The New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance’s research seminar was held in Helsinki

Conference Picture Road to New Paradigms

 

The International Conference on “Road to New Paradigms: Impact of China’s Silk Road Initiative in China, Central Asia and the EU” has been successfully held on 9-10 May at Helsinki. The conference was jointly organised by Faculty of Law, Aleksanteri Institute, Faculty of Social Science, of University of Helsinki, and School of Law of Xi’an Jiaotong University, in collaboration with The New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance.

Silk Road Initiative aims to bring together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe. The five aspects of the Initiative are 1. policymaking and lawmaking; 2. infrastructure building; 3. trade; 4. currency exchange; and 5. public and social support.

So far the Initiative has mainly been focused on the economic aspect, but it is no less important to consider other aspects of the Initiative, in particular to look at what changes it might bring to political and legal arenas, and how it ties to the national identity and historical narratives of the European and Asian countries involved in the Initiative.

The aim of the conference was to go beyond the goal of economic development strongly underlined in the Initiative and focus on important but not yet discussed issues such as mobility, national identity or cultural and constitutional developments of Silk Road cooperation. The conference focused on both comparative pragmatic and theoretical aspects of these themes and aims to bring together scholars from countries participating in the Silk Road Initiative to share their perspectives on the Initiative and discuss its future impact.

Speakers from more than 10 countries across the silk road and 29 different institutions/organizations joined the conference, covering issues closely related to the “One Belt, One Road” initiative from different perspectives with different approaches.