Welcome to Bergen Exchanges on Law and Social Transformation from 21-25 August 2017! Here we will give you a little information about Bergen and how to get to the conference.

Facts about Bergen:

Bergen is located on the west coast of Norway, and known as ”the City of the Seven Mountains”. As of 2014 population was 277,600 – making it, after the capital Oslo, the second-most populous city in Norway. The Greater Bergen Region population is 411,900. Bergen is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, tourism and finance.

Nice things to do why you stay here: take the funicular or walk up mount Fløyen or visit the old quais of Bryggen (World Heritage Site). For other activities to do in Bergen or close to Bergen, please see www.visitbergen.no

How to get from the Airport to the city centre:

At the airport you will find the Airport Bus waiting for you outside the arrival area. Flesland airport is located about 15 kilometres south of Bergen and the journey takes about 30 minutes.

Weekdays the bus runs every 15 minutes from the centre between 06.15-20.30. On Saturdays the bus departure every 20 minutes and on Sundays every 15 minutes.

All stops are announced. The stop closest to your hotel is Festplassen (see map).

It is also possible to take the Bergen light rail. This takes 45 minutes. The closest stop to your hotel would then be Byparken. Timetables can be found here.

How to get to the Hotel Scandic Byparken:

Adress: Christiesgate 5-7, 5808 Bergen.

To get from Festplassen where the airport shuttle stops, and to Scandic Hotel, walk upwards Christes gate and you will find the hotel on your right side.

How to get to Bergen Rescource Centre for International Development:

There are several ways to get to the Resource Centre form the city centre or the hotel, please see the map. The Resource Centre is located in the first floor in Chr. Michelsens Institute, Jekteviksbakken 31.

Most of the sessions will be held here. The main doors are located in Jekteviksbakken, and they are open for everyone on weekdays between 09.00 and 15.00.

How to get from Scandic Byparken Hotel to the Airport bus:

At the entrance of the Scandic Byparken hotel, walk left along Vaskerelven street. Turn right on Olav Kyrresgate (the next bloc). You will find the bus stop a hundred meters down the road, outside “Los Tacos”.

More information on the airport bus can be found here: http://www.flybussen.no/en

If you wish to take the Bergen light rail, the nearest stop to Scandic Byparken hotel is Byparken. Timetables can be found here.

Contacts:

Siri Gloppen: +47 47938051 / +47 91820532, Siri.gloppen@cmi.no

Ingvild A. Skage: +47 97155788, Ingvild.Skage@uib.no

Effects of Lawfare:  Courts and law as battlegrounds for social change (17- 25 August) 

With an option of specialization in Effects of Lawfare concerning Gender & Sexuality

Please visit the course page for further information about the course program and admission.  Here is the _PhD Course Schedule/reading list.

The course combines lectures specifically designed for the course and participation in lectures, panels, round-tables, and workshops of the Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation.

Students will receive 3 ECTS for participating in the course (80% of seminars), submission of paper abstract (150-300 words), and presentation of their own work to the other participants. Students who submit a publishable journal article (4,000-6,000 words, with an additional reading list of 500 pages, which can be from the elective reading list) by 15 October 2017 are awarded an additional 7 ECTS. (Postdoctoral researchers and MA level students will be accepted if space permits).

The PhD course is free of charge and open to applicant from Norwegian and international institutions on a first-come first serve basis. Participants do, however, have to cover their own travel and accommodation costs, as there unfortunately are no scholarships available.

Course leaders: Camila Gianella (Comparative Politics, University of Bergen/CMI); Bruce Wilson (Professor, University of Central Florida/CMI); Siri Gloppen (Professor Comparative Politics, University of Bergen & LawTransform Director) 

Last year’s PhD course at the Bergen Exchanges

The past three decades has seen an accelerating juridification and judicialisation of societies and politics. In all parts of the world and at all levels, from the global to the local, increasingly complex webs of legal norms and institutions regulate our societies and lives. Courts and law have become increasingly important as arenas for political struggles. Constitutional reforms and international treaties aim to transform social dynamics from above, among others though new and stronger protection of citizens’ rights, while individuals and groups engage in legal mobilization from below to seek justice for their cause. In either case dense networks of international activists and experts are ready to engage with and aid local actors, creating a dense global network of actors, legal norms, and adjudicative institutions. In this context, it is urgent to better understand law as a political field. Does this turn to rights and law have a transformative potential? Does it provide institutional spaces for the voices of marginalized groups to be heard and tools that can provide political leverage? Or does it, rather demobilize and depoliticize struggles in ways that exacerbate unequal power-relations and marginalization dynamics? These are urgent issues on which there are deep disagreements in the literature. The course offers an introduction to the scholarly debates on the potential and limits of law as an instrument of social change, and opportunities to engage with some of the foremost scholar in the field, and international research projects currently seeking more compelling answers to these questions.

Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health: Criminalisation, health impacts and game changers

Development actors have increasingly recognised the importance of the political determinants of health. One way in which politics and power dynamics impact health is through the use of criminal law. The project provides insights into the causes and effects of criminalisation of abortion and same sex relations, which is widespread in low and middle income countries, and has significant detrimental effects on mental health, maternal mortality; the health of women and LGBTs, and HIV transmission.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights Lawfare: Global battles

Sexual and reproductive rights are lightening-rods of controversy in most societies. Political polarization has been particularly pronounced with regard to abortion rights and rights of sexual minorities (LGBTIQ – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer – persons), but is also evident in issues such as the regulation of contraception, sterilization and adultery, divorce, sexual education and stem cell research. What is particularly pertinent is the growing judicialization of sexual and reproductive rights around the world. At the domestic and international level, courts have emerged as central arenas in these political-moral battles; and not only to further rights but also to limit them. The project aims to understand the nature, causes and, particularly, the consequences of such lawfare, which we define as diverse and intentional strategies adopted by civil society actors that seek to engage legal institutions in order to further or halt policy reform and social change.

Breaking BAD: Understanding the Backlash Against Democracy in Africa

Across the globe, democracy is challenged in ways that pose political and social threats – and that challenge the scholarly literature on democratic development. The project aims to provide a better understanding of the processes and consequences of democratic backlash. The empirical focus is on Africa, where the efforts at democracy building have been the most intense over the past three decades and where we currently see overt clamp down on democracy.

Abortion Rights Lawfare in Latin America

The project analyses the strategic use of rights and law in battles over abortion rights in Latin America – and the various effects of this lawfare between opposing groups. Taking rights to legal abortion as a point of inquiry in order to attend to the counter-progressive use of courts and other government institutions, this research project will analyse the nature, form, causes and particularly the consequences of lawfare in Latin America, focusing particularly on the creation of norms and judicial rulings, their implementation and effects.

Elevating water rights to human rights: Has it strengthened marginalized peoples’ claim for water?

Water is essential to all aspects of human life.  Yet, water scarcity remains a huge and increasing problem in many countries. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly’s issued a landmark resolution declaring water as an independent human right under international law, thereby creating an internationally binding mechanism to pursue the right to water. The project “Elevating water rights to human rights: Has it strengthened marginalized peoples’ claim for water?” aims to provide evidence for the effects of elevating water to an independent human right. More precisely, it aims to determine whether states have become more accountable to their populations in providing access to clean water. Building on prior and ongoing research, this interdisciplinary project will conduct five carefully selected case studies from three regions (Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Peru and South Africa).

Political Determinants of Sexual and Reproductive Health

Development actors have increasingly recognised the importance of the political determinants of health. One way in which politics and power dynamics impact health is through the use of criminal law. The project provides insights into the causes and effects of criminalisation of abortion and same sex relations, which is widespread in low and middle income countries, and has significant detrimental effects on mental health, maternal mortality; the health of women and LGBTs, and HIV transmission.