Archive for category: Call for papers

Georgia Antonopoulou (University of Birmingham) and Ekaterina Pannebakker (Leiden University) have issued a call for papers in view of a roundtable that will take place at the University of Birmingham, on 14 May 2026, under the title Bridging Jurisdictions: Rethinking Commercial Conflicts of Laws 10 Years After Brexit.

The roundtable will focus on highlighting cooperation opportunities in commercial conflicts of laws between the United Kingdom and the EU in light of current developments including jurisdictional competition, digitisation, sustainability, and international sanctions.

The organisers invite submissions of draft articles from researchers and academics, especially at their early stages of their careers, on private international law in the aftermath of Brexit.

The selected participants will give an in-person presentation of their articles at the roundtable. Accepted papers will be considered for publication in an edited special journal issue in an international law review. The roundtable will cover reasonable costs of travel, accommodation, and meals for the selected participants.

See here for further details.

The deadline for submission is 1 February 2026.

The editors of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law (EYIEL) invite abstract submissions from scholars and practitioners at all stages of their careers for the 2026 edition.

This year’s Focus Section will explore the theme: Reconstruction of International and European Economic Law. It proceeds from the observation that the international legal-economic order is undergoing profound transformation. Long-standing assumptions underpinning international and European economic law are increasingly challenged by shifting geopolitical dynamics, economic fragmentation, and the rise of new regulatory powers.

In addition to the Focus Section, the General Section of the EYIEL 2026 will feature contributions addressing current challenges, developments, and events in international and European economic law..

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must clearly outline the central argument and significance of the proposed contribution. A short biographical note is also required. Submissions should be sent to eyiel@leuphana.de and should indicate whether they are intended for the Focus Section or the General Section.

The deadline for submission is 30 November 2025.

See here for more details.

A call for papers has been issued in view of a virtual conference titled Global Harm, Local Justice: The Future of Cross-Border Torts, which will take place on 6 February 2026 at the University of Groningen, designed specifically for early-career scholars working in the field of private international law.

This event aims to create a dynamic and supportive environment for emerging scholars to present their work, engage in critical discussion and receive constructive feedback from established academics and peers. We welcome theoretical, comparative and practice-oriented contributions that address the growing complexity of tort-related issues in a globalised, digital and technologically mediated world. 

The conference will provide early career researchers with the unique opportunity to present their work and receive feedback from leading experts in the field of substantive tort law and private international law. This dual perspective allows participants to engage both with private international law and the foundations of liability and remedies offered by substantive tort law. While private international law frames the jurisdictional and choice-of-law dimensions of cross-border disputes, any analysis requires grounding in the substantive principles that govern liability, causation and remedies within domestic tort systems. Substantive law expertise will help to uncover how divergences between legal systems shape conflicts problems. 

Proposals may be submitted by current PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and graduates who obtained their PhD within the last 3 years. Those wishing to submit a paper must send an abstract of 300-500 words and a short bio (max 150 words) to K.C. (Kirsten) Henckel (k.c.henckel@rug.nl) by 1 December 2025.

Further information on the initiative can be found here.

The Special Interest Group established in the framework of the European Law Institute (ELI) to deal with family and succession law plans to award of a prize recognizing outstanding doctoral theses in Comparative Family Law, Comparative Succession Law, and Comparative or European Private International Law in the field of family or succession.

A call has been issued for published or unpublished doctoral thesis written in English, German, French, Italian or Spanish, and defended or discussed between January 2024 and June 2025 at a recognized university in an EU Member state, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland. 

Further details are available here.

The Faculty of Law at the University of Rijeka will be hosting its 2024 Doctoral Conference RIDOC on 13 December 2024.

This event is designed for doctoral candidates who want to present and evaluate their preliminary research findings in front of academics, practicing lawyers, and engage in discussions with peers on an international scale.

Eligible participants are those who are enrolled in a doctoral program or doctoral school by the application deadline. The subject of their dissertation must be in the field of law, private international law included, or a closely related area.

The Programme Committee, chaired by Ivana Kunda, includes Maria Font i Mas, Christophe Geiger, Igor Martinović, Iza Razija Mešević, Anke Morland, Richard Oppong, and Piotr Tereszkiewicz.

The conference language is English.

The deadline for applications is 20 September 2024.

For further details on the conference and the application, see here.

The International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki will host on 5 October 2024 a conference on The Energy Charter and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, organised in cooperation with the University of Cyprus.

The event aims to provide a platform for scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and industry experts to explore and discuss critical issues surrounding the Energy Charter and the mechanisms available for resolving disputes in the energy sector.

Those interested in making a presentation at the conference are invited to submit an abstract in English of no more than 300 words by 31 May 2024.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by 30 June 2024.

Participants, while exempted from paying any fees, are responsible for securing their own funding for travel and accommodation. The organisers are ready to provide support ti selected participants in need of financial assistance by taking care of part of their costs. Those applying for such support are invited to mention this in their application.

Inquiries and submissions should be addressed to Venetia Argyropoulou at ectconference@ihu.gr.

More information available here.

On 22 February 2024, the Law Commission of England and Wales published a call for evidence to help them identify the most challenging and prevalent issues of private international law that arise from the digital, online, and decentralised contexts in which modern digital assets and electronic trade documents are used. They seek the views and evidence of a diverse body of stakeholders from a wide range of perspectives and jurisdictions to ensure their future work on this project will strike the appropriate balance between the theoretical aspect of the law and its practical application. The responses will inform the next steps. They seek responses by Thursday 16 May 2024.

The call for evidence can be downloaded here. A summary of the call can be downloaded here. Responses to the call for evidence should be submitted here.

The Law Commission describes the problem that their project aims to address as follows.

The Problem

When parties to a private law dispute are based in different countries, or the facts and issues giving rise to the dispute cross national borders, questions of private international law arise. In which country’s courts should the parties litigate their dispute? Which country’s law should be applied to resolve it? How can the judgment be enforced in another country? Private international law is the body of domestic law that supplies the rules used to determine these questions.

Problems of private international law are by no means a recent phenomenon. The conditions that give rise to problems of private international law date from at least the fourth century BC. The problems are, however, becoming more difficult and increasingly pervasive because modern technologies challenge the territorial premise on which the existing rules of private international law have been developed.

In this respect, the advent of the internet in the late 1980s has been a catalyst of socio-economic change that has posed significant challenges for private international law. More recent innovations, such as crypto-tokens and distributed ledgers, add novel and arguably intractable problems to these existing challenges.

[The Law Commission’s] project has a particular focus on crypto-tokens, electronic bills of lading, and electronic bills of exchange. This is because these assets are prevalent in market practice, whilst also posing novel theoretical challenges to the methods by which issues of private international law have traditionally been resolved.

The Project

In recent years, a significant aspect of the Law Commission’s work has focused on emerging technologies, including smart legal contracts, electronic trade documents, digital assets, and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs). [The Law Commission’s] work has shown that these technologies raise issues of private international law.

In [the Law Commission’s] final report and Bill for work on electronic trade documents, [the Law Commission] noted that there are private international law difficulties associated with electronic trade documents, in particular the inherent difficulties in determining the geographical location of the documents.

However, [the Law Commission] recognised that many of these issues arise in relation to digital assets more broadly. During the passage of the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, [the Law Commission] committed to considering these issues in a more general project on private international law and emerging technology.

In 2022, the UK Government asked the Law Commission to conduct this project considering how private international law rules will apply in the digital context. In particular, the Law Commission is asked to consider the disputes which are likely to arise in the digital context (including contractual, tortious and property disputes), and make any reform recommendations it considers necessary to Government.

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Small Claims Analysis Net 2 (SCAN2) Project consortium partners and are organising a final conference regarding Small Claims Dispute Resolution on 22-23 February 2024.

The SCAN2 final conference will be organised around two main pillars: first, present the acquired research results of the SCAN2 project to the public, and second, bringing together international academics, practitioners, PhDs, and stakeholders in a supranational forum aiming to discuss the latest legal developments on the existing legal remedies for the small claims models of dispute resolutions for consumers within the European Union.

The call for papers concerns the second pillar of the conference focused on the latest developments and sharing of knowledge in relation to the European models of small claims dispute resolution and online dispute resolution (ODR).

Special consideration will be made for the topics discussing the European Small Claims Procedure Regulation (EU) 861/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/2421), but the organisers encourage submissions also on the following topics: small claims remedies for consumers; online dispute resolution for small claims; cross-border justice for consumers; small claims judgment and enforcement challenges; consumer privacy and data protection in using technology for resolving small claims; the connection between the Brussels Ia Regulation and the Regulations on the European Enforcement Order, the European Small Claims Procedure, the European Payment Order and the European Account Preservation Order and their implementation in national procedural law; best national and supranational practices of national small claims proceedings; digitalisation of small claims proceedings; different fora for the initiation of the small claims proceedings; relationship between the Digital Service Act and ODR for consumers; the future of consumer ODR; and the revision of the new ADR directive and small claims.

Additional information can be found here. Enquiries concerning the academic aspects of the event and the call for papers should be directed to the Conference Chair, Marco Giacalone, at marco.giacalone@vub.be. All other enquiries should be addressed to seyedeh.sajedeh.salehi@vub.be or paola.giacalone@vub.be.

The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research, UCILeR, Portugal, is an investigation center devoted to the analysis of the legal implications and possible solutions for societal challenges.

Knowing that the family and personal status have been going through profound changes in internal legislations and in the scope of international mobility, the organizing committee of the Seminar on Transatlantic dialogues on PIL: family and personal status on the move (consisting of Dulce Lopes, Guillermo Palao Moreno, Nicolas Nord and Paula Távora Vítor) decided to contribute to the ongoing discussions on those issues, by adding a clear and necessary intercontinental dimension to them.

The Seminar is intended to discuss topics related to novelties in the regulation and recognition of family and personal status, through a series of combined panels from colleagues from Europe and America, ranging from the more general issues such as Family and Personal Status and Registry, Family and Personal Status between Nationality and Habitual Residence, Family and Personal Status and Human Rights and Family and Personal Status and Best Interest of the Child, to the more specific topics on Name in Private International Law (How far should personal autonomy go?), Multiple Parenthood in Private International Law (Socio-affective ties and new family models), Gender in Private International Law (Should sex still be a part of the civil status?) and Poly Amorous Relationships in Private International Law (Going beyond polygamy?). 

Young Researchers are welcome to propose individual or co-authored presentations. These presentations should cover one of the above-mentioned themes or others closely related to them. Paper proposals shall fit into the objectives of the Seminar and will be selected according their innovative approach, academic soundness as well as to their contribution to the development of private international law studies.

Proposals should be submitted no later than 20 September 2023 by e-mail to dulcel@fd.uc.pt and paulavit@fd.uc.pt. The proposals should include: the proposed title; an abstract of no more than 300 words; the participant’s name, function and affiliation; the indication if the paper is to be presented online or on-site.

The submission of paper abstracts and participation in the Seminar is free of charge. UCILeR does not cover expenses.

The conference will be held in a hybrid format – online and on-site – at the University of Coimbra. The papers selected by the conveners will be presented on 12 October 2o23.

The editors of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law (EYIEL) welcome abstracts from scholars and practitioners at all stages of their career for the EYIEL 2023. This year’s focus section will be on European and International (Public) Procurement and Competition Law. Next to this, in Part II the EYIEL will consider Current Challenges, Developments and Events in European and International Economic Law.

For the General Section, abstracts shall address topics which are currently of relevance in the context of European and International Economic Law. Similarly, reviews of case-law or practices and developments in the context of international organisations are encouraged. For the Focus Section, abstracts may cover any topic relating to (public) procurement and competition law in the field of European and international economic law, though preference is given to topics focusing on the international perspective.

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words. Abstracts together with a short bionote may be submitted until 28 February 2023 via e-mail to eyiel@leuphana.de.

For all the relevant information, see here.

As announced in this blog, the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan plans to invite young scholars to present the outcome of their doctoral research on any topic within the field of private international law, transnational law or the law of international arbitration, at a dedicated seminar that will be held annually in Milan (the MECSI Seminar). Each MECSI Seminar will revolve around one scholar.

Those interested in presenting their doctoral research at the second MECSI Seminar of 2022, scheduled to take place in November 2022, are encouraged to send an e-mail to Pietro Franzina (pietro.franzina@unicatt.it) by 15 July 2022.

Applicants must be aged less than 35 and may come from any country. They must have already discussed their PhD dissertation at the time when the application is submitted (however, no more than two years must have passed since the dissertation was discussed). Applications must include a copy of the dissertation, an abstract of the dissertation in English and a CV of the author in English.

Applications must also include a proposal for the seminar presentation consisting of a title followed by abstract of about 1.500 words. The subject matter of the presentation must relate to, but should not necessarily coincide with, the topic of the thesis: the applicant may choose, for instance, to concentrate on one aspect of his or her research, or discuss developments occurred after the dissertation was discussed.

All documents accompanying the application must be in pdf format. The selection process involves, for those shortlisted, a Zoom interview.

The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart will cover the travel expenses of the selected scholar up to 600 Euros, and will take care of his or her accommodation at one of the guest houses of the University for up to two nights. During their stay in Milan, the selected scholar will also be invited to give a 45 minute lecture in English to the students attending the course of Private International Law on a topic unrelated to their PhD research.

The editors of the Italian Review of International and Comparative Law (IRIC) welcomes papers from scholars and practitioners at all stages of their career for the Volume 1 of 2023.

Papers may cover any topic, under public international law, private law and comparative law, of the issues related to the interaction between the EU legal order and international arbitration, including:
– The influence of EU law on the concept of arbitrability.
– The exclusion of commercial arbitration from the Bruxelles I-bis Regulation.
– The legal consequences of Brexit on international arbitration in Europe.
– The circulation of judgments concerning international arbitration within the EU;
– The future evolution of ISDS in the EU.
– The regulation of international investments between the EU, its Member States and third countries.
– Treaty law issues concerning the validity and the effectiveness of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and the use of public international law by the CJEU.
– The fate of the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty.
– The application of EU law by international arbitrators.
– International investment law before EU Member States domestic courts.
– The enforcement of arbitral decisions concerning intra-EU BITs in EU and third countries.
– EU law as a form of public policy precluding the enforcement of arbitral decisions.
– The potential effects of the CJEU’s decisions concerning international commercial arbitration or ISDS.

Papers containing also a reference to Italy, or the Italian practice will be particularly appreciated.

The selection of papers will be based on the submission of abstracts of max. 1.000 words to iricsubmissions@gmail.com by 1 April 2022. Selected authors will be informed by 30 April 2022.

Final papers will have to be submitted by 15 September 2022 and may have the forms of essays, comments, case notes, recent developments and review essays; each of the latter has a different range of words allowed. Submitted abstracts will have to mention the tentative title of the paper and the form expecred to be used.

Further information available here.

The editors of the European Yearbook for International Economic Law (EYIEL) welcome abstracts from scholars and practitioners at all stages of their career for the focus section of the EYIEL 2022. This year’s focus will be on the impact of climate change on international economic law.

Abstracts may cover any topic relating to dispute settlement in the field of international economic law, though preference is given to topics focusing on the perspective from public and private international or EU law. Contributions addressing the following aspects are particularly welcome:

• Climate change in WTO and international trade law
• Impact of investment protection treaties on energy transformation
• Reform of the Energy Charter Treaty
• Financial and monetary law aspects of climate change
• Relationship between UNFCCC and Glasgow Climate Pact and international economic law
• Climate change litigation in domestic and international courts
• Liability for climate change in private (international) law

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words. They should be concise and clearly outline the significance of the proposed contribution. Abstracts may be submitted until 28 February 2022 via e-mail to eyiel@leuphana.de.

Successful applicants will be notified by 1 April 2022 that their proposal has been accepted. They are expected to send in their final contribution by 30 June 2021.

Final submissions will undergo peer review prior to publication. Given that submissions are to be developed on the basis of the proposal, that review will focus on the development of the paper’s central argument.

Submissions addressing particular regional and institutional developments should be analytical and not descriptive. Due to its character as a yearbook, EYIEL will not publish articles which will lose their relevance quickly. Submissions should not exceed 12,000 words (including footnotes and references), though preference may be given to shorter submissions. They should include an abstract and a biographical note. Submissions need to be in conformity with the EYIEL style guidelines.

The editors of the EYIEL welcome informal enquiries about any other relevant topic in the field of international and European economic law. In case you have an idea or proposal, please submit your enquiry via e-mail to eyiel@leuphana.de.

The Milan Law Review (MLR), run by the Faculty of Law of the State University of Milan, is a multidisciplinary and multilingual law journal, published on a six-monthly basis in open access mode.

The editors of the journal are calling, inter alia, for articles on topics in the field of public and private international law, either in Italian or in English.

Interested authors will find more information here.

Papers intended for the next issue shall be submitted by 31 October 2021.

The Universidade Portucalense, based in Porto, and its Research Center, in collaboration with the Universities of Vigo, Malaga, Salamanca and Granada as well as with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, organise an International Congress on Civil Procedural Law titled The Challenges of Sustainable Global and Digital Development, to be held on 20 and 21 May 2021, in virtual format.

The concept is as follows:

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 exposed the world to the positive and negative aspects of globalization; it also made evident the need for States to prepare for the challenges of global development; and, well, it showed us that the application and use of new technologies are fundamental. All these phenomena, of a transversal nature, are the motto of this Congress and motivate the study of procedural matters in the global and digital era, with a view to a result process.

In this context and also in the light of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, in particular those for promoting the rule of law at national and international level and ensuring equal access to justice for all, it is current and it is of practical and academic interest in critical analysis and the presentation of innovative proposals for procedural solutions that are part of this orientation. Above all, pay attention to the importance of consumer relations in sustainable development and in disputes with consumers.

This Congress aims to bring together researchers and professionals who, through their scientific studies and practical experiences, can contribute to the analysis of the impact of global and digital sustainable development in matters of procedural law, especially in civil proceedings, without excluding the application of the process to various branches of law.

Those interested in presenting a paper at the conference are invited to submit their abstracts on any of the following ‘thematic lines’: Transnational and European Civil Procedure. Global development process and challenges; Civil Procedure in the Digital Age – Challenges of technological development; Sustainable Consumption and Process.

The deadline for submissions is 28 February 2021.

See here for more information.

The Polish periodical Problemy Współczesnego Prawa Międzynarodowego, Europejskiego i Porównawczego (Review of International, European and Comparative Law – PWPM) launched an international competition for original papers in the field of international law, European law or comparative law, written in English by scholars aged 35 or less.

The deadline for submissions is 15 November 2020.

The winning papers will be published on the journal  and the authors of the two best articles will receive cash prizes of 500 and 300 Euros, respectively. 

On a more general note, the journal is currently calling for paper from any scholars to be published in  volume XVIII (2020), which will be out in Spring 2021. Here, again, the deadline is 15 November 2020. 

PWPM is one of the leading legal periodicals in Poland. It is a peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal based at the Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. While focuses on international, European and comparative law, the journal also covers other areas of law, including private international law.

More details on the competition and the journal are available here.

Following successful events in Bonn and Würzburg, the third iteration of the conference for young German-speaking scholars in private international law will take place – hopefully as one of the first events post-Corona – on 18 and 19 March 2021 at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. The conference will focus on the theme of PIL for a better world: Vision – Reality – Aberration?

It will include a keynote by Angelika Nußberger, former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, and a panel discussion between Roxana Banu, Hans van Loon, and Ralf Michaels.

The organisers are inviting contributions that explore any aspect of the conference theme, which can be submitted until 20 September 2020. The call for papers, in German and English, together with further information, can be found on the conference website.