DIGNITY, DEMOCRACY, DIVERSITY XXIX WORLD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PHILOSOPHY OF LAW & SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

Without going into the details of the program that can be viewed on the site dedicated to the event-ivr2019.org, we would like to note the topicality of the problems addressed in the Plenum of the Congress, the diversity of the approaches in the special workshops and working groups, thus noting the coherence of the approaches in the field, as well as the importance given to topics of great news and interest such as as immigrants, ecology, religion, gender etc., these being subordinated to understanding and respecting human rights everywhere, regardless of race, religion, sex, gender, culture etc. Dignity: An Equality Analysis - Catharine A. MacKinnon Elizabeth A. Long (Professor of Law, Michigan Law & James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School), Human Rights Overreach - John Tasioulas (Chair of Politics, Philosophy and Law and Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law, King's College London), The Islamic View of Humanity - Azizah Y. al-Hibri (Professor Emerita of Law, Richmond School of Law & Founder and Chair, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights), The Future of Human Rights: An Ecological - Experimentalist Approach - César Rodríguez-Garavito (Executive Director of the Center for Law, Justice and Society, University of the Andes, Colombia), Rescuing Human Rights: Challenges of Identity and Pluralism in an Age of Globalisation - Neus Torbisco-Casals (Visiting Professor in International Law & Senior Research Fellow, Hirschman Centre for Democracy, Graduate Institute, Geneva), Natural Law, Cognitive Science and Human Rights - John Mikhail, (Research Professor, Georgetown University), Diversity: Importance and Relevance - Yoshiki Wakamatsu (Professor of Law, Gakushuin University, Tokyo), Human Dignity: Challenges, Controversies and Promise -Heiner Bielefeldt (Professor of Human Rights & Human Rights Policy, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2010-16), Peter Schaber (Professor of Applied Ethics, University of Zurich) and Simone Zurbuchen (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, University of Lausanne). Evidence and Recognition in Law and Legal Theory up to Gender, Democracy and Human Rights, European Democracy in Crisis - the Uses and Abuses of Dignity, from Re-Assessing Rights of Nature to Democracy and Globalization or Human Dignity in Europe.

Lucerne, Switzerland

7-12 July 2019

In July 2019, the University of Lucerne and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies hosted the 29th World Congress of the International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, focused on Dignity, Democracy and Diversity.

At a first sight analysis, we note the inter and transdisciplinary character of the issue of the Congress, very generous and up-to-date, which favored a wide participation of over 1,000 specialists in the field of legal sciences and philosophy of law, university professors, researchers, members of the associations of philosophy of all the countries represented in the International Association of the Philosophy of Law, presided by Professor PhD. Mortimer SELLERS. We mention only a few countries that have been represented by specialists in the field at this important scientific event: USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Germany, Colombia, United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Hungary, etc.

We consider particularly significant the special theme of the 2019 Congress which was "Dignity, Democracy, Diversity". Why such a theme? Why have we chosen to write about these concepts? We intend to present the ideas that were the guideliness of this international scientific event and which are specified in the Congress Program1. The concept of human dignity has become a major aspect of current international discussions in today's legal and social philosophy - a debate that has been characterized by critical and deconstructive perspectives on the one hand, and more affirmative approaches on the other. The congress aimed to explore the intricacies of the idea of human dignity in the context of the theory of human rights, its conceptual history, content, justification, critiques and the various ways in which it has been articulated in different cultural contexts. In addition, we proposed to shed light on innovative and contentious approaches to dignity, referring in particular to the concept of dignity of animals and even of nature in general - a concept exemplified by the Swiss constitution's protection of the "dignity of living beings" alongside with human dignity.

At present, democracy faces several problems - from threats issued by new antidemocratic political forces to challenges posed by recently developed forms of political discourse and mobilization mediated by the Internet. Given such challenges - and in view of the long and specific tradition of democracy in Switzerland (both representative and direct) - we proposed to address questions of contemporary democracy as one of the main themes of the congress. In particular, we aimed to focus on the apparent crisis of the representative system and on the various challenges with which it has to contend at present - from populism to more participatory, direct forms of democracy that have been made possible by the advent of the digital era (e-democracy, liquid democracy).

The concept of diversity refers to the cultural and religious pluralism of the modern world and the questions such pluralism presents for political and legal systems. It embraces the variety of forms of life but also alludes to processes of distinction and differentiation that may conflict with the principle of equality. The congress addressed in particular the theoretical challenges implied by this pluralism for the concept of law and democratic citizenship: can the results of an ever-more globalized world be met with a politics of accommodation and/or integration, or do these challenges indicate that globalization is approaching its limits and that a new 'localization' is beginning to supersede it?

Within this overarching framework, we specifically encouraged research on the interplay between dignity, democracy and diversity. Numerous questions were raised in this respect, including - but by no means limited to - the following: Is human dignity of foundational importance for the conceptualization, legitimacy and normative structuring of democracy and political autonomy? Or is it rather dispensable for a theory of democracy? Are there limits of majoritarian decision making created by human rights? How can religious, cultural and linguistic diversity be accommodated in democratic structures? Does diversity conflict with the idea of universal human rights and of human dignity? Or is diversity best accommodated within the framework of these concepts? Are certain forms of democracy (e.g. direct vs. representative democracy, centralized vs. federal democratic systems) better or less suited to accommodate diversity?

The research on such topics is to be embedded in perspectives which focus on the international order and the effort of establishing the global rule of law. This outlook is productive for attempts to properly reconstruct and assess the structure of contemporary legal systems in a transnational perspective, taking account of both trends of further globalization and thrusts towards new forms of localization. The purpose was to focus on the international order and the effort of establishing the global rule of law. The purpose of the Congress was to properly reconstruct and assess the structure of contemporary legal systems in a transnational perspective.

We can therefore appreciate that the aim of this scientific manifestation was to open a discursive space for reflection and discussion on pressing human rights concerns, on the contemporary challenges of realizing political autonomy, and on questions regarding cultural pluralism, citizenship and integration. It is worth mentioning, at the same time, that the issues at stake in the Congress debates, both the Plenary speeches and those submitted within the workshops were of interest not only to legal and social philosophers but also to policy-makers, NGO representatives, practicing lawyers and the general public, as well as academics from various disciplines, thus promoting a wide-ranging dialogue, open to diverse points of view, in tune with the cognitive-rational and critical perspectivism.

The selected topics of the Congress are not to be understood as exclusive. Proposals, observations and suggestions were made for all areas of legal philosophy, legal theory and jurisprudence. Valuable contributions that may open new perspectives on the interfaces of the law with other areas of human social activity were made.

The scientific Agenda of the Congress included the following activities: Plenary Lectures, Evening Plenaries, Evening Events, Special Workshops, Working Groups. Without going into the details of the program that can be viewed on the site dedicated to the event-ivr2019.org, we would like to note the topicality of the problems addressed in the Plenum of the Congress, the diversity of the approaches in the special workshops and working groups, thus noting the coherence of the approaches in the field, as well as the importance given to topics of great news and interest such as as immigrants, ecology, religion, gender etc., these being subordinated to understanding and respecting human rights everywhere, regardless of race, religion, sex, gender, culture etc.

In the Plenum of the Congress, papers focused on the topic of the Congress were presented, as follows: Dignity: An Equality Analysis - Catharine A. MacKinnon Elizabeth A. Long (Professor of Law, Michigan Law & James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School), Human Rights Overreach - John Tasioulas (Chair of Politics, Philosophy and Law and Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law, King's College London), The Islamic View of Humanity - Azizah Y. al-Hibri (Professor Emerita of Law, Richmond School of Law & Founder and Chair, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights), The Future of Human Rights: An Ecological - Experimentalist Approach - César Rodríguez-Garavito (Executive Director of the Center for Law, Justice and Society, University of the Andes, Colombia), Rescuing Human Rights: Challenges of Identity and Pluralism in an Age of Globalisation - Neus Torbisco-Casals (Visiting Professor in International Law & Senior Research Fellow, Hirschman Centre for Democracy, Graduate Institute, Geneva), Natural Law, Cognitive Science and Human Rights - John Mikhail, (Research Professor, Georgetown University), Diversity: Importance and Relevance - Yoshiki Wakamatsu (Professor of Law, Gakushuin University, Tokyo), Human Dignity: Challenges, Controversies and Promise -Heiner Bielefeldt (Professor of Human Rights & Human Rights Policy, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2010-16), Peter Schaber (Professor of Applied Ethics, University of Zurich) and Simone Zurbuchen (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, University of Lausanne).

There were 151 special workshops, problematized and focused on debating extremely diverse issues of the philosophy of law, from the Theory of Legal Evidence. Evidence and Recognition in Law and Legal Theory up to Gender, Democracy and Human Rights, European Democracy in Crisis - the Uses and Abuses of Dignity, from Re-Assessing Rights of Nature to Democracy and Globalization or Human Dignity in Europe. There were also 28 Working Groups envisaging primarily the theorization and epistemic delimitation of the fundamental concepts included in the Congress theme, but also adjacent issues such as the relationship between philosophy and jurisprudence, human rights, democracy, law, education and citizenship, current issues such as: Migration, Imigration and Refugeehood, Law, Sex and Gender, Conflict, Peace & Transition etc.

As we can see in the Program of the Congress (https://www.ivr2019.org/programme), Romania was represented by professors, researchers, specialists in legal sciences, philosophy, philosophy of law, who attended all the proceedings of the Congress, acting in the working groups, some presenting papers in the field of the philosophy of law. The Christian University "Dimitrie Cantemir" was represented by a team made up of: prof. PhD Corina Adriana Dumitrescu - President of the UCDC Senate - who submitted the paper "Achieving the Rule of Law - A Fundamental Objective, both for the Philosophy of Law and for Social Philosophy ", (the text of this communication will be published in the Cogito. Multidisciplinary Research Journal, no.4 / December 2019), prof. PhD Ioan Craiovan, director of the International Institute for Human Rights within UCDC, President of the Association for the Philosophy of Law in Romania, who submitted the paper "On the Concept of Legal Culture within Transdsciplinarity", dr. Bogdan Cuza, with the paper "On National culture within Universality - the Romanian Case". The team also included: prof. PhD Cristiana Cristureanu, Rector of the UCDC, prof. PhD. Hab. Gabriela Pohoaţă, editor in-chief of the academic research journals Cogito & Euromentor, associate professor PhD Alexandru Ştefănescu, vicerector for research activity, graduate of the Faculty of Law, PhD candidate Bogdan Astrid Isabela.

The conclusions drawn, both from the Plenary debates and from the workshops, are meant to emphasize that, today, all over the world, law has been disassociated from ethics, an aspect which reiterates the idea that the relationship between law and morality is the hardest problem of the philosophy of law.2 Thus, the legal system must aim to serve justice, both in each country and internationally. Otherwise, it may affect the morality of a community and affect social harmony.3 From this perspective, a large body of opinions has been advocated for the intensification and recalibration of philosophy of law research to the current problems of justice, both nationally, at the level of each country, as well as internationally. The capitalization of the ideas in this field was proposed, in order to better understand and harmonize the social problems that every country and the world as a whole face nowadays.

It is a great honor and, at the same time, a huge responsibility to announce that the next Congress will be organized by the International Association of Philosophy of Law in Romania, at the Christian University "Dimitrie Cantemir" in collaboration with the Romanian Association of Philosophy of Law. The initiative of organizing this Congress, in Romania, belongs to the President of the UCDC Senate, Prof. PhD Corina Adriana Dumitrescu, also promoter of the International Conference of Philosophy of Law with the theme The Philosophy of Law from Enlightenment to the Contemporary Period, organized by UCDC, on May 17-19,2018, Bucharest, Romania, both initiatives being supported by Professor PhD. Mortimer SELLERS, University of Baltimore, School of Law (USA), President of the International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.

Prof. PhD. Hab. Gabriela Pohoaţă, Editor in-chief Cogito & Euromentor

Footnote

1 https://www.ivr2019.org/programme

2 Georgio Del Vechio Lessons of Legal Philosophy, with a foreword by Mircea Djuvara, trad. I.C. Drăgan, Bucharest, Europa Nova Publishing House, 1995, p.199.

3 Gabriela Pohoaţă, Is there Law without Ethics? In Cogito. Multidisciplinary Research Journal, vol. X, no.2/June 2018, p. 34-44.