The New Dawn of Europe after the Great War | conference - Instytut Pileckiego

Even though the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came in 2018, Rafał Lemkin’s work remains a subject for research. We would like to invite you to a conference with experts.

The work of the Polish lawyer of Jewish origin inspires historians, political scientists, sociologists, as well as humans rights activists because – as recent history shows – genocide is not a phenomenon exclusive to the 20th century. The universality of Lemkin’s concept does not, however, exclude its revolutionary nature: as a result of the Convention, the responsibility to protect collective human life lies also with the international community.

The conference “The New Dawn of Europe after the Great War: The Theory of the State and Genocide in the 20th Century” is the next stage in the Pilecki Institute’s “Lemkin 2018–2023” project. From 3 to 5 December 2019, academic representatives from various parts of the globe will meet at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, to discuss the impact of Lemkin’s ideas on global politics. The interdisciplinary nature of the event and the creative approach to the subject are derived from the lecturers’ varying experiences and academic perspectives.

We invite submissions concerning the following issues and topic areas:

1. The foundations of modern Europe – systemic and legal changes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

2. Legal challenges after the Great War: new states and a new international order. From the treaties to the League of Nations.

3. Between the New Orders of Versailles and Yalta – proposed definitions of the state based on the rule of law.

4. The school of law in Poland – a melting pot of nations, cultures and religions. People – traditions – accomplishments.

5. The origin of Raphael Lemkin’s thought.

6. Characterization of the basic philosophical currents and legal solutions concerning the state, elaborated in Poland and the rest of Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

7. Totalitarianisms and the law. Legal systems and the political and legal doctrines of totalitarian states in the 20th century – similarities and differences.

8. Genocide in the considerations of Lemkin and his contemporaries.

9. From Versailles to Nuremberg – the most horrific lesson in the history of man and the challenges for the future.

FURTHER INFORMATION
• The conference will be held in English and Polish (the Organizer provides interpreting services).
• Time frame for each presentation – 15 minutes.
• We welcome submissions from professional scholars and doctoral students.
• All applications should be submitted by email via our Application Form (see below).
• The participants will be asked to submit written versions of their papers for
a post-conference publication; each paper should be no longer than 5,000 words.
• We can offer a limited number of travel grants of up to 500 euros.
• The conference is free of charge.

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