester-UK). Senior Lecturer in Law (Manchester-UK).
Profesor de Derecho (UNLP-Argentina). Areas of research: jurisprudence, legal theory, political
theory, international relations. Various international publications and events worldwide as key
speaker.
