CLT Singapore Symposium for Legal Theory with Andrew Lang & Ben Czapnik on 15-16 April 2024

The Centre for Legal Theory (CLT) is pleased to welcome Professor Andrew Lang to be our speaker for the Singapore Symposium for Legal Theory (SSLT). Professor Lang conducted a seminar on 15 April 2024, followed by moderating a Roundtable discussion on “A Theoretical Assessment of Extra-Territorial Regulation and its Legality Under WTO Law” with Dr Ben Czapnik.

In his seminar, he offered a reinterpretation of late 20th century ‘neoliberal’ transformations of global economic governance. His argumentative foil is a macro-institutional interpretation of the post-1980s period in which neoliberalism appears as programmatic institutional form and disciplinary formation. He argues that a second, and complementary dynamic needs also to be taken into account, namely the emergence and operationalisation of a set of critical technologies for embedding practices of reflexivity within the state. He suggests, moreover, that attention to this dimension of neoliberalisation provides a new perspective on the present. He offers an interpretation of the current moment of transition as one in which a similar repertoire of neoliberal techniques of reflexivisation are, in a second iteration, being trained on the architecture of global economic governance itself.

Singapore Symposium in Legal Theory (SSLT)
15 – 16 April 2024
Speaker: Dr Ben Czapnik

In the roundtable discussion, Dr Ben Czapnik discussed the impact of regulation based on processes and production methods (PPMs). He argues that in order to maintain institutional legitimacy as a pluralist system, WTO law must also prevent PPMs from being abused by powerful states in paternalist ways to impose their values on others.

Dr Ben Czapnik is a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore where he researches the WTO’s right to regulate, especially for moral and environmental purposes. He previously undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong conducting research on China’s trade relations including its trade tensions with the US, Australia, and other countries. His research on WTO law has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the European Journal of International Law and Journal of International Economic Law. Dr Czapnik has significant experience as a government official and diplomat representing Australia in trade negotiations and disputes.

More about the SSLT seminars at:  https://law.nus.edu.sg/clt/the-singapore-symposium-inlegal-theory/

This post event highlight is also available in pdf here.