Events

The Ubiquity of Universal Jurisdiction: Perspectives on the Nexus of Domestic and International Criminal Law This event reflects on the increased number of cases in domestic criminal courts that rely on each country's assertion of universal jurisdiction. What justifies the assertion of universal jurisdiction beyond the territoriality principle, in civil law and common law countries, […]

The Prison and the Varieties of Suffering: An Exchange Prisons are the predominant means through which states punish wrongdoers. Punishment, by definition, is supposed to be painful, unpleasant, or a matter of making wrongdoers suffer (as Prof Leo Zaibert tends to put it). Reflecting on her long and path-breaking career devoted to understanding prisons, in […]

India's New Criminal Codes: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead A panel discussion of the new Indian criminal codes. Participants will provide an overview of the reform project as well as exploring what has -- and hasn't -- changed in the three codes in question: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (to replace the Indian Penal Code 1860), […]

Nordic Criminal Law as a Normative Project: A Book Forum Nordic criminal law is often thought of as a distinctive tradition and mode of thinking about and making criminal law. But what are we talking about when we are talking about "Nordic criminal law"? Is Nordic criminal law worth appreciating, preserving, or perhaps even developing, […]

Lawfare in Comparative Context For some time, the term “lawfare” has spread throughout the domestic political-legal discourse, jurisprudence, and scholarship of countries and political systems in Latin America, notably–but by no means exclusively–Brazil and Argentina. It has been invoked, in various senses and for various purposes, elsewhere around the world, including recently in connection with […]

Criminal Law, Literature, and History This workshop brings together contributors to the special issue on Criminal Law, Literature, and History (guest edited by Simon Stern, University of Toronto). The issue will explore relations between criminal law, literature, and history, covering a wide geographical and historical range, on topics relating to both law and procedure. Simon […]

Between Modern Debtors’ Prison and Modern Peonage: Economic and Poverty Sanctions in Global Perspective (Pt. 1) This two-part international & interdisciplinary workshop explores economic discrimination in criminal justice systems around the world. Criminal justice systems the world over are run through with economic discrimination: from the pre-trial stage (bail, and cash bail in particular) to […]

Between Modern Debtors’ Prison and Modern Peonage: Economic and Poverty Sanctions in Global Perspective (Pt. 2) This two-part international & interdisciplinary workshop explores economic discrimination in criminal justice systems around the world. Criminal justice systems the world over are run through with economic discrimination: from the pre-trial stage (bail, and cash bail in particular) to […]

From Treason to Trump: Felony’s Medieval Origins and Modern Resilience (A Book Forum) In The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature (Oxford 2024), Elise Wang explores the medieval origins and surprising modern resilience of “felony” in contemporary criminal law. Since its appearance as the ur-crime of Anglo-Saxon proto-criminal law, commentators, historians, and judges have waxed […]

Indian Criminal Law Since 2010: What's Changed? On the occasion of the forthcoming publication of the second edition of the Handbook of Comparative Criminal Law (1st ed. 2010), a panel of experts reflects on what has (and hasn’t) changed in Indian criminal law over the past decade and a half. Among the panelists is Professor Preeti Pratishruti […]

Inducing Intimacy: International Perspectives on Sexual Fraud (A Book Symposium) (June 4, 2025) Chloë Kennedy’s Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law (Cambridge 2024) tackles an important and timely topic that resonates across jurisdictions worldwide–the regulation of deceptively induced intimacy, notably through the criminal law–by taking a broadly interdisciplinary approach. This workshop brings together an […]

Criminal Law and the Constitution of the Postcolony: India (A Book Panel) Imagine adopting a constitution notionally designed to install “The People” as the true repository of sovereign power and to throw off the colonial yoke, yet retaining a criminal justice system designed to maximize the police power of the colonial sovereign. That’s what happened […]