Program for the 2023 Bergen Exchanges and recorded events.
The 2023 Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation took place 14th -18th August 2023. The line-up of scholars from across the globe was amazing and we discussed a range of topical challenges: DEMOCRACY, AUTOCRATIZATION & RESISTANCE ACADEMIC FREEDOM * DECOLONIZATION * CHILD RIGHTS GENDER, SEXUALITY * REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE * HEALTH ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE * INDIGENOUS RIGHTS TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE * CRIMINAL LAW * MIGRATION.
Take a look at the program and recorded events. As always, all the sessions – at Kulturhuset, Universitetets Aula, Bergen Global and Galleri 3:14 – were free and open to all. And you can also check out the programs and recorded events of past year’s Bergen Exchanges.
PhD Course
The annual PhD course Effects of Lawfare; Courts and law as battlegrounds for social change – where the Bergen Exchanges is an integrated part – ran from August 1st -21st. This is a hybrid course where the first two weeks are digital. The third week, most of the students participate physically during the Bergen Exchanges. The 2023 edition of the PhD course had a specialized track on: “Democracy, Autocratization and Resistance” in addition to the annual general track, which explores lawfare dynamics and effects across a range of thematic fields.
Here more information about the annual PhD Course Effects of Lawfare: Courts and Law as battlegrounds for social change. The deadline for applications for the 2024 PhD course will be 5 April.
Do you want to help out?
Interested in volunteering at the 2024 Bergen Exchanges, taking place 19-23 August? Contact Volunteer Coordinator Maria Lie Jordheim (maria.jordheim@student.uib.no) or LawTransform Coordinator Lara Côrtes (lara.b.cortes@uib.no)
What are the Bergen Exchanges?
The Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation is an international conference and researh festival taking place in Bergen in August every year. It is a meeting place for scholars and practitioners from across the globe who seek to understand how law serves as an instrument of change – and how it shapes and is shaped by power relations. During a week of public discussions, we examine strategic uses of rights and law and how legal institutions function as arenas for political contestation (lawfare).
The multi-disciplinary and international nature of the Bergen Exchanges makes it a unique space for improving research strategies and methods to grasp the effects of law and lawfare. This includes the use of legal instruments by governments to shape societies – whether through constitutional change, international treaties, statutes or regulations – as well as by social actors who go to court or otherwise engage rights and law to advance their goals. Effects take different forms. How legal strategies alter political dynamics, ideas and discourses can be as important for long term transformation as more immediate changes in laws, policies, or the distribution of resources. We also seek to better understand the functioning of legal and administrative institutions as they adjudicate, interpret and implement legal norms.
Attendance is open and free both for the Bergen Exchanges and the PhD course, but those who come from outside Bergen will have to cover their own travel and accommodation (except for those who are part of collaborative LawTransform projects with funding to covering this).