Crime, Justice and the Human Condition

• Start date: 13 Sep 2022

• End date: 14 Sep 2022

• Location: Keble College, Oxford

Crime, Justice and the Human Condition:
Beyond the cris(es) – reframing and reimagining justice

13–14 September 2022
Keble College, University of Oxford

The last two years have brought the fragility of human existence into sharp relief. This conference and accompanying festival for change is happening as we emerge from a time of intense uncertainty. Governments, civil society and communities face formidable problems and difficult choices that could have enduring repercussions for justice. This conference will provide an opportunity to reimagine how the penal system should work.

The conference seeks to examine key questions in penal reform using the lens of the human condition, for example:

• How can we utilise our shared and diverse experiences to shape criminal justice for the better in the future?
• What are the broader cultural and social factors that can be drawn upon to shape criminal justice responses, policies and institutions?
• How might we re-imagine the criminal justice system? What values and principles might underpin this re-imagining?

This is an opportunity to examine social bonds, history, creativity, learning and technology, as well as isolation and inequality, racism, harm and hate.

The conference will bring together contributions from academics and researchers at all levels, practitioners, policy makers and other experts from different fields and disciplines to explore crime, justice and the human condition, and the issues that intersect and think about how the criminal justice system can work.

Complemented by a festival of thought-provoking creative and participatory activities, this will be a wide-ranging discussion, considering crime and justice as they relate to life, growth, maturity, hope, emotion, conflict and mortality from myriad perspectives. We will look at how and where the criminal justice system touches people in their everyday lives, and what this means for society at large.

Further details will be announced in due course.

Confirmed speakers so far:

• Kimberley Brownlee, Professor of Philosophy, University of British Columbia
• Neil Chakraborti, Professor in Criminology, University of Leicester
• Andrea Coomber, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform
• Fergus McNeill, Professor of Criminology and Social Work, University of Glasgow and Chair of the Howard League for Penal Reform
• Ian Loader, Professor of Criminology, University of Oxford
• Hwa Young Jung, Multidisciplinary artist

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Previous conferences

• Redesigning Justice: Promoting civil rights, trust and fairness international conference was held on 21–22 March 2018

We have published three special conference ECAN (Early Career Academics Network) bulletins following the 2018 conference:
–  Redesigning Justice conference special No.1 July 2018
–  Redesigning Justice conference special No.2 October 2018
–  Redesigning Justice conference special No.3 December 2018

• Justice and Penal Reform: Re-shaping the penal landscape international three-day conference was held on 16–18 March 2016
• What is Justice? – international two-day conference held in on 1–2 October 2013
  –  Conference Podcasts. These are audio recordings of the plenary presentations
  –  Video shorts with plenary speakers talking about their presentations