The Territory and Justice network will hold its third conference on July 12-13, 2010, in Dublin. The theme of the conference is Justice and Territory: Immigration, Self-Determination, and Resource Rights.
A panel will be dedicated to each of the sub-themes: immigration, self-determination, and resource rights. Other panels will be open–determined by the topics of the paper presented.
We invite abstract submissions for paper presentations on topics related to any of the sub-themes or on topics related to territory and justice, broadly construed.
Abstracts are due to cara.nine@hotmail.com by March 1, 2010.
Please forward this message to persons you think would be interested.
Via Brian Leiter, there’s a profile in the Chronicle of Higher Education of the founder of the somewhat unsavoury-sounding Abbeville group. But for scholars interested in secession as a philosophical topic, there was this section on its history in the academy:
It was during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and Mr. Livingston, a professor of philosophy at Emory University and raised in South Carolina, decided there should be more thoughtful discourse on the topic of secession.
A political philosopher who specializes in David Hume, he searched philosophy papers published since 1940 and turned up only seven on the matter of secession from federal unions: five reviews of a book and two articles about Quebec. Thinking he had the market to himself, he held a conference on secession at the 1991 meeting of the American Philosophical Association.
He was right about his share of the market. Nobody came.
At least things have changed a bit in that respect.
Check out the Transborder Immigrant Tool. Here’s an article about it:
By augmenting a low-cost Motorola phone with GPS and a battery of applications, Dominguez’s goal is to help illegal immigrants complete safe border crossings without being sent back by the Border Patrol or getting shot in the face by American “patriots.” The primary goal of the Transborder Immigrant Tool is to increase safety during border crossing by directing heavy-footed immigrants to safe routes, shelter, food, water, and friendly sympathizers.
… and here’s the blog of the project itself. (via Jamie K.)
Also, Filip Spagnoli emailed to tell me about his Human Rights Blog, which, among other things contains some really cool maps of immigration patterns. I’m adding it to the blogroll.
The BBC has a survey of some of the barriers that persist, 20 years after the end of the Berlin wall.
I just came across the ImmigrationProf Blog, which I’ll add to the blogroll. Their top item at the moment is a link to an article on a day in the life of a border sherrif in Texas, which makes for some interesting reading, both on the human interest side, but also about the way in which local officials spin stories to the media and local politicians in order to get resources. Please send us further suggestions for links in our blogroll to sites dealine with territory and justice issues.
A few disputes related to secession are in the news at the moment. First, in Sudan, there is disagreement about the criteria that need to be met if secession by the south is to be legitimate, with the southern government rejecting a deal requiring a 66 per cent turnout and a 50 per cent plus 1 vote. In the United States, there is a distinct rise in chatter about secession following remarks by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Three EU States—Spain, Romania, and Cyprus—are backing Serbia’s case against the independence of Kosovo in the International Court of Justice, but the official EU line remains pro-secession. Finally, an interesting piece in a Turkish paper arguing, on the basis of recent Spanish history, against the idea that the provision of democratic rights to minorities creates a pro-secessionist dynamic.
