Experimentalist Regimes in Transnational Governance: The European Union and Beyond

An International Jean Monnet Chair Research Conference

Conference

This conference, organized by Jonathan Zeitlin (University of Amsterdam) and Charles Sabel (Columbia University Law School), involving an international working group of scholars from multiple disciplines, focuses on policy regimes in which a transnational experimentalist regime may be emerging.

The EU, because it lacks a unified sovereign, because it has had to create regulations for unified markets in a period of increased turbulence, and because it has had to articulate fundamental rights against a backdrop of diverse constitutional traditions, has pioneered the development of innovative ‘experimentalist’ institutions in various policy domains. These institutions are experimentalist in the sense that the experience of ground-level actors is deliberately and repeatedly used to articulate, and when necessary revise, the initial open-ended framework commitments. But also outside the EU’s borders there is considerable evidence that similar institutions are proliferating, often as a result of independent discovery, sometimes as a result of efforts by the EU to extend its own regulations to external actors, and occasionally as a result of emulation of EU models.  

The goal of this conference is to produce a set of in-depth studies of policy regimes in which a transnational experimentalist regime – or learning, self-reflexive organizations in the same family – may be emerging.  

Conveners: 

• Jonathan Zeitlin (University of Amsterdam)
• Charles Sabel (Columbia University Law School) 

 

Participants:

• Chris Ansell and Gaby Goldstein (University of California, Berkeley): global epidemic prevention and control
• Katja Biedenkopf (University of Amsterdam): chemicals regulation
• Graínne de Búrca (New York University Law School): international human rights (Conventions on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Rights of the Child)
• Oliver Gerstenberg (University of Exeter): democratic experimentalism and the rule of law: European courts, the refugee crisis, and the principle of non-refoulement
• Gary Herrigel (University of Chicago): corporate production systems
• Mark Nance (North Carolina State University): Financial Action Task Force/money laundering
• Christine Overdevest (University of Florida): forest governance (with Jonathan Zeitlin)
• Lucía Pittaluga and Christina Zurbriggen (Universidad de la República, Uruguay): food safety and beef supply-chain tracking 
• Benjamin Richardson (University of Warwick), James Brassett (University of Warwick), William Smith (Chinese University of Hong Kong): sustainable biofuels
• Maria Weimer (University of Amsterdam): trade and environmental standards

 

Registration

The conference is open to PhD and Master students, as well as to faculty members from both the UvA and the VUA.  It is also open to academics and advanced students from other universities. Those wishing to attend the conference should register with the ACCESS EUROPE programme manager, Douwe Truijens, d.g.truijens@uva.nl.  A detailed programme can be downloaded below, and papers will be made available in advance to registered participants.

 

This conference is organized by the UvA Jean Monnet Chair in European and Transnational Governance, in cooperation with the newly established Amsterdam Centre for Contemporary European Studies (ACCESS EUROPE), EU 7th Framework Research Programme (FP7) Project "Global Reordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN)", and the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University. 

Published by  ACCESS EUROPE