From the European Society of International Law comes this invitation and call for papers:

In the 1990s an intense debate on feminism and international law started to permeate journals and learned societies. Core concepts of international law were critiqued and de-constructed from a feminist perspective. Most recently, the ILA re-established a committee on ‘Feminism and International Law’ in 2010 focusing on the economic empowerment of women and the possible contribution of international law. Other initiatives, like the journal ‘Feminist Legal Studies’, continue; others were recently revived, such as the ‘IntLawGrrls’ blog. [Editor’s note: Hey, that’s us!]

Feminist methodological approaches to international law include the detection of silences in the law and the question of how to respond to the many (cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic, economic) differences among women. Feminist international lawyers have added to the understanding of international law in various ways, e.g. through a feminist perspective on international criminal law and on women in armed conflicts.

These issues will be discussed in this agora, including questions such as: What is the current status of the debate? Is there still momentum in international law and feminism? What are the fields where international law and feminism might best contribute to the development of international law?

2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the European Society of International Law and, as an ESIL member, you are cordially invited to participate in the ESIL 10^th Anniversary Conference hosted by the University of Vienna and organised by its Law School’s Section for International Law and International Relations. Please consider participating by submitting an abstract for one of the agorae. Younger scholars are also welcome to submit a poster presentation.

The conference will take place at the start of the next academic year, on 4- 6 September 2014, and it will be a special occasion to look back at the development of the Society since its inaugural conference in Florence back in 2004 as well as to look forward to the decades ahead and the ways members would like international law to evolve and the ways they would like the Society to reflect those changes. As at previous ESIL events, the programme will include plenary sessions and fora featuring invited speakers as well as agorae designed to share cutting-edge research in specific areas of international law and to stimulate debate. All agora speakers will be selected on the basis of abstracts submitted in response to the Call for Papers. For the first time at an ESIL conference, we also welcome submissions for poster presentations.

The conference will explore the interplay between international law and other fields of law and between international law and other disciplines and we would therefore ask you to extend the invitation not only to other international lawyers but also to colleagues in other disciplines who might be interested in exploring the boundaries of international law and the bridges to other fields of law and indeed to other disciplines. Our professional and intellectual development requires us to explore interdisciplinary approaches.

It is our pleasure to invite you and your colleagues to respond to the Call for Papers ( in English /in French)  and the Call for Posters (in English /in French).

Whether or not you decide to respond to these Calls, please make a note of the date of the 2014 conference. Information about the final programme and details of how to register for the event will be regularly updated on the ESIL website and on the Vienna conference website in the months ahead.