International Law Weekend 2024

POWERLESS LAW OR LAW FOR THE POWERLESS?

Emerging Voices Panel – Call for Abstracts

Deadline: June 1, 2024 

This October 24-26, the American Branch will present International Law Weekend (ILW) 2024 in New York City. This two-and-a-half-day conference features over 30 panels, and many of the world’s leading international lawyers and diplomats participate. Recent ILWs have attracted an audience of over 1,200 practitioners, academics, U.N. diplomats, business leaders, federal and state government officials, NGO leaders, journalists, students, and interested citizens. ILW makes particular efforts to include emerging scholars and practitioners, including through the Emerging Voices panel.

ILW 2024 Theme: Powerless law or law for the powerless?

International law faces an existential threat as history unfolds at unprecedented speed worldwide. Indeed, international law and international institutions at times appear incapable of protecting vulnerable persons against war, disease, hunger, exploitation, climate change, and other human and natural catastrophes. Some people–both individually and collectively–are openly eschewing legal values and frameworks in order to pursue results through other means, including dangerous and destabilizing ones. Is international law, in fact, powerless or does it remain a source of power that vulnerable persons can utilize to protect and advance their rights and interests? This year’s ILW is focused on engaged, interactive, and inclusive discussions about how international law can transcend perceptions and misperceptions of its powerlessness and fulfill its aspirations of balancing power through principles of justice, equality, and dignity.

Call for Abstracts

The ILW Organizing Committee invites the submission of abstracts relating to the theme of “Powerless law or law for the powerless?”  We will select several abstracts for presentation at ILW 2024 as part of a panel of new and emerging professionals. The abstracts may be based upon ongoing work. While all submissions are welcome, preference will be given to papers not already published. Accepted applicants will be invited to present their papers at the Emerging Voices panel, which a scholar or practitioner will chair. In-person participation is strongly preferred, but virtual participation may be possible under certain circumstances.

Eligibility is restricted to applicants working in the field of international law for five years or fewer. Accepted applicants are required to join ABILA and register for ILW 2024 (both are free to students, and otherwise carry a total fee of $145 for new members). Panelists are encouraged to attend other panels, plenary sessions, and to take part in the Members Meeting and networking events.

Application & Funding

The submission deadline is June 1, 2024. Submissions should be sent to [email protected] with the subject line “Emerging Voices – ILW 2024.” Applicants must submit all of the following in a single PDF document:

(1) a 500 word abstract of their paper;

(2) a cover letter:

– describing their professional development,

– explaining how their submission fits with the conference theme, and

– indicating whether they intend to participate in person; and,

(3) a curriculum vitae of no more than 3 pages.

Submissions will be competitively selected in a peer review process.  Applicants will be notified by July 1, 2024.

ABILA has secured funding to provide need-based reimbursement of Emerging Voices panelists’ travel and hotel costs, insofar as those costs are not covered by their institutions. The reimbursement limit is $1,500 for panelists traveling from within North America, and $2,500 for those traveling from elsewhere. Panelists seeking reimbursement will be asked to submit their receipts.

Questions may also be submitted to: [email protected].