Call for Papers: 2025 Conference
The SECOLA annual conference this year will be hosted at the Université Catholique de Lyon the 20th and 21st June and is on the topic of ‘European Contract Law and (Legal) Nationalism’.
The theme of this year's annual conference can be seen as rooted in the very foundations of European (private) law, which from the outset has not developed in opposition to national legal systems but by creating a multi-level legal system based on the principle of competence and cross-influences rather than hierarchy. At heart, European law is designed to preserve the plurality of the Member States' legal systems while, at the same time, transcending their particularism by holding them together and by fostering their convergence, as it is beautifully conveyed through the motto ‘In varietate concordia’.
The principle of subsidiarity, together with proportionality, remains a constitutional cornerstone of European Union law, clearly indicating that EU law cannot be conceived as a denationalization of the Member States' legal systems. At the same time, it is evident that the need for their Europeanization must be fully pursued, so that in their distinctiveness, they have to reflect the unity of European law and to conform to the primacy that characterizes it and to the objective of legal integration within the single market.
The unity of European law can only be understood if it is upheld through the pluralism that has always been the most defining characteristic of our continent. For this same reason, the national character of the Member States can no longer be asserted as an absolute value that stands on its own but must necessarily be mediated through the European character, which defines their very historical identity. This preservation of national identity through the mediation of European identity (and vice versa) is today constantly threatened by unilateral perspectives that artificially isolate these two aspects, which instead reflect one another. National identity, when not mediated by its belonging to European unity, becomes blind nationalism that opposes others and isolates individual states. European identity, when not mediated by national identity, withers into an abstract universalism that stifles the uniqueness of each language, community, and culture.
If you would like to participate in this conference, please email the conference organisers Michel Cannarsa (mcannarsa@univ-catholyon.fr) and Pietro Sirena (pietro.sirena@unibocconi.it) by the 7th Feb 2025 with a working title and a brief description of your paper (50-100 words only). You will hear back from SECOLA organisers shortly afterwards and by the end of February.
Draft papers will be required prior to the conference and shared with conference participants. A selection of papers from the conference will be published, with expected deadline for final submission being early October 2025.