The social and political organization of our world is changing at a fast pace. Societies are becoming ever more diverse and popular allegiances are multiplying. States are witnessing the erosion of their sovereignty, while having to contend with increasingly complex transnational crime and threats to national and international security. Modern normative commitments to human rights and the rule of law that have formed since the Enlightenment and through the political revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries are now being challenged from countless new directions. Such deep transformations generate a host of novel and significant philosophical questions for scholars to answer.

The annual seminar series ‘Legal Philosophy Between State and Transnationalism’ is designed to address emerging issues at the intersection of transnationalism, law, and philosophy in a sustained and systematic manner. It centres around five key issues:

  • (1) The impact of social diversity and transnationalism on social organization, justice, and law;
  • (2) The uncertainty of the rule of law, customary and moral norms in contexts of war and other public emergencies, domestic and international;
  • (3) The erosion of state sovereignty and its impact on the general theory of state and law;
  • (4) The possible forms of transnational wrongdoing and liability (moral, political, and legal);
  • (5) The value and nature of human rights in national and transnational settings.

In its first five years, the series offered 32 high-end debates that brought together leading international theorists and philosophers engaged in cutting-edge research on the correlation between the state, law, morality, politics, and other kinds of societal ordering. Video recordings of seminars are available for each of the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 editions.

The series is jointly organized by Osgoode Hall Law School and the Department of Philosophy, under the umbrella of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. It reflects York University’s broad and growing international strength in legal, moral, and political philosophy, socio-legal theory, and transnational studies. It will be of interest to anyone – from lawyers to philosophers, sociologists to political scientists – working in these areas.

In 2013-2014, the series will for the first time be integrated in a course – the Legal Philosophy between State and Transnationalism Workshop – cross-listed in Osgoode’s JD and graduate programs, as well as in the graduate program of the department of philosophy. It remains open to the public, and all are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please consult the link in the left column for details about dates, room changes, topics, pre-circulated papers, and speakers. For any further inquiries about the series, contact the co-convenors, Prof. François Tanguay-Renaud and Prof. Michael Giudice.

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Submissions from 2016

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Collective Aaction and Emergent Global Legal Orders

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Political Authority: Its Collectivist Structure and Juridical Ground

The Special-Obligations Challenge to More Open Borders

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Rethinking Secularism in Europe

Submissions from 2015

Can Better Laws Be Married with Corrective Justice or Evil Laws?

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Reductive Individualism and the Just War Framework

Killing as a Side-Effect in Self-Defence

The Private-Public Divide in Discrimination Law

A Restorative Approach to Peacebuilding

Submissions from 2014

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Proxy Battles in the Ethics of War

Self-Defense under Uncertainty

Procedural Principles for Managing Global Legal Pluralism

2014 ‘Or ‘Emet Lecture: Is the United States Criminal Legal System a Crime Against Humanity?

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On the Relevance of Humanity’s Collective Ownership of the Earth for Immigration

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The Value of Self-Determination

Submissions from 2013

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State and Transnationalism: The Contribution and Legacy of Neil MacCormick

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Reproductive Choices and Unilateral Obligations: A Problem for Globalists

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The Reciprocity Theory of Rights

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The Great Alliance: History, Reason, and Will in Modern Law

Discussion: “Process, not Punishment: The importance of Criminal Trials for Transitional and Transnational Justice”

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Beyond the Ethics of Admission: Stateless People, Refugee Camps and Moral Obligations

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The Duty to Obey and the Right to Fight

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On a State’s Right to Territorial Jurisdiction

Submissions from 2012

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Retributive Justice in Wicked Regimes

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New Modes in Old Orders: Crisis Government & the Written Constitution

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How Plato Silenced the Cosmopolitans

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Kill Me Tomorrow: Towards a Theory of Truces

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Undocumented Immigration and Moral Equality

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Modernist Islamic Political Thought and the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions of 2011

Democratic Holy Wars

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Killing in the Fog of War

Submissions from 2011

Criminalizing the State

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Legal Pluralism and Legal Universalism in a Global Context

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Justice in Transitional Contexts

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Risk Taking and Force Protection

Surviving Long-Term Mass Atrocities

Sharia in the Post-Imperial/Post-Colonial Muslim World: Legal Pluralism and the Contest for Legitimacy

Is Dignity the Foundation of Human Rights?

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Cosmopolitanism and Constitutional Self-Government

Submissions from 2010

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The Idea of Cosmopolitan Constitutionalism

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Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: Making Place for Nationalism

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A Democratic Approach to the Legitimacy of International Institutions

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Transnational Law and Legal Pluralism: Methodological Challenges

Proportionality in Self-Defense and War

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Using Noncombatants as Shields

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Is Modern Religious Liberty Sufficient for the Islamic Legal Maqsad (‘Ultimate Objective’) of Hifz al-din (‘Preserving Religion’)?

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The Evolving State and the Future of Global Trade

Submissions from 2009

Not a System but an Order: Explaining the Legality of the European Union

Contra Politanism: Against the Moral Teleology of Political Forms

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The Legitimacy of International Human Rights

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International Criminal Law and the Inner Morality of Law

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What Philosophers Can Learn from Non-Philosophers about the Concept of Law

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Approaches to Global Citizenship

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On Law and Coercion

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Crime and the Distribution of Security

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The Supersession of Historical Injustices

Submissions from 2008

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The Moral Responsibilities of Criminal Justice Officials

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Four Concepts of Validity: Further Reflections on the Inclusive/Exclusive Positivism Debate

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Emergency Powers and Constitutional Theory