Overcoming the Fragmentation of Law and Society. How Legal
Principles and Values Shape Democratic States Governed
by the Rule of Law?
Fragmentation of law, an issue traditionally discussed in international law, has now become a
prominent concern in contemporary national legal systems. This phenomenon, which stems
from, inter alia, the proliferation of rules and regulatory regimes, conflicts of values,
sectoralism resulting in fragmented law-making, legal pluralism or methodological pluralism
in legal interpretation, raises profound questions about the capacity of legal systems to
promote coherence and unity in the face of such fragmentation.
This workshop will explore multifaceted dimensions of the fragmentation of law and its
implications for the future of democratic states governed by the rule of law. Our primary goal
is to discuss the causes, risks and manifestations of fragmentation. The other aim of the
workshop is to examine potential solutions towards fragmentation, focusing particularly on
application of law, legal reasoning, normative conflicts, and values underlying (and
potentially de-fragmenting) law.
The topics of the papers presented in the workshop might include
• general issues dealing with the coherence of law
• methods of interpretation and legal reasoning,
• application of law,
• legal values,
• legal pluralism
• or more specific topics, such as an exploration on how the shared values of different
normative systems can help to mitigate the risks associated with democratic backsliding, or
how to counter sectoralism in current law-making.
We invite scholars from the fields of legal theory, legal philosophy, sociology and related
disciplines to submit abstracts of their paper proposals that address these or similar topics.
The deadline for the abstracts of paper proposals is 15 February 2024. Please send the
abstract of approximately 300 words in PDF format via e-mail to the organizers of the special
workshop (fragmentation.ivr2024@gmail.com). Participants will be notified by 29 February
2024 and selected participants will be requested to send their papers by 7 June 2024
The abstracts will be evaluated based on the following criteria
• Scientific quality: rigor of methodology, novelty, and contribution to the field.
• Alignment with the workshop’s theme
• Language appropriateness
• Number of presentation slots available