German Law Journal, Europe and the Lost Generation: Call For Papers, Essays and Comments (due April 15, 2014)

This call for papers from the German Law Journal, which was forwarded to us by network member Russell Miller (W&L), is seeking contributions reflecting from a broad range of perspectives on the legal, social, political and personal implications of the heavy burden resting on young people in the European south. It is, therefore, addressed in particular young legal researchers with backgrounds in or ties to the Eurozone's "crisis countries". The announcement is below and can be found in PDF form here, along with information about the submission procedure.

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GERMAN LAW JOURNAL 

Call For Papers – Essays – Comments 

Europe and the Lost Generation 

There are hints of recovery in some of the Eurozone’s so-called “crisis countries.” The Irish GDP is growing even as unemployment and borrowing costs fall. With the help of recent export growth, Spain’s two-year-old recession seems to have worn itself out. The IMF is closely watching what it calls a “fragile” economic recovery in Greece.

These hopeful signs have been purchased at a terrible price for the European project. The Commission’s Spring 2013 Eurobarometer Report showed a steady increase in the negative impressions of the EU, matched almost in lock-step with a steady decrease in the positive impressions of the EU. Now there is growing anxiety that Euroskeptic parties might capitalize on this disillusionment and win a significant bloc in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament. European Council President Herman van Rompuy acknowledged the damage one month ago in speech in Berliln when he cautioned against rising nationalism and populism in Europe and lamented the fact that prejudice toward other member states has significantly increased. Jürgen Habermas, in an April 2013 speech at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, concluded with regret that “what unites the European citizens today are Euroskeptical mindsets.”

But the cost to the European project is nothing compared with the human toll that has resulted from the rescue and bailout measures. Young Europeans in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland have been especially hard-hit by staggering unemployment and vanishing prospects for the future. They are being called “the lost generation” and, in their millions, their stories constitute an almost silent political and moral indictment that has been characterized by some as a “social time-bomb.”


The German Law Journal is soliciting papers, essays or comments from young legal researchers across Europe and around the world whose background gives them special insight into the experiences of the “lost generation.” The editors of the GLJ are particularly aware of the fact that, for many young legal researchers, their work in the law has been conceived as making a contribution to the very European
project that is thought to have precipitated these alarming circumstances. We would be especially interested in scholarship or commentary that reflects upon or illuminates this unique intersection of professional aspiration and personal experience. Submissions might consider—as a matter of legal doctrine but also from political, social and personal perspectives—the dialectical solutions prominently on offer as a response to the crisis: solidarity or separation. The contributions need not be negative or lamentable or critical or skeptical. Without prejudice to the perspectives that emerge, we are above all interested in honest voices and sound reasoning.

The submissions selected following GLJ’s usual blind/peer-review will publish in a forthcoming special issue of the German Law Journal. The deadline for submissions is 15 April 2014. Please follow the GLJ’s general submission guidelines, clearly indicating that the submission is a response to the “Lost
Generation CFP.” Submissions should be sent to: GLJ-Submit@wlu.edu