This workshop is dedicated to the encounter with philosophies of law and normativity that depart from predominant ‘modern’ Western understandings, linking them with key categories of Human Rights. Our aim is to explore how these ‘other’ philosophies envisage core categories related to Human Rights like ‘Justice’, ‘Dignity’, ‘Freedom’ or ‘Development’. We want to inquire into how far and how these different philosophies (can) relate to, contrast with and nurture contemporary debate in Legal Philosophy.  

That Law and Human Rights are directly linked to a specific notion of the ‘human condition’ is by now nothing new. Exemplarily, legal anthropology research, as well as gender studies and lately posthumanism have inquired into and dialogued with the ‘legal Others’ of Westerncentrism. Also contemporary psychology currents, like Depth, Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, connecting to ancient philosophies over the world, have emphasized systemic and relational perspectives. As a result, they have expanded our understanding of what does it entail to be human, particularly what influences and eventually transforms human behaviour. These approaches, as much as the ongoing technological advances and ecological challenges, put in question the ‘traditional’ Western model of a rather independent rational individual that pervades most of current legal and human rights discussion.  

In this line, we invite contributions that focus on the links between Human Rights and philosophies different from prevailing so-called ‘modern’ Western understandings of the ‘human’. We welcome fully-developed contributions but also works-in-progress, as well as more speculative soundings, interventions and provocations. The overarching aim is to prod convention and to suggest some new routes worth navigating as we continue to think and re-think Human Rights from a pluralistic and relational perspective. Of the many possible ways to start our conversation, some possibilities are:  •Feminist and queer as well as ecosystemic and posthumanist ethics  •Approaches to ‘dignity’, ‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ in neglected Western non-modern philosophies, eg. ancient Greek as well as Germanic approaches, philosophies related to matriarchal cults  •Indigenous approaches to human-nature relations, eg. as expressed in the debate over  Nature Rights and the personhood of rivers in New Zealand and India  •Non-individualistic philosophies of human conflict (and peace) and their connection to key categories of Human Rights 
  Send your abstract! Deadline: March 31st florencia.benitezschaefer@gmail.com 
  We highly welcome contributions in languages different from English, please specify your preferred language of presentation. In any case, for a first exchange, please attach an English translation of your abstract. Equally, we encourage different presentation formats, get in touch for any questions!