Deadline: 1^st March 2016 (debacles@mpi.lu) 

Encouraged by the post-Cold War rise of international adjudication, most international lawyers — with some notable recent exceptions — have focused their attention on judicial ‘success stories.’ They have thereby revitalized a liberal-modernist narrative that views the constant expansion and improvement of international adjudication as historically ineluctable. Against this background, the DEBACLES project casts an unconventional light on the history of international adjudication, bringing to the foreground its many illusions and failures, the paths it has not taken, and, more generally, the nonlinearity of its developments.

We are therefore inviting submissions that engage either with specific failed attempts to create and operate international judicial forums (case studies) or with broader historical/ theoretical issues related to such failures. Submissions should include as a starting point a comprehensive working definition of what counts as a ‘debacle’ or ‘failure’ in the field of international adjudication. Abstracts of no more than 600 words, written in English or French and including the author’s name, e-mail address and a one-page curriculum vitae, should be submitted to the following e-mail address: debacles@mpi.lu. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 March 2016. Successful applicants will be notified via e-mail by 14 March 2016 and are expected to produce a draft paper by 31 August 2016. The organizers will reimburse travel and accommodation costs.

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