Call for Proposals: 5th Biennial Conference on Criminal Law 2026, Universite Laval (Rethinking and Defining Violence in the Criminal Justice System)

The Faculty of Law at Universite Laval, the Centre for Applied and Interdisciplinary Research on Intimate, Family and Structural Violence (RAIV) and the Violence-Justice (Vi-J) research team, in collaboration with the Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA), invite proposals for the Fifth Biennial Conference on Criminal Law.

The conference will be held at Universite Laval in Quebec City from 14 to 16 October 2026, bringing together researchers, students and practitioners working on contemporary issues in criminal law.

The 2026 edition is themed "Rethinking and Defining Violence in the Criminal Justice System".

The organisers note that while definitions of violence vary across disciplinary traditions, criminal law continues to be perceived as a social bulwark against certain forms of violence, even as the criminal justice system is itself a site where forms of violence are produced and at times reproduced. The guiding question is: how does the criminal justice system apprehend, regulate, sanction, or produce violence in its various forms?

• Theories, definitions and conceptualizations of violence: competing or contested definitions; methodological and epistemological challenges
• The criminal justice system and violence: its roles, limits, contradictions and unintended effects; alternatives to criminalization
• Visible and documented forms of violence: judicial and police statistics in Canada; aftermath of the #MeToo movement; feminicides; hate crimes; firearms; bullying and cyberbullying; digital violence and artificial intelligence; violence in educational settings
• Structural and systemic violence: limits of the system for victims of sexual violence; violence experienced by Indigenous individuals and communities; effects of judicialization and incarceration; state and police violence; social, racial or political profiling
• Overlooked or underexamined violence: ageism, sexism, homophobia and other discrimination; violence affecting people experiencing homelessness, mental health or addiction issues; violence in medical, psychiatric or obstetrical settings; colonial violence; violence linked to social conflicts, wars and state repression

The organisers invite proposals from academic and research communities (faculty members, researchers, and graduate students in law and the social sciences), justice-system professionals (public servants, prosecution and defence lawyers, and judges), and community or advocacy organisations.

Submissions are welcome in both French and English. Please note that presentations will be held primarily in French. Selected papers may lead to a publication.

Proposals must be submitted no later than 1 August 2026 by email to biennale2026@ulaval.ca.

Each submission must include:

• The title of the presentation
• A short abstract of approximately 300 words, in Word format
• The name or names of the author or authors
• The email address of the main author and their institutional affiliation