Call for abstracts
Summary
The guest co-editors, Birju Kotecha and Daley Birkett, together with the Journal of International Criminal Justice, invite abstracts for a forthcoming symposium on the theme of ‘International Criminal Justice in an “Age of Misinformation”’, to be published in December 2021.
The symposium aims to boost the academic and practical understanding of communication by anyone engaged in the field of international criminal justice, whether outside court settings (e.g. academics, civil society organizations, journalists, and individual observers) or working within such settings (e.g. outreach practitioners, public affairs professionals, advocates, policymakers, and judges). In doing so, the symposium will provide a rigorous account of the significance of communication not only for the everyday operation of courts and tribunals, but also in achieving the broader goals of international criminal justice.
The editors hope that authors will explore such issues and much more too. Key questions that may be examined include, but are not limited to:
• To what extent do communication strategies meet substantive demands for openness, transparency and free access to information?
• What are the benefits, costs and risks of ICTs engaging in public relations in an ‘age of misinformation’?
• How, if at all, can barriers to communication at ICTs (e.g. geographical distance, culture, linguistic, jurisdictional) be overcome?
• After the Independent Expert Report on the Court, how should the Court’s new Prosecutor (and the Court at large) develop its future communication strategies?
• Are current approaches to outreach adopted by ICTs adequate and if not, what reforms are necessary?
• What comparisons and contrasts can be made between the communication strategies of ICTs, regional and domestic (appellate) courts?
• What are the traditional conventions, narratives, messages, and styles of communication adopted by ICT’s and to what degree are they appropriate and effective in an ‘age of misinformation’?
• What is the relationship between communication and the achievement of goals such as legitimacy, deterrence, and others found in the Preamble of the Rome Statute?
Timeline
Abstracts should be no more than 600 words. We welcome submissions from theoretical, doctrinal, empirical, socio-legal, and/or practical perspectives and from a range of disciplines. Submissions from those working in the field such as outreach practitioners are particularly welcome as are those offering accounts not necessarily focused on the International Criminal Court. Abstracts will be evaluated by the symposium’s editorial team and be selected on the basis of merit and diversity of perspectives.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 25 January 2021 and should be sent by e-mail to [email protected], specifying ‘Response to CfA – Age of Misinformation’ in the subject-line of the email. After a review of abstracts by the end of February, the editors will invite some of the authors to prepare full manuscripts of no more than 9000 words (including an Abstract and all footnotes) by 1 June 2021. Papers submitted to the Journal are subject to its double-blind peer review policy; we hope to complete the review and selection process by 1 September 2021.
In addition, all selected authors will be invited to present working drafts, if not in-person then virtually, at a day-long workshop to be provisionally held at Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom in May 2021.
Depending on the number and quality of submitted abstracts, the Journal’s Editorial Board reserves the choice to publish the symposium as a special issue of the Journal. For questions and further information please contact guest co-editor, Birju Kotecha, at [email protected] or the Journal’s executive editor, Urmila Dé at [email protected].
