Registrations are open! Conference 'Law in the Age of Transitions: Public Interests and Private Powers', Groningen, 3-4 April 2025

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We cordially invite interested parties (researchers, judges, policy-makers, and other stakeholders) to register as attendees to our conference 'Law in the Age of Transitions: Public Interests and Private Powers'. Please find the programme and registration link below. Participation is free of charge.

Conference theme

The view of 'the market' as a solution to social issues and a path to prosperity is facing growing skepticism. The convergence of existential risks, such as those linked with climate change and public health, with the aspiration of economic resilience in a context of global competition have prompted a re-centring of the state across the Global North. Among other things, this has taken the form of a return of industrial policy and a push towards unilateralism in international economic relations. At the same time, these developments fuel the discourse about a “transition away from neoliberalism” and the emergence of a ‘geoeconomic’ or ‘post-neoliberal’ order.

The idea behind the title “Law in the Age of Transitions” is to focus on the role of the law amidst these conceptual developments and practical realities. More specifically, we focus on the role of law in structuring two key transitions that play a defining role in this emerging socio-economic organisation: the digital and the green transition. Developments in these fields have been rapid, with legislative initiatives like the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Service Act, the Net-Zero Industry Act, or the Critical Raw Materials Act having far-reaching ambitions and shaking-up the political economy of the Union. Drawing from this transformational spirit, this conference concentrates on how law reinterprets the public-private challenge and revises the balance between public and private actors. In other words, how does the law restructure claims and burdens, rights and entitlements between private and public actors in these emerging transitions?

Programme

(click here for a printable PDF-version)

Day 1 - Thursday 3 April 2025

09:00 - 09:30: Opening Session

Welcome words: Ramses Wessel (RUG) and Fabian Amtenbrink (EUR)

Speakers: Lieselot Bisschop (EUR) and Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi (RUG)

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09:30 - 11:00: Panel 1: The Value(s) of Consumption

Discussant: Martien Schaub (EUR)

Speakers:

Carolina Paulesu (EUI) - Structural Problem, Individual Redress: The Capitalistic Nature of EU Consumer Law’s Sustainable Consumption Agenda.
Eva Meyermans Spelmans (EUR) - Transforming Relations in the Global Value Chain of the Fashion Industry: The Role of Human Rights Due Diligence as Part of the EU Textiles Strategy.
Jie Ouyang (RUG) - Sustainable consumption by design as a structural principle in EU law.

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11:00 - 11:15: Break

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11:15 - 12:45: Panel 2: The Infrastructural Turn of the Digital Transition.

Discussant: Ioannis Kampourakis (EUR)

Speakers:

Charlotte Ducuing, Alon Jasper, Leander Stähler (KU Leuven) - Beyond the Market and the Public-Private Distinction: A Research Agenda for the Democratic Law of Infrastructure.
Giselle Bourgoing (University of Antwerp) - Public-Private Dynamics in Sustainable Procurement: A Case Study of the Semiconductor Industry.
Victo da Silva, Vinicius Muraro (Lund University), Frederik Zuiderveen, Raphael Gellert (Radboud University): The Dual Impact of Digital Public Infrastructure: Commodifying or Empowering Citizens?

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12:45 - 14:00: Lunch Break

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14:00 - 15:30: Panel 3: Rights in Transition

Discussant: Koen Swinnen (EUR)

Speakers:

Emil Verheul (RUG) - Digital Self-Help Measures.
Murtaza Mohiqi (University of Agder) - Digital Environmental Constitutionalism: Integrating Data Rights, Ecological Limits, and Public Authority.
Vincenza Conte (University of Salerno) - Fundamental Rights Necessarily Exercised Through Contracts and Damages from Manipulative Informational Flows on Social Media. Private and Public Enforcement in the Digital Public Sphere.

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15:30 - 15:45: Break

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16:00 - 17:15: Keynote Prof. dr. Katharina Pistor (online) (Columbia University) - The Law of Capitalism.

Day 2 - 4 April 2025

09:30 - 10:45: Keynote Prof. dr. Marija Bartl (UvA) - Reimagining Prosperity in the EU: Beyond the “Draghi Deal” .

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10:45 - 11:00: Break

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11:00 - 12:30: Panel 4: The Shapes of the Law for the Green Transition

Discussant: Lea Diestelmeier (RUG)

Speakers:

Dita Toska (VUB) - Global Gateway, Blended Finance and a New Way of Indebting the Global South: the Role of Law in Restructuring Development Aid.
Francesca Leucci (Wageningen University) - From Public Law to Market Solutions: The Role of Biodiversity Credits for Ecosystem Restoration in Transitioning Economies.
Renee Knoop (EUR) - The use of artificial intelligence in shaping environmental law.

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12:30 - 13:45: Lunch Break

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13:45 - 15:15: Panel 5: Governance of the Twin Transitions: Challenges for the Rule of Law

Discussant: Charlotte Pavillon (RUG)

Speakers:

Andrea Palumbo, Charlotte Ducuing (KU Leuven) - The Blurring of the Public-Private Dichotomy in Risk-based EU Digital Regulation: Challenges for the Rule of Law.
Eylül Erva Akın (University of Milan), Elif Beyza Akkanat-Öztürk (Istambul University) - Regulating for the Future or Falling Short? The Digital Services Act (DSA) and EU Sustainability.
Vito Bevivino, Massimo D'Auria, Gabriella Gimigliano - The EU Green Transition Strategy through the Lenses of the Public-Private Law Divide: Trading Places?

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15:15 - 15:40: Closing remarks