Partly inspired by the activities the Law and Society Association offers for young scholars, such as the Graduate Student Workshop on the LSA Annual Meetings, the BAR specifically addresses Master's, doctoral and post-doctoral students and tries to offer a communication platform for their socio-legal research. The BAR cooperates with the existing socio-legal academic community and intends to supplement their work and activities. It runs a Germany-wide email-list and organizes monthly meetings with lectures in Berlin. In 2003, it organized a graduate student conference in Halle with 60 participants and 35 presentations. For the organization and performance of this conference the BAR was supported, amongst others, by the Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, where the conference took place, by the Association for Social-legal Studies (Vereinigung für Rechtssoziologie), and the Section for Socio-legal Studies within the German Sociological Association (Sektion Rechtssoziologie in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie).

The BAR welcomes the LSA's offer to hold its 2007 convention at the Humboldt University and is more than happy to contribute its own resources to an adequate preparation of this event. We can offer our creativity, organizational skills, and academic and professional networks. Some of us have been attending previous LSA Annual Meetings as attendees, presenters, and also as panel chairs.  We know the city and the Humboldt University well. Through the 2003 conference,  our upcoming 2005 conference, and our email list, we have access to a wide network of young academics who will be happy to learn that the convention comes to Berlin, and who will certainly  be interested in contributing in one way or another. We would be able to contribute a series of panels presenting new research in Germany, and thus to promote the local socio-legal landscape through the convention. We can provide the IT and PR skills necessary to make this convention publicly visible within Germany. The BAR intends to establish a long-term scientific project in the fields of critical legal and socio-legal research at Humboldt University. Furthermore, we would like to build up an international network for scientific exchange and cooperation, which should work even beyond 2007. Having the LSA Inter­national Meeting here in Berlin would, therefore, not only be a wonderful and inspiring event for all of us, but give significant and sustained support to our efforts. 


Further information at http://www.lsa-berlin.org/,  http://www.rechtssoziologie.info,  http://baer.rewi.hu-berlin.de