The Seventh Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations will be held at
the University of Hong Kong from 16-18 July 2014. The Obligations VII
conference will be co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
and Melbourne Law School and will address the theme: The Common Law of
Obligations: Convergence and Divergence. The biennial Obligations
conferences bring together scholars, judges and practitioners from
throughout the common law world to discuss current issues in contract law,
the law of torts, equity and unjust enrichment.

Both junior scholars and established academics are invited to submit
proposals to present papers addressing the conference theme, which is
described as follows:
All common law jurisdictions have local influences that cause divergence
in the common law, such as national and international human rights
instruments, local statutory regimes, civil law influences, regional
harmonisation, local circumstances and values, local cultural and
political influences, and even, in some cases, a desire to express
national identity by developing a distinctive local version of the common
law. Have those localising influences rendered it anachronistic to refer
to the common law of obligations? Or does the ³common² remain important as
a stabilising influence and a useful source of comparative perspectives?
Is there something valuable and worth retaining in the shared heritage?
Should ultimate appellate courts be slow to abandon principles that remain
well accepted throughout the common law world? Does some divergence even
strengthen the common law by rendering it more valuable as a source of
collective wisdom and experience and a source of different solutions and
different approaches? The aim of this conference is to explore these
issues at the general level and at the level of specific subject areas and
specific doctrines.

Anyone wishing to offer a paper should submit a working title and an
abstract (of no more than 500 words) by email to oblig7@hku.hk by 30 June
2013. Papers will be selected on the basis of engagement with the
conference theme and fit with other papers being presented at the
conference, as well as quality and originality. All presenters whose
offers of papers are accepted will be expected to meet their own travel
and accommodation costs and to pay a discounted registration fee.


The conference web site is at: http://www.law.hku.hk/obligationsvii/

All correspondence should be directed to: oblig7@hku.hk

Andrew Robertson and Michael Tilbury
Conference convenors