Multidimensionality, Intersectionality and Internormativity

Following a series of scholarly engagements on sovereignty, cosmopolitanism, and global justice, and the many successful Juris North roundtable events, we are pleased to announce the theme of our IVR 2026 Special Workshop: Multidimensionality, Intersectionality and Internormativity. This workshop is led by Dr Jorge E. Núñez (Manchester Law School) and Gabriel Encinas (UABC).

We invite participants to present works-in-progress that engage with the complex interplay of legal, political, and normative systems in a globalized world. Papers may approach the theme from doctrinal, theoretical, or interdisciplinary perspectives.

Aims

• To explore how multidimensionality can enrich legal and political theory and practice.
• To examine the intersections of identity, power, and legal pluralism through intersectionality and interlegality.
• To develop frameworks that incorporate internormativity—recognizing the influence of non-legal normative systems (e.g., religion, culture, ethics) in shaping law and justice.
• To foster collaboration across disciplines and geographies in addressing crises like sovereignty conflicts, territorial disputes, and those pertaining to global justice.

Led by:

• Dr Jorge E. Núñez, Manchester Law School
• Dr Gabriel Encinas, UABC

Theme:

In an increasingly interconnected world, traditional legal paradigms often fall short in addressing the complexity of global justice. This workshop builds on the theory of multidimensionality, which challenges unidimensional approaches by integrating multiple dimensions of identity, context, and normativity. It incorporates:

• Intersectionality, revealing how overlapping forms of discrimination and disadvantage require critical and context-sensitive legal analyses.
• Interlegality, emphasizing how overlapping norms of diverse legal systems interact and may give rise to conflicting legal obligations.
• Internormativity, extending beyond law to include religious, cultural, and ethical norms.

Multidimensionality Explained

Multidimensionality acknowledges phenomena as a pluralism of pluralisms, encompassing diverse agents—individuals, communities and states—who play different roles across domestic, regional and international contexts. These roles can be understood factually, normatively and axiologically, and through their different modes of existence, including the metaphysical.

This framework allows for both traditional scholarly exploration (e.g. vertical and horizontal relationships) and non-traditional, uncharted perspectives, such as self-referred or chaotic dynamics. It is particularly suited to analyzing sovereignty conflicts where internormative tensions—between law, faith, ethics, and identity—are deeply entangled.

Together, these concepts offer a transformative lens for understanding sovereignty, cosmopolitanism, and international law. The workshop will explore how these frameworks can be applied to real-world crises such as territorial disputes, sovereignty conflicts, and human rights violations.

Hypotheses:

1. Legal and political systems must evolve from siloed structures to multidimensional frameworks that reflect the complexity of global interdependence.
2. Sovereignty can be reconceptualized as an entangled, shared, and context-sensitive construct rather than an absolute claim.
3. Intersectionality and internormativity are essential to achieving legitimate, inclusive, and pertinent legal outcomes in both domestic and international contexts.

 Participants: 

Open to all. We encourage participation from scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students across disciplines, geographies, and identities. The workshop aims to be inclusive, transversal, and collaborative.

Format:

The purpose of this special workshop is to showcase and develop works-in-progress rather than completed papers.

Participation:

If you are interested in sending an abstract (up to 500 words) for consideration or simply taking part in our roundtables, please send your email to j.nunez@mmu.ac.uk  by Friday 27^th March 2026.

The e-mail accompanying your abstract should also contain the following information:

• Subject line: “SW Multidimensionality, Intersectionality and Internormativity.”
• Name
• Institutional affiliation (if any).SW06: IVR 2026 Special Workshop 06: Multidimensionality, Intersectionality and Internormativity
  1. Prof. Lasha Bregvadze, Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

  Constructing Norms: Normative Pluralism in Fragmented World Society

  2. Gabriel Encinas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico.

  Does Interlegal Reasoning have an Interreligious Analogon?: Defeasible Presumptions, Normative Orders, Validity Claims

  3. Ricardo Juozepavicius Gonçalves, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning, International Postdoctoral Program.

  The Law Between Normative Worlds: Multinormativity and the Epistemic and Democratic Challenges

   

  Further details and updated at https://DrJorge.World