On 22 and 23 September 2022, Erasmus School of Law and the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen will host a conference on theoretical and empirical contributions in the field of public and private interest, and the legal frameworks that delegate regulatory authority to private actors or seek to steer private actors toward public interests. For the full programme of the conference and registration please go to the end of the page.
- Date
- Thursday 22 Sep 2022, 09:00 - Friday 23 Sep 2022, 09:00
- Type
- Conference
- Location
Blue City, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- More information
Location: Blue City, Maasboulevard 100, 3063 NS Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
It is now a commonplace observation that the age of globalisation has been characterised by the growing power of private actors and, with it, their increasing relevance for social welfare.
Overcoming (global)crises
The climate change and health care crises, global economic inequality and continuous threats to financial stability, identity- and status-based forms of exclusion, and eroding faith in the legitimacy of liberal democracies can partially be traced to an economy shaped to facilitate profit-maximisation for the benefit of private actors.
Yet, overcoming these crises seems to be equally bound to the actions and inactions of private actors. Indeed, multiple recent regulatory initiatives point to the direction of harnessing the power of private actors to address fundamental concerns of social and environmental sustainability.
Relevant issues
The fragmented attempts to “re-embed” markets by incorporating social and environmental considerations in the rationalities of private actors lead to broader conceptual questions:
What is private power, and how can it be directed towards pre-set public goals?
Is the power of private actors an artefact of the economy that the law can only secondarily regulate? Or is the law itself a key source of private power?
How should we approach the distinction between public and private interests? Could private interests be conceptualised as a form of public interests? Or is the ‘public’ the antithesis of the ‘private’?
Can the reconstitution of public power address the challenges discussed above? If so, how can public power be reconstituted in the transnational arena? Alternatively, what role can private power play in public interest projects, such as sustainability or social transformation?
How can public interests be safeguarded by private actors and in public-private partnerships in the face of contemporary societal challenges such as globalisation, digitisation and privatisation and crises like those of the environment and public health?
Look here for the full programme.
Registration is free and attendance is possible both online and on-site. Register before the 1st of September 2022 by filling out this form or scanning the QR code.
For more information, please contact us at sectorplan@law.eur.nl
