Reimagining Justice – Conference Report on SAFI’s 6th Annual Conference 2025 in Amsterdam
by Giulia Battistoni with the collaboration of Kritika Maheshwari.
The 6th Annual Conference of the Societas Aperta Feminarum in Iuris Theoria (SAFI) took place on 9–10 October 2025 at the University of Amsterdam, bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines to reflect on one of the most delicate and urgent concepts of our time: Justice. Organized by Kritika Maheshwari (TU Delft) and Hadassa Noorda (University of Amsterdam), under the supervision of Giulia Battistoni (University of Verona), the conference set out to explore the enduring tension between justice and law, and to examine how power, institutional bias, and inequalities of race and gender shape legal decision-making. Throughout the two days, it became evident that although positive law often aspires to embody principles of justice, the realization of justice in practice remains profoundly challenging across multiple domains – migration, medicine, politics, artificial intelligence, as well as in relation to responsibility and punishment, gender stereotypes, contemporary family rights, and LGBTQ rights.
The event opened with a keynote speech by Professor Annalise Acorn of the University of Alberta, titled “Justice and Polarisation: The Case of Gender-Affirming Care”. Acorn demonstrated that there is no clear or universally accepted evidence of what is “right” or “wrong” in the context of gender-affirming care. With remarkable clarity and precision, she outlined the arguments both in favor of and against such care from the perspectives of distributive justice – concerned with the allocation of benefits and burdens; corrective justice – focused on repairing harm; and justice as the protection of human rights. What emerged was an extremely complex picture and a deeply polarized debate, in which taking a firm stance on either side risks lapsing into dogmatism. Reimagining justice in this context, Acorn suggested, means attempting to reposition some of these commitments, to listen to the opposing view without falling into endless conflict, and to cultivate empathy toward the other side.
The following panel, Feminist Legal Philosophy, explored how the law, while formally rooted in justice and human rights, often perpetuates discrimination, bias, and structural inequality. Discussions examined the persistence of practices that violate dignity and privacy in asylum procedures based on gender identity and sexual orientation, the influence of gender stereotypes and epistemic biases in shaping judicial outcomes in sexual assault cases, and the growing threat that right-wing populism poses to LGBTQ rights across Europe. Overall, the panel underscored the urgent need to rethink legal frameworks so that they become true instruments of equity, inclusivity, and substantive justice.
In the afternoon, two parallel panels took place – one on Democracy & Justice and the other on Rights & Law.
The Democracy & Justice panel examined the evolving relationship between democratic governance, justice, and the criminal legal system. The discussion highlighted how a truly liberal democracy should favor rehabilitation and social reintegration over retribution, how whistleblowing can serve as a democratic act of accountability and ethical resistance, and how the rise of penal populism risks transforming criminal law into a mechanism of control that undermines substantive justice. Overall, the panel challenged punitive approaches and envisioned justice as a participatory, relational, and dignity-based ideal essential to the health of democratic societies.
The Rights & Law panel explored how gendered experiences and personal narratives challenge traditional legal paradigms and expose the limitations of formal justice. Discussions emphasized feminist and narrative approaches to law, highlighting how storytelling and collective memory can transform justice into a participatory and inclusive process, and how judicial bias and entrenched stereotypes, particularly in cases involving surrogacy, continue to marginalize non-normative family forms. Overall, the panel called for a reimagining of justice as empathetic, dialogical, and grounded in lived experience, beyond the rigidity of institutional frameworks.
The day concluded with the SAFI meeting, where Presidents Giulia Battistoni and Sabrina Zucca-Soest presented the society’s mission, objectives, and achievements to date. They reaffirmed SAFI’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, gender equality, and inclusivity in law and justice, as well as its support for emerging women scholars through international research and networking initiatives. The session closed with a forward-looking discussion on future projects and the shared vision of expanding SAFI’s academic and societal impact.
The following day was particularly intense, beginning with two consecutive rounds of three parallel panels.
One of these, focused on Abolitionist Approaches to Criminal Law, examined how feminist and abolitionist perspectives can reshape justice in contexts where punitive frameworks perpetuate rather than heal systemic harm. The discussion emphasized the need to move beyond retribution toward community-based accountability, restorative practices, and transformative repair, redefining justice as inclusive, empathetic, and structurally aware.
Another panel, New Visions for Justice in Law, explored emerging theories that challenge state-centered and individualistic legal models. Participants discussed how globalization, transnational power, and shared social responsibility require a networked and relational understanding of law, where justice is achieved through interdependence, solidarity, and the democratization of legal authority. Collectively, the papers highlighted a shift toward justice as a dynamic and collective practice, rooted in care, cooperation, and systemic transformation.
The panel Judicial Practice & Justice examined how law, power, and justice interact across global, supranational, and grassroots contexts, revealing the deeply political nature of legal authority. Discussions highlighted how legal systems can both consolidate power and reproduce inequality, but also serve as tools for accountability and emancipation when reimagined through participatory and ethical frameworks. The debate emphasized the need to rethink legal authority as a dynamic, collective, and justice-oriented practice – one that bridges institutions and communities, challenges entrenched hierarchies, and restores law’s transformative potential.
The panel Legal Perspectives on Health explored the relationship between global justice and the right to health, questioning the conceptual and structural assumptions that underpin current legal and policy frameworks. Discussions exposed how dominant models often rely on narrow economic or normative logics that fail to capture the complexity of global health inequalities and the lived realities of marginalized communities. By highlighting the limitations of existing definitions of public goods and the persistence of heteronormative and exclusionary structures in international law, the panel called for a reimagining of health justice – one grounded in inclusivity, intersectionality, and the dismantling of systemic hierarchies in global governance.
The panel Cultural Perspectives in Criminal Law explored how legal systems confront cultural diversity and normative plurality in multicultural societies. Discussions emphasized the importance of intercultural dialogue and reflexivity in judicial reasoning, cautioning against ethnocentric interpretations and the misuse of culture as a justification for criminalization. The debate underscored the need for a critical engagement with culture in law – one that values diversity and fairness without allowing cultural norms to become tools of exclusion or coercion.
The panel Rethinking Justice between Form, Force, and Fiction examined the interplay between law, justice, and imagination, revealing how narrative and creativity can restore the ethical and human dimensions often lost in overly formal or procedural approaches to law. Speakers highlighted how both aesthetic interpretation and storytelling open new spaces for understanding justice, challenging rigid structures and envisioning more humane, inclusive, and emotionally resonant forms of legality. Together, the papes invited a rethinking of justice as both interpretive and imaginative, rooted in empathy, dialogue, and the transformative power of narrative.
The afternoon began with the presentation of Giulia Battistoni’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie research project, “Collective Responsibility towards Nature and Future Generations”. The presentation outlined the project’s main objectives and the results achieved over three years of work. The research reexamines the concept of collective responsibility toward nature and future generations through the lens of 19th-century German Idealism and Hans Jonas’s theory of responsibility. It first investigates the rational foundation of a proactive duty to protect the world, grounded in the conception of human beings as both rational and responsible agents, and as integral parts of nature. It then explores the motivational and practical dimensions of responsibility, linking its theoretical foundations with its real-world implications.
The presentation was followed by two parallel panels.
The Technology & Justice panel examined the ethical and legal challenges posed by emerging technologies – particularly artificial intelligence and neurotechnologies – within the justice system. Discussions focused on how autonomy, accountability, and legitimacy can be maintained when human cognition and decision-making are technologically mediated. The panel highlighted the importance of relational and collective approaches to human oversight, the protection of cognitive autonomy through safeguards such as transparency and consent, and the need to consider institutional trust and social context in evaluating technological fairness. Overall, it called for a reconceptualization of justice and legality in the age of intelligent and neuro-integrated systems – anchored in ethics, responsibility, and human dignity.
The Justice in Criminal Law panel explored how justice must be reimagined beyond punitive, exclusionary, and procedural frameworks, emphasizing dignity, inclusion, and transformation. The discussion addressed the moral responsibility of institutions toward vulnerable groups, the ethical implications of life imprisonment, and the need to move beyond retributive models rooted in theological and moral debt. Collectively, the panel envisioned justice as a living and emancipatory practice, one that dismantles structural violence and promotes care, reintegration, and human flourishing.
The day concluded with a keynote lecture by Professor Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach (University of Amsterdam) on the theme “Shaping Justice”. In her address, Professor Kirloskar-Steinbach examined how both academic discourse and legal practice remain deeply structured by what Charles Mills describes as “white time”. She invited the audience to reflect on how dominant temporal and epistemic frameworks continue to center whiteness in shaping notions of progress, legitimacy, and authority. Through the story of Mohammad – a man subjected to prejudice by a judge – she exposed the enduring presence of racial bias and the ways epistemic ignorance perpetuates injustice within institutions. Her lecture offered a compelling reminder that to shape justice truly, we must confront not only discriminatory outcomes but also the deeper temporal and epistemic orders that sustain them.
Over the course of the conference, justice emerged as a dynamic and multifaceted ideal – never fixed, but continually redefined through dialogue, critique, and imagination. The discussions revealed its deep entanglement with power, vulnerability, and responsibility, urging a move beyond punishment and formalism. Ultimately, justice appeared not as a static principle, but as an ethical and collective practice of care, inclusion, and transformation.
Text and photo by Giulia Battistoni, with the collaboration of Kritika Maheshwari.