Peripheries, Nation-Building and the Rights Revolution

Time: 20. April, 14:30 Place: Jekteviksbakken 31 or Zoom. Modern states – including wealthy liberal democracies – were constituted through “standardization,” whereby power-centers projected control outward, progressively absorbing culturally and politically heterogenous regions into the uniform state. This process was often illiberal and undemocratic. It is also incomplete, having arrived only recently on certain remote […]

Book chapters in Research Handbook on International Abortion Law

LawTransform co-director Liv Tønnessen and other LawTransform affiliates and PhD course alums have contributed with chapters in the newly published Research Handbook on International Abortion Law edited by Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis School of Law, US. The book provides an in-depth, multidisciplinary study of abortion law […]

NOU-seminar: Trygg barndom, sikker fremtid

Time/date: Friday 14th of April,14:00-15.30 Where: Jekteviksbakken 31 or Zoom. Welcome to a public seminar on the NOU-report about rule of law in the Norwegian child protection system Friday 14th of April, at 2pm. DIPA, LawTransform and Bergen Global invite to a discussion of the NOU 2023: 7 “Trygg barndom, sikker fremtid” (Safe childhood, secure future). […]

Legitimate child protection interventions and the dimension of confidence: A comparative analysis of populations views in six European countries

Mathea Loen and Marit Skivenes (2023)

Loen, Mathea and Marit Skivenes. 2023. Legitimate child protection interventions and the dimension of confidence: A comparative analysis of populations views in six European countries. Journal of Social Policy: 1–20. doi:10.1017/S004727942300003X, .

The child protection system and social services are a part of legitimate state institutions which are crucial to democratic governance, stability, and the sustainability of the welfare state. As legitimacy is often closely linked to the notion of trust and confidence, this study investigates public confidence in the child protection system by comparing six European […]

Announcement of 1-2 grants for master students

Students interested in writing a master’s thesis in 2023/24 as part of the research project “Exploring the Insanity Defense in the Global South” can apply for a grant of NOK 40,000. We welcome students from all Faculties at the UiB. “Exploring the Insanity Defense in the Global South” is a pilot project funded through the […]

2023 Bergen Exchanges

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).

Film screening of ALMAMULA

Date/time: 24. March, 16:30 Place: Bergen Kino KP12 “He’s not the first boy who’s missing in the forest. The boy that was with him says that a monster has taken him.”Santiago del Estero, northern Argentina. When Nino is deemed a bad influence to the other boys in his neighbourhood and has to endure homophobic attacks […]

Kvinner i revolusjon: Iran og Sudan

Dato/tid: 14 mars, 08:30-09:30 Sted: Jekteviksbakken 31 / Zoom Kvinnelege revolusjonære i Sudan og Iran har fanga verdas merksemd dei siste åra. Alaa Salah vart ikonisk under revolusjonen i Sudan i 2019. Ho var langt frå den einaste, og kvinner leia demonstrasjonar over heile landet. Hausten 2022 utløyste Mahsa (Jina) Aminis dødsfall i politiets varetekt store protestar […]

Film screening of My Imaginary Country

Date/time: 22. March, 16:30 Place: Jekteviksbakken 31 In collaboration with Cine Latino, LawTransform invites you to a free screening of this striking documentary about the constitutional struggle and the protests from 2019 in Chile – followed by panel discussion. Santiago de Chile, 2019: An increase in public transport ticket prices was the final straw for […]

Women Fight for Rights: Labour movements in the Global South

Date/time: 8 March, 08:30-09:30 Place: Jekteviksbakken 31 and Zoom Globally, International Women’s Day marks women’s battle for rights recognition, including labour rights. In this seminar, we discuss the multi-level discrimination that paid domestic workers have to contend with in Brazil and India and efforts to combat this. We analyse and compare the social-and labour movements […]