Call for Papers: Crises in PIL - Crises of PIL, 6th PIL Early Career Researchers' Conference (LMU Munich, 9-10 April 2027)

The 6th PIL Early Career Researchers' Conference (6. IPR-Nachwuchstagung) will be held on 9 and 10 April 2027 at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The conference is a standing German-language forum at which early career scholars of private international law present and debate their work before their peers and senior members of the discipline. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinz-Peter Mansel (University of Cologne) is the keynote speaker.

The event is organised by a team of nine early career researchers based at LMU Munich, Heidelberg, Mannheim, the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg and other German institutions: Nina Benz, Biset Sena Gunes, Torsten Kindt, Peter Moser, Christopher Reibetanz, Alix Schulz, Bianca Scraback, Antonia Sommerfeld and Charlotte Wendland.

The organisers frame the conference around what they call the age of polycrisis: war and environmental destruction forcing thousands to flee, growing social inequality and concentration of economic power undermining social cohesion, and political polarisation and renationalisation threatening European integration and international cooperation.

The conference asks what new questions the political, social, economic and ecological crises of our time raise for private international law, how PIL contributes to crisis management or to the worsening of crises, and whether the discipline of PIL may itself be in crisis. Contributions are welcome on conflict of laws and international civil procedural law at national, European and international level.

The call states that the listed topics are merely suggestive and that there are no limits to creativity in choosing a theme. The four clusters are:

• Fundamentals of PIL (history, methodology, comparative law): the role of PIL under the Nazi regime and in times of extremism; PIL and colonialism, including modern colonialism and the spread of overriding mandatory provisions with extraterritorial effect; the crisis of intra-European PIL as EU instruments such as the GDPR and the AI Act take on broad territorial scope; the shift toward international civil procedural law and the use of jurisdiction as a filter to align forum and ius.
• International family and succession law: cooperation between migration law and PIL to protect refugees; habitual residence where a stay follows flight or displacement; international protection of adults and involuntary relocation for care needs; the best interests of the child in times of crisis; changing forms of relationships and the cross-border recognition of marriages and civil partnerships.
• International contract and commercial law: whether party autonomy should be reined in for sustainability and supply chain concerns; disruption of global supply chains through pandemics, tariffs and sanctions; conflicting ESG standards including the EU's CSDDD against the ESG backlash in the United States; data security and personality rights, SLAPPs against journalists and activists, and private enforcement against global players and online platforms.
• International civil procedural law and arbitration: cross-border collective redress and rational apathy; litigation funding; interim relief under the Brussels Ia Regulation and the Hague Child Abduction Convention; access to justice, forum non conveniens and forum necessitatis; and restrictions on arbitration following CJEU rulings such as Case C-600/23 (FIFA) and Case C-284/16 (Achmea).

The conference is aimed at early career researchers in private international law. The organisers welcome postgraduates, doctoral candidates and junior academics working on conflict of laws and international civil procedural law.

The call sets no nationality, citizenship or institutional restriction, so scholars based outside Germany and outside Europe may submit. Applicants should note that the conference language is German, although the organisers expressly welcome presentations in English.

• Plenary presentations of approximately 20 minutes. The written versions of these presentations will be published in an edited volume after the conference.
• Short presentations of 5 to 10 minutes in parallel sessions, designed for interactive discussion in smaller groups. Work in progress is welcome in this format. Short presentations will not be included in the edited volume.

Applicants state their preferred format in the submission, and may indicate both.

Submissions must be sent by 27 September 2026 by email to IPR-nachwuchstagung@jura.uni-muenchen.de and must include:

• An anonymised abstract of no more than 800 words including footnotes, in PDF format.
• A short cover letter written directly in the body of the email, stating the applicant's name, address and institutional affiliation.
• The preferred presentation format: plenary presentation and/or short presentation.

The selection of speakers will be announced by the end of October 2026.

The conference language is German. The organisers also warmly welcome presentations in English, and the call for papers is published in both German and English.

The call for papers does not state any submission fee or conference registration fee, and it does not mention travel or accommodation support for speakers. The conference takes place in person at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Prof.-Huber-Platz 2, 80539 Munich.