The International Society of Public Law is pleased to announce that the Society’s 2021 Annual Conference will be held on 6–9 July 2021. This will be the seventh Annual Conference of ICON•S, following the six Annual Conferences of previous years (Florence 2014, New York 2015, Berlin 2016, Copenhagen 2017, Hong Kong 2018, Santiago 2019).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 ICON•S Conference will be held in a completely novel way as a fully online Conference: ICON•S Mundo. The Mundo Conference will be a truly global academic event, involving multilingual activities gathering hundreds of Public Law scholars, political scientists, judges, doctoral students and practitioners from all over the world. It will offer an unique opportunity to discuss ideas in all areas of Public Law featuring hundreds of academic sessions working in multiple time zones. The Conference will be held in a spirit of collaboration with national and regional chapters of ICON•S, and with an invitation to new and existing members to join.
2021 Conference Theme – The Future of Public Law
We are living in times of challenge and change – for public law and the world. In addition to the ongoing crises of climate change, racialized violence, online hate speech, gender injustice, and erosion of democratic norms, the past year has seen the world grapple with the crisis of COVID-19. This pandemic has led to new privacy and security threats, economic challenges, and challenges of family violence and gendered forms of labor. In it, human rights and fundamental freedom met forms of limitations we might never have foreseen; people stopped experiencing basic forms of sociality, with schools, universities, museums and theatres closed and public meetings forbidden in many countries.
Public law was also at the center of our efforts to address these dynamics – alternately empowering and constraining them. COVID-19, and its aftermath, have led governments and parliaments to find new ways of balancing their respective powers; public authorities to expand their role to the limits of their authority, and beyond; and courts have found themselves before new frontiers in applying basic principles such as reasonableness and proportionality.
This raises many questions, including questions about what we can expect from public law in the future: how will it shape our response to these and new emerging challenges, post pandemic? What if anything has changed about how public law operates, or how we understand it, during COVID-19? How will democracies respond to these challenges in ways that make them resilient to increasing calls for illiberal, non-democratic forms of government? How will technology influence the future of public law, for better and worse, now and in the long term? Will it enhance or erode rule of law values, or the protection and promotion of human rights?
ICON•S invites you to join in a new, fully online Conference from July 6-9, 2021, ICON•S Mundo, to discuss these and other questions relating to the future of public law. ICON•S Mundo will feature a multitude of diverse events over several days, including plenary events on “Technology and the Future of Public Law”, “Democracy and the Future of Public Law” and “The Future of Human Rights and the Rule of Law”. ICON•S Mundo will also include social events such as a virtual welcome session for new members, advice for early career scholars, interest group meetings, and a diversity and women’s receptions, among other things.
- Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor, UCLA School of Law
- Fareda Banda, Professor, The School of Oriental & African Studies
- Nigel Biggar, Professor, University of Oxford
- Catalina Botero, Dean, Universidad de los Andes
- Jamal Greene, Professor, Columbia Law School
- Indira Jaising, Human Rights Lawyer, Lawyers’ Collective
- Helen Keller, Judge, Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- David Law, Professor, The University of Hong Kong
- Michael O’ Flaherty, Director, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
- Sofia Ranchordas, Professor, University of Groningen
- Karen Stenner, Behavioral Economist and Political Psychologist
Submissions and Panels
The most important part of ICON•S Mundo will be the concurrent panel sessions, which will take place during the four days of the Conference and will be comprised of submissions selected through this Call. As in the years before, we invite the submission of both fully formed panels and individual papers addressing all areas of public law. We invite potential participants to refer to the ICON•S Mission Statement when choosing a topic or approach for their papers or panels.
We also plan to use this opportunity to work with existing regional and national chapters to curate a series of “Plenary Ideas Dialogues”, whereby chapters are invited to host a panel discussing the themes of the plenaries as they relate to their own country/region. Chapter panel proposals that aim to organize a “plenary ideas dialogue”, are welcome to propose their events using the same submission option applicable for the fully formed panels.
Who Can Participate in ICON•S Mundo?
ICON•S is not restricted to public lawyers nor to established scholars. We welcome proposals that offer multi-disciplinary perspectives from various areas of law (including civil, criminal, tax, and labor law), as well as from scholars in the humanities and the social sciences (e.g. history, economics, political science, sociology) with an interest in the Conference’s themes. We also welcome submissions from both senior and junior scholars (including doctoral students) as well as interested practitioners.
ICON·S has decided to make attending the Conference free for all. We merely ask presenters to pay a modest fee to cover expenses. We will announce more details on how to be part of Mundo as an attendee closer to the Conference. Please check our website for update or stay in touch with us by setting up an ICON•S account here.
For scholars who are not active members of ICON•S and are interested in submitting or presenting their work at ICON•S Mundo we offer a special and limited Mundo short-term membership for 10 USD.
If you are unable to pay our Mundo short-term membership due to either legal restrictions or financial hardship, please contact us.
To propose a panel or paper, you must have an ICON•S account. You can create your personal account here. The ICON•S account is free and separate from membership. You must pay for our Mundo short-term Membership or have an active annual membership of ICON•S before you can submit your paper / panel proposal.
Please kindly note that each participant can present not more than 2 papers and participate – as presenter, chair or discussant – in 4 panels maximum, providing that it is possible to schedule the Conference in a way that accommodates all 4 panels to which a participant plans to contribute. Participants are also asked to keep the unique aspects of video conferences in mind and to form panels with an awareness of Zoom fatigue and number of attendees.
Paper Submissions to ICON•S
We also welcome individual paper submissions in any subject related to the Conference theme or to Public Law in general. Paper submissions must be in English.
If the paper submission is accepted, it will be part of a panel assembled by ICON•S.
When Will the Panels Be held?
Since ICON•S Mundo will be a truly global event, when submitting a fully panel proposal or an individual paper, we ask you to please select at least three scheduling preferences for your submission. Each scheduling preference consists of a five-hour block that will accommodate several concurrent panel sessions each of 90 minute length. The available scheduling preferences are:
Scheduling Preference 1. July 6 at UTC 07:00-12:00.
Scheduling Preference 2. July 6 at UTC 12:00-17:00.
Scheduling Preference 3. July 6 at UTC 16:00-21:00.
Scheduling Preference 4. July 7 at UTC 00:00-5:00.
Schedule Preference 5. July 7 at UTC 07:00-12:00.
Schedule Preference 6. July 7 at UTC 13:00-18:00.
Schedule Preference 7. July 7 at UTC 22:00-03:00.
Schedule Preference 8. July 8 at UTC 04:00-09:00.
Schedule Preference 9. July 8 at UTC 07:00-12:00.
Schedule Preference 10. July 8 at UTC 12:00-17:00.
Schedule Preference 11. July 8 at UTC 16:00-21:00.
Schedule Preference 12. July 9 at UTC 07:00-12:00.
Schedule Preference 13. July 9 at UTC 12:00-17:00.
Schedule Preference 14. July 9 at UTC 16:00-21:00.
All the times are indicated in “Universal Time Coordinated” (UTC). Click here to see time conversions.
Please be aware, participants are solely responsible that their expressed scheduling preference do NOT conflict with other submissions that they might be part of. ICON•S cannot guarantee to remedy scheduling conflicts.
How and When to Submit?
All submissions must be made through the ICON•S website by:
23h59 UTC on May 1, 2021
To access the submission page, please click here.
Anti-Harassment Policy
Please note that ICON•S has recently adopted a strong anti-harassment policy to which we would like to draw our members’ attention, including avenues for redress available under this policy. The policy applies to all online as well as in-person meetings.
You can download this Call for Papers here (PDF). Answers to frequently asked questions can be found on our FAQ page.
We look forward to receiving your submission.
See you at ICON•S Mundo!
Lorenzo Casini & Rosalind Dixon
Co-Presidents of ICON·S
Richard Albert, Gráinne de Búrca, Felicia Caponigri, Marta Cartabia, Sabino Cassese, Claudia Golden, Michaela Hailbronner, Ran Hirschl, Erik Longo, Luisa Netto, Phoebe Okowa, Anna Pirri, Stefano Osella, Evan Rosevear, Ruth Rubio-Marin, Maja Sahadzic, Mariana Velasco Rivera, Sergio Verdugo, Joseph Weiler and Fred Felix Zaumseil
Members of the 2021 ICON•S Organizing Committee