The 1st Philawson Workshop aims to investigate the intersection of social ontology and the philosophy of law, exploring their philosophical backgrounds, thematic overlaps and correlations between their methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks.

In recent decades, a growing number of scholars in the philosophy of law tradition have shown heightened interest in social ontology (and vice versa) and promising new research approaches to understanding legal reality have emerged. We aim to address three central aspects: authors, themes, and methods.

First, looking for the central authors, we aim to explore the origins of social ontology, questioning if philosophers of law play any role in developing the discipline or if those central authors could have a certain background in legal philosophy. For instance, that would be the case of notable legal scholars such as such as Adolf Reinach (author of “The Apriori Foundations of the Civil Law”, 1913) and Czesław Znamierowski (author of “Social Objects and Social Acts”, 1921) emerging as significant precursors of the early era of social ontology.

Second, we would like to unveil important themes of the contemporary debate that connect social ontology and philosophy of law. Topics such as social conventions, constitutive rules, artifacts, the nature of institutions, metaphysics of legal and social facts, custom, and legal and social practices are examples of shared interests between social ontology and philosophy of law.

Third, we aim to disclose the methods throughout the shared themes are addressed to within different traditions of thought. For example, from the past century on, social ontology and philosophy of law’s topics have been analyzed throughout the analytical tradition, the phenomenological approach, or the empirical perspective. We could question: By which methods the shared issues are addressed? Are there any meeting points that could unveil any advantages in assembling them or applying one approach typical of social ontology to philosophy of law (and vice versa)?

In conclusion, this 1st Philawson Workshop seeks to deepen our understanding of the profound connections between social ontology and philosophy of law, contributing to advancing the knowledge at the intersection of these distinct yet converging disciplines.

Confirmed Speakers: 

Paolo Di Lucia (Università di Milano, Italy);

Sebastián Figueroa Rubio (Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, Spain);

Miguel Garcia-Godinez (University College Cork, Ireland);

Francesco Guala (Università di Milano, Italy);

Zuzanna Krzykalska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland);

Giulia Lasagni (University College Cork, Ireland);

Alba Lojo (Università Roma Tre, Italy);

Giuseppe Lorini (Università di Cagliari, Italy);

Olimpia Loddo (Università di Cagliari, Italy);

Rachael Mellin (University College Cork, Ireland);

Lorenzo Passerini Glazel (Università di Milano-Bicocca);

Virginia Presi (Università di Milano, Italy).

We invite contributions for—but not limited to—the following topics:

1) Authors. At the origins of the relations between social ontology and philosophy of law.

2) Themes. Unveiling important issues and questions connecting social ontology

and philosophy of law in contemporary debates.

3) Methods. Disclosing meeting points (if any) between the approaches of social

ontology and the philosophy of law.

Submissions must be prepared for double-blind review. Manuscripts must be written in English – in .doc format –, should not contain any identifying information and they cannot exceed 2.000 words (excluding bibliography). Moreover, they must contain:

-        the indication of the section to which the author(s) wants to contribute;

-        4/5 keywords.

Selected long abstracts will be invited to be discussed in person in Milan, where each presentation will last 30 minutes with an additional 30 minutes of Q&A. They will also receive the invitation to publish in a Special issue. There will be no conference fee. We have resources to contribute for travel and accommodation costs to young scholars without institutional support. Please, if you are in this situation, include in your submission “Opting to PHILAWSON scholarship”.

Submissions should be sent via EasyChair[1] before July 10th, 2024. A committee in charge will evaluate the submission, and decisions will be communicated around the middle of August.

This event is possible thanks to the financial support of International Social Ontology Society (ISOS)and the doctoral school of Scienze Giuridiche ‘Cesare Beccaria’, Università Statale di Milano.

Organizers: Alba Lojo (Università Roma Tre, Italy) and Virginia Presi (Università di Milano, Italy).

Scientific Committe: Sebastian Figueroa Rubio (Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain) and Olimpia Loddo (Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy).

For further information, please contact the organizers Alba Lojo (ALBA.LOJOCARIDE@uniroma3.it) and Virginia Presi (virginia.presi@unimi.it), or visit https://philevents.org/event/show/122942

[1] https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=1stplw