A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a conference entitled "Histories of Transnational Criminal Law," which was organized and convened in Hannover, Germany by Prof. Neil Boister of the University of Canterbury, Prof. Florian Jeßberger of the University of Hamburg, and Prof. Sabine Gless of the University of Basel. The overall goal of the conference was to bring together a group of scholars who work in this emerging field called "Transnational Criminal Law" and try to suss out its historical roots and underpinnings. The ultimate product will be a collection of papers under the same title, which is to be published by Oxford University Press.
I was not alone in thinking that the conference was a smashing success, and it was certainly one of the best conferences I have been to in some time. The organizers wisely chose to make the scope inter-disciplinary, so while the program was dominated by lawyers there were also terrific contributions from the sociology, criminology and history disciplines. The papers were interesting, the discussions stimulating, and the venue (provided by the conference funder, the Volkswagen Foundation) second to none. A highlight was an opening address by Judge Kim Prost of the International Criminal Court, whose professional history is deeply steeped in TCL matters and who gave a lively account of various late 20th-century developments in the field.
I was also so pleased to make the personal acquaintance of various scholars, such as Profs. Jeßberger and Gless, whose work I had read over the years, and of course to see old friends like Prof. Boister, Prof. Joanna Harrington of the University of Alberta and Prof. Sara Wharton of the University of Windsor (with whom I presented a paper entitled "The Emergence of Regional Transnational Criminal Courts").
Just for fun, below is a picture from some post-conference frivolity, in which are shown (l to r) Prof. Roger Clark (the godfather of TCL), yours truly, Prof. Mangai Natarajan, and Prof. Boister. (photo credit: Bob Currie)
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