This week’s event announcements feature:

1. Lord Walker lecture on statutory hypotheses, 3 November 2015
2. Call for papers: ‘The Age of Austerity: A New Challenge for State Powers’

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Call for papers:

The Age of Austerity: A New Challenge for State Powers

The Europa Institute and the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law are pleased to announce the call for papers for a workshop on state powers in the age of austerity, to be held at the University of Edinburgh on March 30^th 2016.

The workshop seeks to examine how the powers of the state are affected, A) in cases where austerity measures are prescribed to national governments by supranational organisations and B) in cases where austerity measures are imposed by central governments to devolved or federal administrations in composite systems. Papers that include (but are not limited to) the following themes are particularly welcome:

• Firstly, in the context of national governments, what is the impact of externally imposed austerity on national and popular sovereignty? Has austerity expanded the field of application of executive instruments (decrees, delegated legislation, administrative instruments) and what roles remain for the Legislature and the Judiciary? How is the executive’s power to formulate economic and welfare policy affected in debt-ridden states that require international financial support? What does this mean for democratic participation, especially in the context of monetary unions where the economic policy of one member can have direct consequences on others? What is the impact on the protection of economic and social rights?
• Secondly, in the context of composite systems, how has the expansion of Executive power affected the territorial allocation of powers and policies, and how has a dialogue been implemented among the different territorial levels? What impact has European Governance had on the subnational level?

Scholars in the broader fields of Law, Political Science and Economics are particularly encouraged to submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to Dimitrios.Kagiaros@ed.ac.uk or Carlotta.Redi@ed.ac.uk.

The deadline for submission is Sunday, 20 December 2015, 8pm. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in mid-January. Final papers of no more than 6000 words (including footnotes) must be submitted by March 1^st 2016. Selected Papers will be included in the Europa Working Paper series or as blog posts on the Europa blog. We consider publishing the proceeds of the conference as an edited volume with a leading publisher.

Registration is free. Speakers and attendees need to cover their own expenses for travel and accommodation. Refreshments and lunch will be provided on the day free of charge.