Program Committee Article
Honolulu 2012
A Unique International Gathering in a Beautiful Location
David Engel, Barbara Yngvesson, Annie Bunting 2012 Program Committee
A remarkable gathering of the global socio-legal community is taking shape at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, Hawai’i from June 5-8, 2012. Co-sponsored by five of the world’s leading socio-legal organizations (Law & Society Association; Research Committee on the Sociology of Law, International Sociological Association; Canadian Law and Society Association; Japanese Association of the Sociology of Law; and the Socio-Legal Studies Association), this meeting is situated between Asia and North America in a Pacific locale with its own rich and complex history.
Years of planning for this unique event have drawn on the time and talents of a large and broad-based international committee as well as the generous cooperation of many organizations and funding sources. A major grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation and a generous subsidy from LSA have ensured the participation of numerous scholars from all regions of the globe.
In response to our Call for Papers, we received an outpouring of submissions: 2,658 participants from 65 different countries, making this one of the largest international gatherings in our history. Scholars in attendance will represent all world regions, including North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. Longstanding CRNs (collaborative research networks) have been very active, organizing over 100 sessions. In addition, under the leadership of Masayuki Murayama and Valerie Hans, a group of 27 newly-established IRCs (international research collaboratives) organized specifically for the Honolulu meetings, and designated to receive LSA and NSF funding in support of their members, have contributed more than 50 sessions.
A plenary session on “Contested Sovereignties” will combine music, ceremony, and paper presentations to link the culture and history of Hawai’i and the Pacific to global socio-legal themes of legal pluralism, colonization, law and religion, and self-determination. In addition, the program will include eight Featured Sessions that were organized to highlight an array of socio-legal research issues and methods. These were selected by scholars and participating organizations from around the world, with a particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific Region that is the site for this year’s meeting. Topics include: Changing Methodologies; Law and Disasters in Comparative Perspective; Politics of Religious Freedom; Classic Japanese Theories of Sociology of Law; Environmental Justice in the Mekong Region; Constitutionalism in Asia; Theoretical Frameworks for the Understanding of Law and Society Issues; and The Cultural Power of Law in Indigenous Legal Experiences in Hawaii and Canada.
Planning for an international meeting of this kind must take into account the cultural diversity of the participants and the varied expectations they may bring to scholarly conferences. Indeed, the excitement associated with this meeting derives in part from our anticipation of the many opportunities it will afford for cross-cultural exchange, not only within the sessions themselves but also during our time together in residence at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. At the Honolulu meetings, you will notice a few innovations designed to facilitate connections and to welcome first-time participants: an enlarged lounge area that will serve as a gathering and meeting place; a new Meet2Eat program where participants without dinner plans can go each evening to meet others and plan spontaneous outings; and an enhanced LSA Discussion Board for people to meet virtually before arriving in Honolulu to make plans and to find roommates, dinner companions, intellectual conversation partners, or fellow hikers, bikers – or surfers!
We hope you will share the Program Committee’s excitement about a meeting that promises to be one of the most memorable in our history. We look forward to seeing you in Hawai’i.