The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas School of Law is pleased to announce its eighth annual conference, “Property Rights and the Human Rights Agenda,” to take place March 1–2, 2012.
This multidisciplinary and comparative conference will explore the ambivalent relationship between human rights and property and the extent to which the right to property might advance a human rights agenda. The conference will begin on Thursday, March 1, at 4:00 p.m. in the Eidman Courtroom at the University of Texas School of Law with a keynote panel including Carol Rose of Yale University and the University of Arizona; David Kennedy of Harvard University; and Samuel Moyn of Columbia University. This preliminary panel will examine the history of human rights, disparate theories of property, and the relationship between property rights and development.
The conference will continue on Friday, March 2, from 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. in the Eidman Courtroom. Panels on the second day of the conference will feature an impressive array of scholars from Africa, Latin America, and South Asia who will provide comparative perspectives on such topics as changing conceptions of property, the role of property rights in dispossession and redistribution, and the implications of private titling. Panelists include Solomon Benjamin of Manipal University; Jorge Contesse of Universidad Diego Portales; Dennis Davis of the High Court of Cape Town; Sebastian Elias of Universidad de San Andrés; Jorge Esquirol of Florida International University; Mekonnen Firew Ayano of Harvard University; Priya Gupta of Jindal Global University; Faustin Maganga of the University of Dar es Salaam; Ambreena Manji of the British Institute in Eastern Africa; and Lungisile Ntsebeza of the University of Cape Town.
The event is cosponsored by The Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law; the Department of Government; the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law; the South Asia Institute; the School of Law; and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies—all at the University of Texas at Austin—and by the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School.
“The conference convenes a wide range of scholars from many disciplines on issues surrounding human rights, the right to property, and basic questions of social justice on four continents,” notes Daniel Brinks, associate professor of government and codirector of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. “It should appeal to a broad cross-section of the UT community.”
The conference is free and open to the public. For additional information about the conference, including the full schedule, please visit the conference website. Registration is encouraged and is available on the website.
A reception and art exhibition featuring artist Mery Godigna Collet will be held in the Rapoport Center (TNH 3.119) Thursday evening after the keynote panel. Additional information about Collet and her artwork can be found on her website.
Contact: William Chandler, Rapoport Center Administrator (512-232-4857 or wchandler@law.utexas.edu).