Call for Papers: for the Conference on Gender & Criminal Law on 29 & 30 January 2027
The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden University, in collaboration with the Willem Pompe Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Utrecht University, is organising a conference on Gender & Criminal Law on 29 & 30 January 2027. The conference takes place in Leiden (the Netherlands), hosted by Leiden Law School, with a fully in-person program of plenary sessions and parallel panels. The overarching theme of the conference: Gender and Criminal Law: Global Perspectives & Local Lessons – Gendered Perspectives on Criminal Justice.
Gender and Criminal Law: Global Perspectives & Local Lessons
Gendered Perspectives on Criminal Justice
Issue edited by: Ellen Gijselaar, Marloes van Noorloos, Mojan Samadi
Across jurisdictions and legal traditions, criminal law is an important instrument in defining harm, assigning responsibility, and expressing social values. Yet it also reflects and reproduces deeply embedded gendered norms. From sexual violence and domestic abuse to reproductive criminalization, digital harms, and the policing of marginalized communities, the relationship between gender and criminal law remains contested, evolving, and globally significant.
This international conference brings together scholars from around the world to critically examine how criminal law engages with gender in diverse social, political, and cultural contexts. We aim to foster comparative and interdisciplinary dialogue on the ways gender shapes legal doctrine, institutional practices, and lived experiences within criminal justice systems. How do different jurisdictions conceptualize gender-based harm? In what ways do race, class, sexuality, disability, and migration status intersect with gender in shaping criminalization and victimization? What are the promises and limits of criminal law as a tool for advancing gender justice?
The conference welcomes theoretical, doctrinal, empirical, and comparative contributions. We encourage engagement with feminist, queer, intersectional, postcolonial, and socio-legal perspectives, as well as critical reflections on emerging reforms and policy innovations. By convening scholars across regions and disciplines, the conference seeks to advance a nuanced, globally informed conversation about accountability, equality, and the future of gender-responsive criminal justice.
Through keynote lectures, thematic panels, and collaborative discussions, participants will explore both shared challenges and context-specific dynamics, contributing to a deeper understanding of how criminal law can better respond to gendered injustice in an interconnected world.
Call for Abstracts
We invite submissions for the thematic panels of the conference. The conference seeks to gather scholars from across the globe to explore the intersections of gender and criminal law in diverse jurisdictions. We welcome contributions from law, criminology, sociology, political science, gender studies, and related disciplines.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Gender-based violence
- Femicide
- Criminalization of reproductive conduct
- Hate crimes
- LGBTQI+ experiences in criminal justice systems
- Intersectionality and sentencing disparities
- Feminism & vulnerability theory
- Gendered dimensions of policing and prosecution
- Carceral feminism and critiques of punitive approaches
- Restorative and transformative justice models
- Technology-facilitated abuse and digital harms
- (Toxic) Masculinity
- Comparative and transnational perspectives
Submissions
Alongside the plenary programme, the conference will include a series of parallel panel sessions spread across both conference days. These panels will be selected through this Call for Abstracts and should engage with the overall conference theme. Accepted abstracts will be grouped into thematic panels by the conference organisers.
Submissions should include:
- Title of the paper;
- Abstract (300-500 words; English);
- Name, organisation and institutional email address of the presenter(s).
- Short biographical note (one page)
Timeline
- 30 July 2026 – Call for Abstracts opens. Abstracts can be submitted via de link below.
- 31 October 2026 – Call for Abstracts closes
- 30 November 2026 – Notification of acceptance based on the proposals
- December 2026 – Final Program
- 29 & 30 January 2027 – Conference dates in Leiden – the Netherlands
We strongly encourage submissions from early-career scholars and from underrepresented regions and perspectives. Priority will be given to submissions that adopt critical approaches to related concepts and categories, engage with a solid theoretical framework, and are based on empirical research. Abstracts can be submitted in English. The conference aims to create a globally inclusive forum for rigorous and collaborative discussion.
For more details, refer here
