Private International Law Festival 2026: Call for Papers

On 24 and 25 September 2026,the University of Edinburgh Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law will host the second Private International Law Festival in Edinburgh on The End of Rule-Based International Order? – Implications for Private International Law.

The Festival aims to make progress on the following questions: what impact do current geopolitical shifts have on private international law? Do they not matter because private international law can continue to maintain the fiction of being apolitical and merely technical? Are we seeing any shifts from a rule-based private international order? Or can private international law in an increasingly mercantile political economy pick up where public international law seems to be discarded?

Those interested in submitting a proposal are free to propose a paper, a panel, a workshop or any other format. Both fully-fledged theories and ideas in need of development are welcome. Proposals from all approaches, including critical, doctrinal, historical, conceptual, reflexive, post-critical, interdisciplinary and any others, that enable a serious scholarly reflection from a private international law perspective on this broad topic, are welcome.

Junior researchers are particularly encouraged to submit proposals, however established academics and senior researchers are encouraged too.

Applicants are invited to submit a proposal of maximum 500 words, together with a short bio/s in the same word document by 10 April 2026. Submissions should be sent to law.events@ed.ac.uk, with the email subject clearly marked Proposal PIL Festival_Surname/s of the applicant/s.

Selected speakers will be informed in May 2026.

The conference cannot provide funding for participant expenses. Researchers submitting proposals are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation expenses.

The call for papers is available here.