About the workshop
Struggles for justice are increasingly fought through law, and over the question of who may practice it. As the rule of law weakens and civic space narrows, including in established democracies, lawyers are expected to defend human rights, the climate and the environment, and people on the move. Understood as actors who shape, contest, and stabilize order, lawyers are more than technical experts neutrally applying rules. At the same time, the current pressure is not confined to lawyers. International rules and institutions face unprecedented attacks on their authority and legitimacy. Law is also used to repress opponents, criminalize rights defenders, and exhaust critics. What does this moment of pressure on lawyers and on the law reveal about global order(s) and ordering?
This question guides the workshop. We invite contributions from international relations, law, sociolegal studies, and other relevant disciplines, and welcome diverse theoretical and methodological approaches. We also encourage historical perspectives that compare the present with earlier periods of pressure on law and the legal profession.
The workshop is organized around four themes:
- Mobilizing the law
- Which individuals, groups, and professions mobilize law, and for what purposes? How does legal mobilization affect the law? What factors shape the legal profession’s capacity to influence international lawmaking?
- Law and lawyers under pressure
- How can lawyers and the practice of lawyering help defend the rule of law in restrictive contexts, domestically and internationally? How is law used to repress, and what does that mean for the legal profession?
- Power dynamics within the advocacy ecology
- How does the ecology of global advocacy, including relations with NGOs, international organizations, and local human rights defenders, shape lawyering for global justice, and how does lawyering in turn shape that ecology?
- Lawyers and other private actors
- What distinguishes lawyers from other private actors as agents of global ordering, such as consultancies, accounting and audit firms, banks, or technology companies?
Submission and practical information
Please submit an abstract (including title and keywords) of up to 2000 characters until 9 December 2026 using this online form or the QR code below.
We welcome applications from scholars at all career stages and actively encourage contributions from early-career researchers and from groups and regions that are underrepresented in the field. Please do not hesitate to send us your ideas, even if they are still taking shape. Participant selection will be based on a blind review of the submissions.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent in late January 2027, and draft papers (6,000-8,000 words) will be due by 10 August 2027. We cover expenses related to travel and accommodation in Oslo for all selected participants.
For questions or additional information, please contact the PROBONO team at probono-team@jus.uio.no
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