Queering Private Law Workshop

About the two-day workshop

Queer theory and private law are seldom in direct dialogue. Queer theory emphasises indeterminacy and social construction. In contrast, Private Law is typically associated with economic rationality and liberal and neo-liberal beliefs to advance individuals’ autonomy and rights, and relies on binary norms and divisions, such as reasonable/unreasonable, wrongful/non-wrongful, misfeasance/malfeasance.

In recent years, scholars have begun to explore queer theory as a tool to critically appraise various legal fields, such as family law and criminal law. Yet, with few exceptions, queer theory has not been applied to critically analyse private law despite queer theory’s valuable explanatory power and tools for critique. This workshop seeks to fill this gap.

Keynote speakers

• The Hon. Dr. Victoria McCloud, Master of The Senior Courts, King’s Bench Division.
• Prof. Simon Stern, Director, Centre for Innovation Law & Policy; Chair in Innovation Law, University of Toronto.

Workshop’s co-convenors:

• Dr Haim Abraham, Lecturer in Law, University College London, Faculty of Laws;
• Dr Eden Sarid, Lecturer in Law, Essex Law School.

Panelists and Presentations include:

• Senthorun Raj, MMU, Queering the Emotional Closets of Private Law
• Katie Jukes, MMU, Queer Kinship: Deconstructing Private Law to Create a Future for Queer Relationships
• Jack Enman-Beech, KCL, On Queering Private Law
• James Fisher, ANU, Equity and Queer Legal Theory
• Andrew Gilden, Willamete, Innovations in Pleasure
• Dafni Lima, Durham, Beyond the Binary: Recasting Presumptions in Determining Legal Parenthood
• Bryan Wang, Strathclyde, Enhancing LGBT Protection through UK Corporate Governance
• Jonny Hardman, Edinburgh, A Roadmap for Queering Company Law
• Michael Goodyear, NYU, Queer Trademarks
• Arnau Nonell i Rodríguez, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Polyamory and Chosen Families: Queering Family Law from a Care Ethics Perspective           
• Peter Dunne, Bristol, and Alan Brown, Glasgow, Trans Parenthood in the UK: The “Unanswered Questions” of the McConnell Decision
• Frederique Joosten, Cambridge, Queering the Welfare Principle in Family Disputes

Session Timings

• Day 1: September 11, 13:00-18:30
• Day 2: September 12, 09:30-17:15

The Programme

View the full workshop programme here.

Register Your Interest

While attendance is free and open to the public, registration is required as space is limited. Registeration for this event closed on Thursday, 31 August, 10am.

Queries

If you have any queries about this event please contact the UCL Laws' events team at laws-events@ucl.ac.uk