The 2023 Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation – the 10th edition – will take place the week of 14th -18th August. The program will emerge over the coming months and can be viewed here. You can also take a look at the program and recorded events of past 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 – will run from August 1st -21st. It is a hybrid course where the first two weeks are digital. The third week, the students will participate physically during the Bergen Exchanges. The 2023 edition of the PhD course will have two specialized tracks: “Child Rights and Child Protection” and “Democracy, Autocratization and Resistance”. In addition, there will be a general track exploring lawfare dynamics and effects across a range of thematic fields. Click here for more information about the PhD Course Effects of Lawfare: Courts and Law as battlegrounds for social change. The call for applications for the PhD course is out, and the deadline for applications is 15 April.
Do you want to help out?
If you are interested in volunteering at the Bergen Exchanges and will be in Bergen during August 2023, contact the Volunteer Coordinator for the Exchanges, Marthe Engedahl (marthe.engedahl@uib.no).
What are the Bergen Exchanges?
The Bergen Exchanges are an annual event taking place in Bergen in August each 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).