Special Workshop IVR 2019: Pluralism and Integration [Call for Papers]

Pluralism and Integration: 

from Civil Society to an Impartial and Fair Global Order

Aim

A workshop jointly organized by ASAP (Academics Stand Against Poverty) and Juris North. We aim to attract contributions that will deepen and broaden the understanding of how to address partiality and unfairness in the world order. We hope to have participants from different disciplinary approaches and backgrounds, including those outside of the mainstream theories of global justice.

Theme

Any community or population consists of people who are different in many senses. Pluralism is a permanent feature. Similar to the civil society, the international community includes several agents of very different natures (sovereign states, cultures, subcultures, religions, individuals). People in civil societies may be weak or strong, wealthy or poor, classed as abled or disabled, and so on, while the international arena includes developed and non-developed nations, democratic and non-democratic legal systems, populated and not populated territories, sovereign states, pseudo-states, quasi-states, and other. Both in the case of civil societies and the international community, national and international agents, respectively recognize some inter-subject rules of conduct.

In any circumstances in which there are agents of different kinds their interrelations will introduce identity and conflict of interests. As a result, some criteria are needed for choosing the principles that can guarantee decision-making impartiality and the fairness of the outcome. Arguably, in the case of civil societies, many national legal orders already offer rules and mechanisms to secure normatively and effectively impartiality in the way in which different persons are considered and a certain degree of fairness (or at least, the ability to challenge unfair situations).

The global order is very different. Although there are international rules and mechanisms that in principle acknowledge equality of states and give central roles to non-governmental organizations and, to an extent, people (for example, European Union law), realpolitik shows clearly that impartiality in the way different international agents are considered is scattered (for example, there are some states that are “more equal” than others) and therefore, the fairness of the current world order is highly questionable.

Hypotheses

• The global order can progress from a pluralism of pluralisms to one version of pluralism that is widely sharable when no world order can be equally hospitable to all states, cultures, religions and persons it makes room for, or when no world order can please everyone in regard to how much inequality it engenders.
• Sovereign states can cooperate together and accept limitations without sacrificing their sovereignty. Similarly, other international agents can cooperate together and accept limitations without compromising their freedom.
• Individuals can be (i) partial for their state under rules of a fair competition and also be (ii) impartial in their defense and promotion of those fair rules themselves. 

IMPORTANT DATES

• Deadline for submission (abstract only): Friday 11^th January 2019.

NOTE: please email your abstract (no more than 500 words long and written in English) to Dr Jorge E. Núñez j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk

• Notification of decision: by Friday 25^th January 2019.
• Deadline for final submission (draft paper): Friday 17^th May 2019.

NOTE: the draft paper for presentation should be not more than 12,000 words long, including footnotes, and written in English.

GENERAL INFORMATION and ENQUIRIES

General Information about the Conference: Link to IVR 2019

General Enquiries about this special Workshop: Dr Jorge E. Núñez j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk