Law, Society and Digital Pasts, Presents and Futures

The 2023 RCSL conference sets out to explore the latest concepts and practices of digital societies. It asks how digitalization reconfigures law, citizenship/denizenship, democracy, markets, identity, and everyday forms of life and resistance. In doing so, the conference discusses how socio-legal methods are more relevant than ever to examine how digital technologies impact and take form after states, markets, law and citizens/denizens. Digitalisation takes many forms, such as platform-based markets, robots, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital fencing and sensing by machines in border creation, and city planning, as well as automated state decision-making and digitization of legal archives, courts and other dispute resolution fora. With this focus we aim to show how past, present and future societies are mediated through digital technologies and law. The broader aim is to set the scene for considering the role of socio-legal scholars when engaging with digital technologies. By inviting conversations around this topic, we seek to further articulate the field of sociology of law in the digital era. We hope to spark renewed discussion of sociology and law in a time where an increasing number of new national and global actors are emerging that pose challenges to democracy and the rule of law. This is a context in which new technologies are being used to create new markets and networks of resistance, resilience, and accountability. 

Apart from paper proposals related to the conference theme, the RCSL Working Groups are encouraged to submit sessions and individual paper proposals on socio-legal subjects are also welcome. 

This is a physical conference. Session organisers may accept, in special cases, papers to be presented remotely via Zoom, which they will have to arrange independently.

This conference is generously supported by The Crafoord Foundation. 

DEADLINE EXTENDED

Important Dates
Call for papers — 1 November 2022 – 28 February 2023 14 March 2023

Early Bird
(registration before April 10th 2023)

Late Bird
(registration before June 10th 2023)

Non-members high income countries
(Cat. A ISA / World Bank)

All fees are incl. VAT 25%. Fee covers conference materials, lunches, coffee breaks and receptions (conference dinner not included)

Refund Policy
Requests for a refund of registration fee/dinner fee a 50% refund will be given if a written notification of cancellation is received until 29 July. Request for refunds will not be honored after this time.