Call for Papers: 15th CILJ Conference (In-person, Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge, 23–24 April 2026)
Reimagining International Law: Critical, Regional, and Trans-Disciplinary Perspectives
About the Conference
The Cambridge International Law Journal (‘CILJ’) is pleased to invite submissions of abstracts of papers to be considered for presentations at the 15th Annual Conference of the CILJ. The Conference will take place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge on 23–24 April 2026. The topic of the Conference is ‘Reimagining International Law: Critical, Regional, and Trans-Disciplinary Perspectives’.
The promise of international law as a guarantor of peace, rights, and accountability is being profoundly tested. From protracted conflicts to the erosion of democratic norms and civil liberties, international law’s capacity to deliver justice and stability has been called into question. This moment calls for critical inquiry into the neglected traditions, marginalised voices, and alternative vocabularies that offer different ways of thinking and practicing international law. The 15th Annual Conference is inviting papers that critically examine international law’s limitations, failures, and underlying assumptions, as well as possibilities for its reimagining.
Contributors are encouraged to consider how international law operates not in isolation but within social, political, and economic structures; how its institutions and doctrines reflect power dynamics; and how critical, regional, and trans-disciplinary modes of legal imagination might chart alternative, better futures.
The Conference encourages the broad exploration of various sub-themes, including but not limited to:
- Examining evolving conceptions and critiques of international human rights, and questioning their effectiveness, legitimacy, and claims to universality in a period of global uncertainty and deepening inequality;
- Interrogating the changing nature of conflict and the (in)adequacies of international humanitarian law to address contemporary forms of violence, peace, and security;
- Exploring the responsibilities and limits of international criminal law in addressing atrocities, accountability gaps, and selective justice within a fast-shifting geopolitical climate;
- Evaluating international law’s responses to the climate crisis after thirty years of the UNFCCC COP—questioning whether multilateralism has delivered, whether existing frameworks adequately protect local and Indigenous rights, and what alternative models of climate justice and reparative governance might yet emerge;
- Revisiting the political economy of international law, and analysing how trade, sanctions, and development regimes—amidst the retrenchment of developmental aid and the resurgence of trade barriers—entrench or address global inequality;
- Assessing the preparedness of international legal frameworks for the next global public health crisis and drawing lessons from COVID-19 on solidarity, sovereignty, and the right to health;
- Re-examining global efforts to rein in artificial intelligence governance and identifying transformative opportunities to reshape global technology regulation, accountability, and ethics;
- Reimagining the academic landscape of international law and mapping emergent interdisciplinary fields and methodologies that seek to move beyond formalism and engage with the lived realities of communities from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds; and
- Analysing the dynamics among public international law, regionalism, and transnationalism—questioning whether diffusion signals pluralism or fragmentation in the international legal order.
Call for Abstracts
We invite all interested scholars to submit an abstract between 250 and 300 words via the link below by 23:59 GMT, 31 December 2025. We welcome submissions from PhD students, early career researchers and established academics. The selected papers will be presented at the Conference, and all conference presenters will have the opportunity to submit their papers for consideration for publication in Volume 15(2) of the CILJ.
For more details, refer here
