In September 2014 the Faculty of Law will host a major international conference on public law. It will be the first in an ongoing series of biennial conferences. The theme of the inaugural Public Law Conference is Process and Substance in Public Law. The conference will bring together scholars, judges and practitioners from a range of public law fields and a variety of common law jurisdictions. The intention is that the Public Law series will become established as a pre-eminent forum for the discussion of public law matters in the common law world.
Academics and doctoral students are invited to submit proposals to present papers addressing the conference theme, broadly construed. Without intending to be prescriptive, examples of topics that would fall within the theme include the interrelationship between legal procedures and substantive law, procedural aspects of substantive obligations, substantive aspects of procedural obligations, the interrelationship between procedural and substantive obligations, various types of processes such as processes regulating constitutional relationships, constitutional reform, and the resolution of grievances, as well as governmental and parliamentary processes. The focus of the conference is on common law jurisdictions.
Proposals will be considered by the conference convenors and Advisory Board on the basis of academic merit and fit with the conference theme. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted to the convenors at publiclawconference@law.cam.ac.uk as soon as possible, and by 31st December 2013 at the very latest. Those accepted to present papers will be required to submit full written papers by 30th June 2014 and to register for the conference in the ordinary way.
The confirmed speakers include leading public lawyers from a range of common law jurisdictions, including Prof Mark Aronson (UNSW), Prof Julia Black (LSE), Prof Peter Cane (ANU), Prof David Dyzenhaus (Toronto), Prof David Feldman (Cambridge), Prof Carol Harlow (LSE), Prof Robert Hazell (UCL), Prof Cora Hoexter (Witwatersrand), Lord Justice Laws (England & Wales Court of Appeal), Prof Janet McLean (Auckland), Prof Jerry Mashaw (Yale), Prof Tony Prosser (Bristol), Prof Richard Rawlings (UCL), Prof Cheryl Saunders (Melbourne), Prof Maurice Sunkin (Essex), and Prof Mark Walters (Queen's Ontario).
The organisers are grateful to our principal sponsor, Hart Publishing Ltd, for their generous support of the conference. It is the intention to publish with Hart Publishing Ltd an edited collection of the best papers from the conference.
Conference registration is now open. To register and for more information on the conference please visit the conference website. To receive updates on the conference you can follow us on Twitter at @PublicLawConf or subscribe to our email list.