This colloquium seeks to re-centre scholars from the global marginalized majority as epistemic authorities in critical debates on Artificial Intelligence (AI), law, and power, responding to the longstanding dominance of Global North perspectives in global legal knowledge production. Against the back-drop of AI’s rapid expansion and its role in reproducing and intensifying colonial, racialised, and extractive structures of domination, the colloquium convenes leading critical scholars from across the globe at the University of Hamburg to examine how AI is reshaping legal authority, norm-making, and epistemic power in international law.
Grounded in decolonial scholarship and inspired by Walter Mignolo’s notion of the “darker side of modernity,” the initiative moves beyond narrowly technical or regulatory approaches in order to catalyse a fundamental rethinking of power, normativity, and justice in the algorithmic condition, specifically from the perspectives of those historically positioned at the margins of global orders of power and knowledge. Contributions that unsettle disciplinary boundaries and illuminate how AI constitutes a new frontier in the struggl over law’s meaning, authority, and legitimacy are invited to join this collective effort to reimagine legal futures from marginalised standpoints.
Central Question
In what ways is AI reshaping global legal norm-making and structures of power, and to what extent does this transformation reproduce or offer possibilities to disrupt the colonial, racialised, and epistemic hierarchies that have historically marginalised the global majority in international law?
Scope
The project invites critical interventions addressing, including but not limited to, the following thematic areas:
• AI, Global Governance, and International Law
• AI, Asymmetries, and Colonial Continuities
• Epistemic and Ontological Dimensions of AI
• Resistance, Justice, and Counter-Hegemonic Approaches
Format and Output
An Authors’ Colloquium for in-depth presentations and collective discussion of draft papers will be held on: 13–14 April 2026, Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg.
Output
Selected contributions will be published in a high-visibility, open-access, peer-reviewed platform (TBA).
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts (approx. 500 words) outlining the paper’s argument, theoretical orientation, and relevance to the project.
Short bio (150 words).
Please send submissions to the organiser:
Dr. Dorothy Makaza-Goede
Email: dorothy.makaza@uni-hamburg.de
Deadline for abstracts: 20 February 2026
Full drafts (6,000–8,000 words): due by 30 March 2026
Funding Acknowledgement
This project is supported by the International Venture Fund as well as the Excellence Strategy of the University of Hamburg, funded by
the German Federal and State Governments.
Call for Participation (PDF)
