Workshop Dates: 29 June - 30 June 2020
Deadline for Abstracts: Submission deadline has been extended to 9 December 2019
Academic Directors
Professor Lindsay Farmer (University of Glasgow)
Professor Julia Hörnle (Queen Mary, University of London)
Dr Micheál Ó Floinn (University of Glasgow)
Professor David Ormerod QC (Law Commissioner and University College London)
We are pleased to invite submissions for papers to be presented at the WG Hart Legal Workshop 2020 – ‘New Perspectives on Jurisdiction and the Criminal Law’ – to be held at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, 29th and 30th June 2020.
In recent years there have been significant challenges to traditional concepts of jurisdiction in the criminal law. The increasing complexity of certain financial transactions and the advent of technologies like cryptocurrencies have raised questions about where conduct has taken place, and the authority of certain nationally-based agencies to investigate and prosecute offences. In response, states have claimed jurisdiction over conduct on contested grounds of ‘extraterritorial’ jurisdiction, and tenuous interpretations of the concept of territoriality. Jurisdictional concurrency over offences is increasingly commonplace, with negative and positive conflicts of jurisdiction each raising complex legal and policy issues which impact the efficacy of the criminal law.
The academic literature on jurisdiction has been slow to respond to these challenges. There is an extensive practical/practitioner literature, primarily focused on the development of solutions to issues as they come up in practice, while other jurisdictional debates are occurring in academic silos without broader engagement with the overarching concepts. The concept of territorial jurisdiction remains central to both the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences today notwithstanding the new developments. The aim of the workshop would thus be to bring together practitioners and academics to reflect on the challenges to concepts of jurisdiction and to stimulate new perspectives on jurisdiction and the criminal law.
Confirmed plenary speakers to date include:
Alejandro Chehtman (University Torcuato di Tella, Argentina)
Mireille Hildebrandt (Vrije Universiteit Brussels)
Uta Kohl (University of Southampton)
Katalin Ligeti (University of Luxembourg)
Clare Montgomery QC (Matrix Chambers)
Cedric Ryngaert (University of Utrecht)
Ian Walden (Queen Mary, University of London)
Contributions are invited on the following themes:
- The ambit of the criminal law
- Jurisdictional conflicts
- Public/private relationships in the investigation and prosecution of transborder crime
- The investigative powers of the state
- Cyberspace and territorial sovereignty
- Theorising the territorial state
Papers are welcome on any of these themes. Abstracts of approximately 300 words and a short speaker biography should be submitted to the Academic Directors at the following e-mail address (hartconference2020@glasgow.ac.uk) by 9 December 2019. Successful applicants will be informed by early January 2020, and full versions of the accepted papers will be due for submission by 15th May 2020.
Contributions from early career researchers will be particularly welcomed and two ECR submissions will be integrated into the plenary sessions. It is our intention that a selection of the presented papers will be published as an edited collection following the workshop.
N.B. a conference registration fee will apply though there will be discounted rates for early career researchers and postgraduates.