Please send proposals for papers (download the proposal form HERE) to Craig Lind (c.lind@sussex.ac.uk).

For proposals received by 30 September 2007 decisions will be communicated to their authors by 31 October 2007. For proposals received by 31 December 2007 decisions will be communicated to their authors by 31 January 2008. The final deadline for proposals is 30 April 2008 (and decisions on those proposals will be communicated to authors by 31 May 2008).

We are trying to keep the conference costs to a minimum. However, we are not able to run the conference without a financial contribution from all participants. We will have an early registration fee (which corresponds with the cut off date for conference papers) and we're hoping all presenters of papers will take advantage of that discount.

Because societies are changing a number of issues in family law are currently on the political and legal reform agenda in many countries - regulating for family norms in multi-cultural societies, bolstering marriage, regulating unmarried cohabitation, divorce, resolving property disputes at the end of relationships, contact with and caring for children, father's rights, child abduction, assisted reproduction, the criminalisation of family antisocial behaviour (with a particular focus on children), the welfare test in the aftermath of the advent of legally enforceable individual rights, regulating for migrating (culturally diverse) families, and many others.

Even outside the bounds of traditional family law there are numerous issues that have implications for families and family responsibilities - balancing the roles of mothers and fathers in the labour market and in family life, support for the elderly and responsibility for pension provision, the protective role of family members in the face of dramatic environmental changes, war, international migration, individual and state poverty, imperfect governance, state repression, political activism, and others - which see family membership as the source of political engagement.

In each of these reform movements gender looms large as the issue that makes resolution either particularly difficult or especially interesting (and certainly politically contentious). In this conference - which will draw together people working in a variety of spheres of both political and academic life - we wish to consider the role that gender plays in determining family responsibility and in debating and achieving legal change. We hope to see it examine questions that range across social life in every part of the world. Questions which we hope to see addressed and explored include:

• What is family responsibility?
• How is family responsibility gendered?
• When is law implicated in questions of family responsibility?
• Is the involvement or absence of law in the family gendered?
• What responsibility does law have for the family?
• What is the role of the state in relation to family responsibility?
• Do other organisations - civil society or corporate entities - have any responsibility for the family?
• How does (and should) law and lawyers interact with other disciplines in resolving questions of family responsibility?

We hope to establish conference panels discussing subjects like:

• Theoretical perspectives on the nature of responsibility
• Gender and the nature of responsibility
• Public life and family responsibility
• Responsibility, rights and the welfare of children
• Post-separation care of children
• Education and the family
• Fathers' rights and fathers' responsibilities
• Allocating family responsibilities after assisted conception
• Legal regulation of family/intimate/personal relationships
• Family responsibility and cultural diversity
• The problem of 'honour killings'
• International law and family life
• Environmental degradation and family responsibility
• The impact of immigration status on family responsibility
• The family under international private law
• Gender, the family and the law: Southern perspectives
• Power, gender, and cultural family norms
• Comparative family responsibilities
• Family responsibility during and after wars
• Family responsibility and political activism
• Violence, harm and responsibility
• Responsibilities of grandparents
• Responsibility for the elderly
• Family responsibility in relation to criminal responsibility
• Intra-state law (for example, European law) and the responsibilities of the family
• Society, responsibility and disability
• Gender in work, welfare and family life
• Family responsibility in healthcare
• Corporate responsibility and the family

The Conference will be held on the beautiful campus of the University of Sussex, close to the seaside city of Brighton and Hove and the South Downs, between 10 and 12 July 2008.

Plenary speakers for the event include:

• Martha Fineman
• Brenda Hale
• Eva Kittay
• Jo Miles
• Ratna Kapur
• Albie Sachs
• Barbara Hobson

The conference is being organised by Craig Lind (c.lind@sussex.ac.uk), Jo Bridgeman (j.c.bridgeman@sussex.ac.uk), Heather Keating (h.m.keating@sussex.ac.uk), Sue Millns (s.millns@sussex.ac.uk) and Alex Newbury (ahn21@sussex.ac.uk) in the Sussex Law School at the University of Sussex.

If you would like further information please contact any of the conference organisers (detailed above).