An academic is sitting at her desk.  It’s 5pm, and dark outside (daylight savings in NE North America). Rain pelts her office window.  She’s hungry, but all she can find is an old stick of minty gum.  She doesn’t know what she’s going to make for dinner and can’t remember what’s in the fridge.  An email arrives – ping! Hey, a CFP for a conference, in the Bahamas (see below for what she sees). In March! And, oh, she has something perfect to present on conference subtheme (k) Registered partnerships and same sex marriages.  Should she send a proposal?

I got the CFP  from the International Society of Family Law Caribbean regional conference below and thought, ok, maybe I’ll post this to the IFLS blog. Usually I don’t do too much research into these things. But as I was reading through it, I saw:

This conference is being supported by funds from the Marriage & Family Law Research Project at the Brigham Young University Law School, through Professor Lynn Wardle, the Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Other avenues of support are being explored.

The West Indian Law Journal and the Ave Maria Law Review have expressed interest in publishing a selection of the papers presented at the conference.

Well.  I wonder what “other avenues of support are being explored” means.  Professor Lynn Wardle is as I understand it, a well known opponent of both same sex marriage and same sex adoption.  He’s on the Board of Advisors of the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society.  They are pretty open about their views (see their position on “the natural family“).

I’m not raising this to have a discussion about Prof. Wardle’s views, or precisely how offensive they are.  Instead, I’m wondering whether the conference has the same views, or whether the International Society of Family Law does.  What kind of conference is this?    I mean, the conference CFP (which is pasted in below) includes the line:

Exciting social activities are being planned for accompanying persons during the conference.

Oh, of course. “Accompanying persons”.

So I don’t really understand what’s going on here.  And I guess that is what this post is about.  It’s not about a conference having “an agenda”.  Of course they do and I won’t have a problem with that. An agenda doesn’t necessarily prevent an open exchange of views, although it certainly narrows the range of views likely to be proposed and accepted.  Anyway, even within an “agenda” there are critical debates to be had, right feminists?

No, what’s stranger here is that the agenda seems unclear.  And what does “other avenues of support are being explored” mean?  Is that code for something?  Something like, “don’t worry”?

Any clarity on either the International Association of Family Law, or this conference would be appreciated and posted.  Maybe people in certain areas of law are more used to being cautious, or perhaps this one just surprised me (for instance, I know very well what to expect at a conference headed by the Fraser Institute or the Canadian Constitutional Foundation).  So: Canadians, don’t drop your critical faculties because of the weather.

Here’s the CFP, which I present as “supporting documentation” for this post, rather than as a CFP that I’m circulating.

The Legal and Social Consequences of the Disintegration and Reconstitution of Families.

Council of Legal Education The Eugene Dupuch Law School Nassau, The Bahamas

International Society of Family Law Caribbean Regional Conference

British Colonial Hilton Hotel Nassau, The Bahamas

March 17-19, 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

Families, family life and family law are dynamic. The scope, as well as the pace of changes in form, formation, structure, stability, break -up, continuity and impermanency in family relations in this period of history in the western world is unprecedented. The meaning and significance of these changes merit the attention of the best scholarship. This conference invites family law and related academics to contribute to the discussion of these trends and phenomena and to put them into conceptual, historic, theoretical, doctrinal and practical perspectives.

Format of the Conference

The conference will comprise keynote speakers in plenary sessions, panel discussions, luncheon speakers and break-out sessions. There will be an opening cocktail reception and a banquet. Exciting social activities are being planned for accompanying persons during the conference, as well as post -conference tours for participants, such as a visit to Atlantis on Paradise Island to view the largest aquarium in the world, fun at the casino, swimming with the dolphins and sharks, and a number of other treats.

Target Group:

Academics, judges, practitioners, family therapists and students from the fields of law, social work, social policy, education and related disciplines are being invited to attend.

Sub -themes of the conference for paper proposals:

These include, but are not limited to:

(a)  Divorce and separation

(b) Property disputes

(c)  Custody and access

(d) Adoption and foster care

(e)  Step- families and blended families

(f)   Cohabitation

(g)  Right to family life and immigration laws

(h) Paternity and inheritance laws

(i)    Citizenship laws

(j)    Emigration and parental alienation

(k)  Registered partnerships and same sex marriages.

Submission of Abstracts:

Abstracts of around 250 words should reach the Scientific Committee by   December 3, 2010. They should be sent to the convenor of the conference, Hazel Thompson-Ahye at HThompsonAhye@edls.edu.bs.

Prospective presenters should also provide the following information: Full name of presenter, title or position, university or institution (if applicable), postal address, telephone, fax, email address and a one paragraph mini-resume’.

Publication of Papers

The West Indian Law Journal and the Ave Maria Law Review have expressed interest in publishing a selection of the papers presented at the conference.

Conference support

This conference is being supported by funds from the Marriage & Family Law Research Project at the Brigham Young University Law School, through Professor Lynn Wardle, the Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Other avenues of support are being explored.

For further details, please contact :

Hazel Thompson- Ahye at HThompsonAhye@edls.edu.bs

Or Janet Adderley at JAdderley@edls.edu.bs

Telephone: 242-326-8507/8

Fax: 242-326-8504

Venue: British Colonial Hilton Hotel, Nassau, The Bahamas. Room prices have been negotiated at an exceptional rate of $198.32 per night, single or double occupancy, inclusive of all taxes and fees.

*Conference Registration Fee: $350.00 up to January 31, 2011;

Late registration fee of $400.00 will become payable from February 1, 2011.

Conference Presenters- $300.00

Registration fee includes conference materials, lunch, tea or coffee breaks.