Annual Conference 2024- Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination

The National Law School of India University and Oxford Human Rights Hub are jointly hosting the 11th Annual Conference 2024 of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination at the NLS campus in Bengaluru from 26th to 28th July 2024.

About NLSIU

National Law School of India University, or simply National Law School, is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore. Considered the best law school in India, it has topped all indices relating to law schools. Laid foundation by then Chief Justice Y. V.

About the Conference

The aim of the conference is to explore whether and how equality law can take the next step forward and offer insights and remedies to contemporary global challenges. Scholars and activists have used equality law to diagnose how laws, policies and programes have created or enhanced poverty, disadvantage, stereotypes, stigmas, prejudice, oppression, and social exclusion. These laws, policies and programes have been challenged in domestic, regional, and international courts and decision-making bodies.

Although equality law has at best had a mixed record of success and failure, does it still have any untapped promise and potential to ensure that the world is fairer and more just for all people?

While recognizing the severity of current challenges, this conference seeks to explore whether and how equality law can develop to tackle the problems of today and of the future. It aims to bring together leading scholars to consider not only how foundational concepts may be re-thought and reimagined but also how theory and doctrine may evolve in a dynamic and transformative manner to realize the hope of equality law.

About Call for Paper

NLSIU encourages proposals to explore the following concepts and questions:

• the tension between equality and other foundational values such as liberty or other ideologies such as neoliberalism or neocolonialism
• the debates on the aims of equality law, such as debates on redistribution and recognition
• the role of affirmative action in redressing equality harms
• the role of proactive powers and duties
• the role of intersectionality in addressing systemic exploitation and oppression
• the challenges of achieving equality in specific fields of life such as:
  o race, religion, caste, class, and age discrimination (as an illustration)
  o informal employment and lack of social protection
  o land, water, and material resources
  o Indigenous rights
  o language, culture, and ways of life
  o decolonization;
  o disability and ableism
  o wealth and tax inequality
  o family, public life, and gender
  o AI and technology
  o citizenship, migration, and statelessness
  o climate crisis
  o violence
• the impact of social justice movements on equality law.
• the relationship of equality law with rising authoritarianism and democratic decay.
• equality and international law.

Instructions for Submission

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and clearly indicate how your paper fits the theme of the conference, the objectives of the paper, and its methodology. Please include a brief biography of a maximum of 100 words which is suitable for publication on the conference website, including affiliation, your email address, and a link to the online bio, if available.

Panel submissions should include a title and an abstract for the entire panel as well as titles, abstracts, and author information for all papers. Each panel should contain between three and four papers. The panel can be submitted by any of the authors.

How to Submit?

Please send the abstract to [email protected].

Timeline

• Abstracts are due by 4th December 2023.
• The abstracts will be reviewed, and invitations will be sent in February 2024.
• Full papers or presentations will be due on 1 July 2024 from authors whose abstracts are selected. Full papers will be made available to the participants of the conference. Subject to prior approval from authors, their papers and presentations may be posted on the conference website.

Fees

The conference organizers strive to keep the conference fee as low as possible. The fee will likely consist of 400 USD for participants outside India and INR 6000 for persons from India.

The conference organizers can regrettably not cover travel and accommodation. A fee waiver may be considered subject to the availability of funds. Those wishing to apply for it are required to submit a statement indicating why they require a full or partial waiver.

Location

Bengaluru

Contact Information

In case of any queries, please write to [email protected].

Click here for the official notification.