Mark Drumbl Co-Organizes International Conference on Post-Conflict Justice Held at the University of Saskatchewan, the conference included a presentation by W&L Law student Will Vardy '26L.

By Law Communications
November 4, 2024

In October, Professor Mark Drumbl, together with a Canadian academic, Professor Kirsten Fisher, co-organized an international conference on transitional justice. The event was held in Canada at the University of Saskatchewan.

The conference was titled “Transitional Justice Boundaries, Innovations, and Refractions.” Transitional justice is the area of law that refers to how societies reckon with and recover from massive human violations. The conference brought together speakers and researchers to address cutting-edge developments and issues in the practice of transitional justice. It explored four areas in particular:

• Artificial intelligence, tech, and digitization
• The natural and human environment
• Justice beyond the state, including abolitionism
• Racism, misogyny, and supremacy and how to innovate to overcome these specters.

Thirteen speakers participated in addition to two moderators and the organizers. Participants hailed from Japan, Mexico, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Colombia, Finland, Italy, the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom. Presenters ranged from chaired research professors to doctoral students. Contributions from the event will lead to the publication of a book co-edited by Professors Drumbl and Fisher.

One of the speakers and future authors was W&L Law student Will Vardy ‘26L. Prior to attending law school, Vardy completed graduate studies in international relations, and in 2023, he published a book called “Concrete Inferno: Terror and Torture under Brazil’s Military Regime, 1964-1985” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Vardy presented a paper at the conference analyzing how current backslides from democracy prevalent in many countries, such as Hungary and India, may coopt the language of progressive transitional justice.

Another speaker, Professor Juan Espindola Mata of the Autonomous University of Mexico, spent time at W&L Law prior to the event in Canada. He co-taught one of Professor Drumbl’s classes on international environmental law. In addition, he participated in a session on the intersection of informers and transitional justice. This session was titled “Informers: Why Do People Betray Others to State Authorities?”

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