Call for papers for the Private International Law Festival 2026

The Private International Law Festival 2026: The End of Rule-Based International Order? - Implications for Private International Law is accepting proposal. The festival organised by Edinburgh Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, and generously supported by the Lindemann Foundation (Germany), will be held on 24-25 September 2026, at the Playfair Library in Edinburgh.

Proposals should be submitted by the 10 April 2026.

Read the full call for papers

Early in 2026 at the World Economic Forum - the Davos Summit, the Canadian Prime Minister addressed an uncomfortable truth: the time of the rule-based international order seems to be over. This has implications for public international law, and they are currently being discussed with agitation. It has implications for private international law as well, and those must be discussed as well. And they will be discussed. 

On 24-25 September 2026, the University of Edinburgh Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law will host the second Private International Law Festival in Edinburgh focusing on this topic. We want to combine different formats – paper presentations, discussion panels, workshops – to make progress on these questions: What impact do current geopolitical shifts have on private international law? Do they not matter because private international law can continue to maintain the fiction of being apolitical and merely technical? Are we seeing any shifts from a rule-based private international order? Or can private international law in an increasingly mercantile political economy pick up where public international law seems to be discarded? 

We call for proposals: papers, panels, or any other format. Please be as precise as you can be, on format, substance and individuals involved. Fully-fledged theories are welcome, but so are mere ideas in need of development. Inventive new formats would be great, but traditional presentations will be valued as well. Junior researchers are particularly encouraged, but established academics and senior researchers are encouraged too. Maybe we manage to be festive after all, malgré tout! 

Proposals from all approaches, including critical, doctrinal, historical, conceptual, reflexive, post-critical, interdisciplinary and any others, that enable a serious scholarly reflection from a private international law perspective on this broad topic are welcome.

Guidelines

Applicants are invited to submit a proposal of up to 500 words, together with a short bio/s in the same word document. Submissions should be sent to law.events@ed.ac.uk by 10 April 2026 with the email subject clearly marked “Proposal PIL Festival_ Surname/s”. Selected speakers will be informed in May 2026.

Expenses for participation

The conference cannot provide funding for participant expenses. Researchers submitting proposals are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation expenses.