When private companies perform governmental functions and governments own companies, which acts should be attributed to the state? Which should be attributed to the corporation? And whose religious beliefs, speech rights, and moral standing can those entities claim? This conference will draw together corporate and international legal scholars, as well as thinkers outside the law, in order to cross-pollinate these two fields and the questions at their intersection, and to unearth promising theoretical tools. It will consider theoretical and doctrinal approaches to attribution, potential consequences of these approaches, and whether they may reconcile the ambiguities and deficiencies that drive current debates. The project aims to offer a new point of entry to enduring theoretical and doctrinal questions about the nature of corporations, of states, and of the relationship between them. It is particularly relevant at a time where corporations are “jurisdictionally ambiguous and spatially diffuse,” states are deferential, dependent or outflanked, and multilateralism is at an ebb. The virtual forum is co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law; the Society’s Interest Group on International Legal Theory;and the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law. More information and a full description of the symposium can be found here: http://www.law.uga.edu/law-and-logics-attribution-constructing-identity-and-responsibility-states-and-firms. The event can accommodate a limited number of additional attendees. If interested, please email mjdurkee@uga.edu and note which session(s) you would like to join.
