Abortion lawfare & the right wing in Brazil

Time: 15:00-17:00 This seminar focuses on the drivers and strategies behind the right wing turn in Brazilian Politics – culminating with the ousting of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016). Particular focus is on the role of “politics of morality” in their strategies and alliance-building, and in particular of antiabortion politics. Moderator: Lara Côrtes (LawTransform/CMI) Participants […]

Law & Equality – towards a new research agenda

Time: 09:00 – 09:40 Law is used to address unwanted inequalities in society – including along class, race and gender lines. When do legal strategies succeed in advancing equality? Moderator Runa Falck Langaas (LawTransform/Norwegian Citizen Panel, UiB). Introductions by Jackie Dugard (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) & tbc*. Comments by Sudhir Krishnaswamy (CLPR, Bangalore).

What decides how judges rule?

Venue: Auditorium 4, Faculty of Law, UiB Time: 18:00-20:00 This session looks at what we know about what influences judges’ decisions. Focus is on cases concerning politically sensitive questions such as freedom of expression, or gendered issues such as rape. We also discuss the process of ‘constructing a victim’. What is a ‘good victim’ in […]

Constitutional Courts & Democracy: Latin America & beyond

Time: 14:30 – 15:30 Both in Latin America and Eastern Europe ambitious constitutional justice systems were established as part of the transitions from authoritarian rule in these regions in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of these constitutional courts assumed roles exceeding their historical functions – and those of constitutional courts in advanced industrial democracies. A new […]

Transcontinental Perspectives on Trans-struggles

Trans* lawfare is increasingly visible – and diverse – on all continents. The nature of the battles, and their relationships to other LGBTIQ-struggles (lesbian, gay, bi- and intersex, queer) differ radically both between and within societies. Some – even highly homophobic – societies have a tradition of recognising (certain) transgender identities. Elsewhere trans* people are […]

Law & Society in Latin America: taking stock & looking ahead (EADI Panel)

Time: 18:00-19:30 The increasing judicialization of politics and social struggles in Latin America over the past decades – from demands for transitional justice, and constitutions recognizing indigenous rights, to judicialized environmental conflicts and an ‘epidemic’ of health rights litigation – is also reflected in the scholarship in and on the region. But while the body […]

The Political Economy of Sexuality and Abortion (EADI Panel)

Time: 12:30-13:30 Across the globe, “morality” issues such as homosexuality and abortion have become high stake politics, constituting rallying points for political mobilization and contestation in the political braches as well as in the courts. Abortion related questions play a central political role in in Latin America, issues of same sex relations do the same […]

How to Strangle Civil Society – and to resist?

Time: 10:10-11:10 Across the world we see a clampdown on organizations reporting on human rights, and a much used strategy in the repertoire of coercive measures is to introduce new NGO-legislation tightening the conditions for organizations that are considered political, including restrictions on foreign funding. Cases include Russia, India, Egypt, Angola, Kenya and many other. […]

Contemporary Human Rights Challenges in the USA

Time: 11:20-12:20 Human rights challenges are ample and worsening also in developed democracies, and in the past year, the development in the United States have raised particular concern. In this panel we raise some of the issues that are particularly worrying, ranging from basic civil rights concerns to human rights implications of the profound inequalities […]

Roundtable: Researching Drivers of Violence

Mexico is one of the world’s most violent countries, but the violence is not evenly distributed across the territory (as is also the case in many other countries) the reasons for this is not well understood. In a large research project Karina Ansolabehere and her colleague are investigating the patterns of violence in different Mexican […]