Call for papers

Rationale

The annual Centre for Access to Justice and Inclusion (CAJI) Conference 2026 is organised around a shared concern: how changes in the global order are reshaping the way law is made, interpreted, and used. Across jurisdictions and fields of practice, long-standing assumptions about legal authority, regulatory stability, and the reach of rights are being unsettled by shifting geopolitical power, economic realignment, technological concentration, and new forms of cross-border influence. 

These transformations are not confined to international law. They are increasingly visible in domestic courts, regulatory regimes, corporate governance, and the everyday operation of justice systems. Questions of whose rules apply, whose interests are protected, and whose voices count are becoming more contested. Law is no longer merely a framework for resolving disputes; it is also a site in which global power is exercised, resisted, and re-negotiated. 

The CAJI Conference 2026 provides an open, interdisciplinary forum for scholars, practitioners, civil society actors, and policy-makers to explore these developments. Rather than imposing a single doctrinal lens, the conference uses law in a changing global order as a shared horizon within which diverse fields of research and practice can engage with one another. The aim is to examine how contemporary power shifts are affecting access to justice, accountability, and the capacity of legal institutions to respond to social, technological, and environmental harm. 

By bringing together contributions from different jurisdictions and traditions, the conference seeks to generate dialogue across areas that are often treated separately; from environmental protection to digital governance, from criminal justice to dispute resolution, and from human rights to new forms of exclusion. 

Clusters/Panels 

Access to Environmental Justice (including ecological justice and species justice) 

This strand will examine how legal systems are responding to escalating environmental crises and the growing demand for ecological accountability. From debates on ecocide and the rights of nature to the environmental consequences of armed conflict, the panel will explore how international and domestic legal frameworks address large-scale environmental harm. Particular attention will be given to the challenges of enforcing environmental standards and rethinking legal approaches to protecting ecosystems in a changing global order. 

Alternative Dispute Resolution, Courts and Contemporary Redress Mechanisms 

This strand will focus on the evolving role of human rights institutions, regional/ international courts, and National Human Rights Institutions in a shifting global legal order. As international norms become more fragmented and power more unevenly distributed, these bodies are increasingly central to sustaining accountability, providing remedies, and translating global standards into locally enforceable rights. 

Digital Justice and Access to Justice in Online Environments 

This strand will focus on how technology is rapidly shifting the norms of digital justice and access to justice. The panel invites papers on a range of issues (but not limited to): online safety for children and algorithmic manipulation; technological innovations disrupting established patterns of war and impact of acts short of war (including in communication and information networks); new rules for online courts and access to justice. How do pre-digital rules apply in an increasingly digitalized battlespace? Do online courts include the digitally excluded? Will proposed new rules on digital identity and assets protect consumers or enrich platforms?  Will AI create a new digital divide? We invite papers on any issue relevant to digital justice and from those based both in the UK and overseas.

Access to Justice in Crime and Criminal Justice 

This strand will explore how shifting geopolitical tensions and domestic political pressures are reshaping the meaning and practice of criminal justice. As conflicts intensify and migration, policing, and electoral integrity become increasingly contested, questions about what constitutes crime, how we understand criminality and how we contextualise lawful state action are gaining renewed urgency. The panel invites reflection on the role of international and domestic law in defining criminal behaviour, regulating state power, and addressing contemporary forms of violence and political conflict. 

Exclusion, Marginalisation and Human Rights 

This strand will focus on the practical challenges of enforcing human rights of marginalised populations at regional (within a country), local and community levels, welcoming conversations on how law is used to enable meaningful and inclusive living experience of human rights via the legal and non-legal enforcement mechanisms. Papers, talks and posters are invited not only from academics, but also from practitioners and experts-by-experience, individually or collaboratively. Submissions could focus on issues around access to human rights and marginalisation from any part of the World, and contributions on the issues from the Global South are especially welcome.