Legal and Political Discussion Group
About US
Juris North is a legal and political discussion group lead by several chairs.
Aberdeen: Dr Peter Cserne
Durham: Prof. Dr William Lucy
Hull: Dr Christopher Fear
Lancashire: Dr Ian Turner
Liverpool: Prof. Dr Michael Gordon
Manchester: Dr Jorge E. Núñez
Newcastle: Dr Joshua Jowitt
Preston (Central Lancashire): Dr Ian Turner
Surrey: Prof. Dr Verónica Rodríguez Blanco
Westminster: Dr Anna Chronopoulou
We started in 2015 with in person Monthly Discussions about original papers. Since then, we have been growing organically and we have had different kinds of events:
- Monthly discussions (usually between January and March, and between September and December).
- Thematic roundtables (we had back in 2020 ten roundtables on the pandemic “Global Response to Crisis” and four subthemes, human dignity, gender, poverty and climate change; in 2021, three roundtables on Kelsen and his legacy; in 2022, two roundtables on sustainability and three roundtables on Kelsen and his legacy, but this time, in Spanish and Portuguese rather than English).
- Annual events in the form of symposiums or congresses (back in 2016 we had the First UK-Russia Symposium on Jurisprudence and Sovereignty; in 2018, together with Academics Against Poverty, we had a Congress centred on Global Justice; in 2020, again together with Academics Against Poverty, we had “Global Justice and Sovereignty”; in 2021, a Congress on Kelsen).
These events are either in person, online or hybrid depending on the situation (e.g. pandemic), speaker and theme. If online, we do it via Zoom. If in-person, at any of our locations: Aberdeen, Durham, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Surrey or Westminster.
Audience: students, academics, practitioners, activists and people at large. We use Rawlsian methodology in our events in the sense we assume we do not differentiate between students and professors, professionals and people at large. In short, we’re all people interested in learning from each other and each time we have an expert to whom we may ask whatever we want.
Numbers in terms of the audience vary from 2 people to 100+ depending on speaker, theme, time, situation, etc.
Discipline: although we started as centred on legal and political philosophy, we’ve had both as speakers and audience philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, geographers and others.
In fact, we have been able to go beyond disciplinary boundaries and we’ve had events and speakers that included the use of British Sign Language, Syrian refugees and transgender people.
Further details about our events and how to participate below.
Contact
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk
Juris North Monthly Discussions
Call for Presenters [ongoing]
If your current research is on a topic that can be broadly characterised as jurisprudence—i.e. legal and political philosophy, and you would be interested in presenting it to a friendly group, which includes academics as well as lawyers, you are welcome to be a presenter at the Juris North Discussion Group.
The discussions are normally held on Wednesday afternoons in Aberdeen, Durham, Hull, Liverpool, London, Manchester or Surrey. We can be flexible about the particular days and locations that we meet. Discussions are always informal and very lively since we follow a Rawlsian approach. That means we do not have “Professors” and “Students” but people interested in discussing issues related to legal and political philosophy. So any question is an important question for debate.
If you would like to give a paper as part of our Working Paper Series [Term One: September-December; Term Two: January-March] please send an abstract, no more than 500 words long and written in English. If you are interested, please contact Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk.
The seminars will have a “pre-read” format: successful applicants will be asked to send a draft paper two weeks in advance of the seminar so that it can be circulated amongst members of the group.
Accommodation and expenses: we will not be able to make any contribution towards accommodation and travel expenses
Contact
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk
Our upcoming events
Juris North Monthly Discussions 2023/24 [Term One: October-December 2023]
Session One “Does Jurisprudence have a Future?” Dr William Lucy, Professor, Durham Law School, United Kingdom.
Session Two “A Limited Defence of Raz’s Denial of An Absolute or Prima Facie Moral Duty to Obey Law.” William Taylor, PhD Candidate, Warwick Law School, United Kingdom.
Session Three “The Asymmetries of Associative Obligation.” Xi Zhang, J.S.D. Candidate, NYU Law School, United States.
Further details: Date, time, format and location will be shared in September.
Juris North 2023 Roundtables “Contemporary non/anti-positivist legal theory” (Call for Abstracts)
Juris North+: “Queer Theory, Leadership and Inclusion” (Call for Expression of Interest)
A few of our previous events below
ASAP-Juris North 2nd UK-Russian Symposium on “Jurisprudence and Sovereignty” (Manchester, April 2020)
Over the past few days, we have been working with our fellow organisers in Russia to fully assess the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our event. After carefully considering the situation, we have come to the conclusion the most reasonable choices are to postpone the main event and to run an online set of presentations.
ONLINE EVENT: Friday 24th and Saturday 25th April
Those speakers who are kindly coming together to the online platform will be presenting their work from their respective locations and the audience will still have access to these live presentations without any risk to their health and wellbeing.
PUBLICATION:
In addition to the online event, I’m delighted to let you know we’ll select the best papers to be published as an “ASAP Journal special issue.” Details about submissions, deadlines, review process, selection/rejection of the manuscript, etc. will follow.
ASAP Journal can be found at: http://journalasap.org/index.php/asap (the link works better using Google Chrome).
On behalf of the organisers and presenters, many thanks for your understanding and collaboration. We are all working tirelessly to ensure we firm up a date for the postponed 2020 main Symposium. In the meantime, I will keep you posted about the online event on 24th and 25th April 2020 and the ASAP Journal special issue.
Note: we expect to have the final details about the online event and the ASAP Journal special issue by end March.
Juris North monthly discussions
Our Juris North discussions this term 1 [September – December 2019]
(note our discussions in Manchester are in room SB2.01, that is Manchester Law School, Sandra Burslem building, 2nd floor, room 01) :
Week 1. Wednesday 25th September, at 1pm, “A Legal Pluralist World” … Or the Black Hole for Modern Legal Positivism, Dr Mauro Zamboni, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University, hosted by Manchester Law School, SB2.01.
Week 2. Wednesday 09th October, at 3pm, Duress is No Excuse, and it Isn’t Much of a Justification Either, Dr Benjamin Sachs, Department of Philosophy, University of St. Andrews, hosted by Durham Law School.
Week 3. Wednesday 23rd October, at 3pm, Trust and the Built Environment, Dr David Jenkins, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, hosted by Manchester Law School.
Week 4. Wednesday 06th November, at 3pm, Non-violence and Civil Disobedience: Insights from Criminal Law, Andreas Marcou, School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, hosted by Manchester Law School.
Week 5. Wednesday 20th November, at 3pm, Predictive Evidence and Unpredictable Freedom, Dr Amit Pundik, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, hosted by Manchester Law School.
Week 6. Wednesday 11th December, at 3pm, Legal Positivism and Indigenous Rights, Dr Dwight Newman, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, hosted by Liverpool Law School.
Free Eventbrite ticket:
Other events 2019-2020
Call for Papers 2020
1. Athens, 13-16 July 2020, a Symposium about “International Law and Politics” jointly organised with ATINER. Details following the link https://www.atiner.gr/law-streams.
2. Manchester, March or April 2020, Second UK-Russian Symposium on “Jurisprudence and Sovereignty” jointly organised with Dr Michael Antonov, St Petersburg State University (details attached).
Workshops on Democracy 2020
Athens, 13-17 July 2020, a Symposium on Democracy jointly organised with ATINER. Details available online https://www.atiner.gr/ads/
Past events
Please find the schedule for the regular JN’s discussions below.
Term 2 [January – March 2019]
WEEK 1. Wednesday 30th January 2019, at 3pm, room JD E422, hosted by Manchester Law School – “The Case for a Monist Conception of the Rule of Law.” Conor Crummey, Teaching Fellow, UCL.
WEEK 2. Wednesday 27th February 2019, at 3pm, room BS3.17, hosted by Manchester Law School – “Blasphemy as a Thick Concept.” Dr. Oscar Pérez de la Fuente, Professor, Carlos III University of Madrid.
WEEK 3. Wednesday 27th March 2019, at 3pm, room BS3.17, hosted by Manchester Law School – “The democratic judge: Oliver Wendell Holmes between legal theory and jurisprudence.” Dr. Paola Chiarella, Lecturer, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Italy.
IVR World Congress 7-13 July 2019, Lucerne, Switzerland
Special Workshop: Pluralism and Integration A workshop jointly organised by ASAP (Academics Stand Against Poverty) and Juris North. We aim to attract contributions that will deepen and broaden the understanding of how to address partiality and unfairness in the world order. We hope to have participants from different disciplinary approaches and backgrounds, including those outside of the mainstream theories of global justice.
https://ivronlineblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/asap_jurisnorth/
Dr Jorge's World 