The purpose of the workshop is to explore how private international law (the conflict of laws) can illuminate issues in the philosophy of law and how the philosophy of law can do the same for private international law. Accepted papers will discuss:

1) How a court’s choice between the law of jurisdictions, one that has a cause of action and the other that does not, can reveals the nature of legal permissions and Hohfeldian privileges

2) Whether there is a qualitative difference between domestic and foreign law, with domestic law functioning as law and foreign law as fact, or whether all law, local and foreign, is both fact and law

3) The contours of a radical version of non-positivism, which argues for the existence of legal obligations independently of legal institutions, and how this new position has explanatory potential in contexts of transnational legal responsibility (including private international law).

4) How private international law can help clarify the relationship between legislation and uncodified background legal principles

5) How private international law, with its methods for binding persons to ‘their’ polities or holding them to account to foreign polities, can illuminate theories of law as a political institution

Speakers will have 20 minutes to present their paper, followed by a 20-minute discussion with the audience. Papers are welcome at any stage of elaboration. All interested applicants are invited to send an abstract (max. 500 words) and an academic CV, written in English, by March 31, 2024. Applications are to be sent to msgre2@wm.edu.

Confirmed speakers:
Michael S. Green
Ralf Michaels
George Pavlakos
Jeffrey Pojanowski
Nicole Roughan