The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) invites submissions for their conference on Class Conflict and Institutional Change, scheduled to be held between November 13–15, 2024 in Cologne, Germany.

Employing the lens of the life and work of Otto Kahn-Freund (1900–1979), the conference organizers investigate the invention of labor law as a distinct field of legal doctrine and scholarship. Invention and reinvention are understood here to be ongoing political and scholarly processes, involving the defense of existing institutions and the development of new ones. They consider developments across the twentieth century, from the end of the first world war to the struggle over the second postwar settlement in the 1970s and thereafter. Following Kahn-Freund, They conceive of labor law scholarship as an interdisciplinary endeavor, combining insights from political economy, sociology of law, and empirically-oriented industrial relations. As such, their investigation allows us to address two questions: How was legal scholarship on the changing conflict between capital and labor related to contemporary developments in the social sciences, and what can we learn from this today?

The conference organizers invite paper proposals which address the conference theme.  In particular, authors may wish to address the following:

• The relations and interactions of labor law scholars and trade unionists in the Weimar Republic

• The reception of Karl Marx and Max Weber in Weimar labor law scholarship and, especially, the work of Otto Kahn-Freund

• Labor law and the state under capitalism: from Heller and Neumann to Laski and Miliband

• Labor law and corporatism: the legal empowerment and control of trade unions through the institutionalization of trade union rights; delegated rights and imposed restriction; Keynes to Marshall to Donovan – Keynesian full employment – incomes policy in the 1970s and its failure

• Labor law and comparative political economy: the origins and significance of commonality and difference.

  Confirmed speakers

  • Zoe Adams, University of Cambridge

  • Ruth Dukes, University of Glasgow

  • Richard Hyman, London School of Economics

  • Agustín José Menéndez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

  • Brishen Rogers, Georgetown University

  • William Scheuerman, Indiana University

  • Wolfgang Streeck, MPIfG

  • Rebecca Zahn, University of Strathclyde

Abstracts should be sent to Ruth Dukes by April 30, 2024. Please copy the following text into the title of the email: Class Conflict and Institutional Change Paper Proposal. Decisions on the acceptance of paper proposals will be communicated by May 31, 2024.

For details, visit: https://www.mpifg.de/1258750/20243-class-conflict-institutional-change.html