Perspectives on Citizenship and Legal Institutions in Postcolonial Contexts

We expect a range of participants who study different facets of law and citizenship in their research on postcolonial contexts. These include scholars rooted in the broader political science fields of comparative politics, international relations, political theory, and public policy, as well as in more interdisciplinary fields such as: law and courts, law and society, legal studies, international law, citizenship and migration, comparative political institutions, regime studies, contentious politics, postcolonial studies, Middle Eastern studies, Latin American studies, South Asian studies, African studies, and Southeast and East Asian studies. The workshop would welcome diverse scholars from early career to senior positions who focus on different issue-areas and regions. One of the workshop’s aims is to bridge scholarly divides to generate new ideas and more clearly define similarities and differences in legal institutions and citizenship regimes in postcolonial contexts across policy areas, regions, and regimes. At the same time, it aims to bring together diverse scholars who can provide constructive feedback as well as generate ideas for collaborative research projects, such as co-authored papers and edited volumes. There is a wide range of topics the workshop papers could cover. Examples include: -Implications of colonial legacies, including influences on legal structures, laws, and the uses of laws, -Implementation of domestic laws, including those concerning nationality, passports, work, or education, -Implementation of international laws, including human rights, refugee, and other conventions, -Uses of the law for legalizing repression or institutionalizing nondemocratic rule, -Securitization of policy areas and extra-legal actions, -Tensions between international legal commitments and domestic political exigencies, -Interactions between the courts and society, -Implications of judicial and legal reforms, -Contentious politics concerning laws, regulations, or legal structures, and -Manifestations and institutionalizations of discrimination in law. This variety of topics would appeal to different research networks. Some of these include: -The Law and Society Association’s Collaborative Research Networks, including those on British Colonial Legalities, Comparative Constitutional Law and Legal Culture: Asia and the Americas, and Citizenship and Immigration, -The European University Institute’s Global Citizenship Observatory, -Cardiff University’s Socio-Legal Journals Global South Initiative, -IISJ Criminal Legalities in the Global South Meeting, -University of Helsinki’s Global South research theme, and -University of Liverpool’s Global South Legalities Research Project. We also would circulate the Workshop’s call for papers widely within our own scholarly networks. These include individuals as well as research groups, programs, and initiatives at or within: -The European University Institute, -Virginia Tech, -The George Washington University, -Georgetown University, -Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, -Harvard University, -Maastricht University, -European Scholars on South Asian International Relations, -United States Institute of Peace and the Minerva Research Initiative, -Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of the International Studies Association, -Migration and Citizenship Section of the American Political Science Association, -The Law and Society Association’s Collaborative Research Network on Displaced Peoples, -Project on Middle East Political Science, and -University of Jordan’s Center for Strategic Studies. Overall, we expect to receive a wide array of diverse proposals that would expand our knowledge of politics, citizenship, and legal institutions in postcolonial contexts.