17th Annual Legal Research Network Conference: Duties

Bristol, Budapest (ELTE), Ghent, Göttingen, Groningen, Kraków (Jagiellonian), Lille, Roma Tre, Turku, Uppsala

Duties

23-24 September 2025

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Faculties of Law of the Universities of Bristol, Budapest (ELTE), Ghent, Göttingen, Groningen, Kraków (Jagiellonian), Lille, Roma Tre, Turku and Uppsala cordially invite researchers to the 17th annual Legal Research Network Conference on the 23rd and 24th of September 2025. The conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Law of Roma Tre University (Italy).

Aim of the Legal Research Network Conference
The LRN conference aims at creating a stimulating research environment and a common space for senior and junior scholars to present and discuss international oriented legal research. The conference provides for the opportunity for especially PhD students and early career academics to present their research and discuss their ideas with academics from the different Universities of the Legal Research Network. The conference language is English. The conference will be organized in-person.

The 2025 LRN Conference Theme: Duties
Since the great revolutions of the XVII and the XVIII centuries, rights have dominated the legal discourse in the western world. Either individual or collective, constitutional, fundamental or human, rights dominate modern understandings of what actions are permissible and which institutions are just: “[r]ights structure the form of governments, the content of laws, and the shape of morality. To accept a set of rights is to approve a distribution of freedom and authority, and so to endorse a certain view of what may, must, and must not be done” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
The centrality of rights in the development of law, increasingly so in the last five decades, has, however, overshadowed the notion of duty and its relevance in European and non-European legal traditions and law more generally, which is apparent in different fields. Thus, private law is generally formulated in terms of relations between rights and duties and legal claims arise from breaches of duty. Far from being alien to them, the notion of duty is also entrenched in European legal traditions through ancient customary laws first and, with the birth of the modern State, throughout the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries’ constitutional thought. Today, comparative encounters with non-European legal traditions, marked by a peculiar framing of the relationship between individuals and the community, bring to revalue the notion of duty, while the same notion acquires new global impetus in emerging legal fields, such as the case of environmental law in relation to intergenerational solidarity.
For the purpose of the call for papers (below), the theme Duties should be understood broadly.

Submission and deadlines
We welcome contributions in all legal areas where the theme Duties may be applied. We especially encourage doctoral and early career researchers from all LRN partners to participate, but any member of the Network is most welcome to participate in the conference without submitting a paper.

Submission of paper abstracts- 7 January 2025
Short proposal, max one A4 (surname_short title.doc), should be sent to livia.siclari@uniroma3.it

Notification of accepted papers - 14 January 2025

Submission of papers - 23 August 2025
The paper (surname_short title.doc) should consist of a minimum of 5 pages (ca. 2500 words) and max 12 pages (ca. 6000 words)

Circulation of papers among participants - 30 August 2025
Participants are encouraged to read all papers that will be circulated

Panels
The conference consists of in-person seminars. Depending on the number of contributions, panels may run in parallel. Papers presentations will take no more than 10 minutes and in-panel discussions will be crucial to the conference’s success. We therefore encourage participants to each panel to read the relevant papers and to actively engage in discussion. This will also allow essential feedback for the publication of papers, in agreement with the authors, in the conference proceedings by Roma Tre Press.

Costs and venue
Participation is free of charge. Lunches, coffee and dinner are included without costs for all conference participants. Travel and accommodation costs are, however, not covered.
The conference takes place in the Roma Tre Law Department Main Building, Via Ostiense 159, Roma.

Contact
For any further questions regarding this invitation, please email the planning board, consisting of Livia Siclari, Giorgio Resta and Simone Benvenuti: simone.benvenuti@uniroma3.it

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