This London conference sponsored joiuntly by The Norwich Law School, The Law School at SOAS, University of London, The  University of  Notre Dame London Programme and The Journal of Comparative Law promises to address critical issues of the role of private law, and its remedies in particular in the redress of  global wrongs.  The themes it will address are relevant to all who seek legal redress for injuries from crimes such as human trafficking, slavery, or war crimes; U.S. ATCA practitioners, and others concerned about redress for trampled human rights will want to give this conference close attention.  The themes to be considered are as follows:
The traditional role and contemporary appeal of private law and individual autonomy in the development of principles and institutions of global justice, and the way in which these ideas compare with devices of global enforcement of ‘soft’ moral responsibility through self-regulation, ADR devices and private litigation.

Global enforcement of justice as compensation of harm has acquired a new impressive momentum riding astride globalized capital. Private law remedies are being used in increasingly ambitious ways as a global mechanism of restorative justice. How can Private law serve global justice? First, with the advent of the class action, transnational law suits are used to enforce standards of protection of basic human rights equally on a local as well as a global basis. Second, Private law can internationally empower individual victims of violations of basic human rights to gain not only compensation but also closure and restored dignity.

But even beyond basic human rights, Private law can arguably be part of the answer to the apparently insoluble problem of extreme deprivation, exploitation, exclusion and lack of global social welfare. For corporations across the world, “hard” legal liability (defined as obligations under local, national, or international regulation or law) and “soft” moral liability (defined as the violation of stakeholder expectations of ethical behavior in such a way as to put business value at risk) are converging. Hard legal liability of global corporations has increased by the rise of phenomena such as, first, the so-called “foreign direct liability litigation,” for human rights violations in distant geographical locations.   Second, criminal and civil liability arising from securities litigation has been transformed into a trans-border, global phenomenon, as globalization of corporate capital carries with it the jurisdictional sting and influence of the most demanding national regulatory regimes.

In the current global financial crisis, legal protection against market failures in the context of financial globalization through redefining, and, if necessary, reinventing, Private law remedies and procedures, alongside regulatory regimes, becomes a more narrowly focused and more pressing challenge for Private law theory.