Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, the Institute of Small and Micro States (ISMS) and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) hosted the annual Small States conference in November 2021. The conference was the sixth in a series of conferences on issues relating to small states. The focus of the sixth conference was on Culture, Art and Cultural Identity. 

This series of conferences has brought to the fore issues and challenges that small states are facing and has made an impact in research development. The sixth conference explored how small states manage the balancing act of preserving their cultural identity with being members of a globalized world.

Small states are not just small versions of large states–they are culturally and politically different from large ones. Small states have an astonishing cultural diversity and often develop unique cultural characteristics. This distinctiveness characterizes even the smallest state. To be able to participate in today’s globalized world they need to balance isolation to protect their cultural uniqueness with economic openness. They have to assert their diversity and speciality in a globalized world. This is why small states defend their interests frequently much more vigorously and often in defiance of the international community.

The conference featured a keynote panel and six other panels over three days, with speakers of diverse backgrounds from around the world, including representatives of government, academia, international organizations, NGOs and legal practice. Partner Steven Finizio chaired the keynote panel and partner David Bowker spoke on a panel which considered art and cultural heritage disputes.

Read a full report of the conference.

See the full agenda.

Watch the full conference.

Past conferences in this series include Regional Integration and Dispute Resolution (2016); International Financial Services and Small States (2017); Environmental Dispute Resolution and Small States (2018); and Small States, International Law and the Realisation of Rights (2019); and Human Rights and Small States: Challenges, Resilience and Advocacy (2020).

All are available to watch in full here.