NOTICE: European Network on Law and Society Listings

The excellent, very generous listings--of both Anglophone and Francophone materials--of the European Network on Law and Society (Réseau Européen Droit & Société), ‘Nouvelles du monde’ and ‘Au fil des revues’, are now available.

 

Have a look.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Cultural Representations of Crime and Policing: Scottish and International Perspectives, Past and Present

 CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS

Cultural Representations

of Crime and Policing:

Scottish and International

Perspectives, Past and Present

West Park Conference Centre,

University of Dundee

16-17 April 2013

Speakers include:  Professor Sue Black, Professor Peter King, Professor Niamh Nic Daeid, Dr Chris Murray and Linda Stratmann.

The Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the School of Humanities, University of Dundee, invite proposals for papers to be presented at this two-day conference.  The conference is the fourth in a series of events funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts & Humanities Network Award on the theme of Crime and Policing in Scotland: Past and Present.  The network is intended to provide a unique forum for researchers to engage with police and criminal justice practitioners, with the aim of sharing and enhancing mutual knowledge and research agendas and providing an opportunity for contemporary Scottish crime and policing issues to be considered from an international historical perspective.

The aim of the conference is to explore the ways in which crime and policing have been understood and portrayed in popular culture from the Enlightenment to the present day.  The focus will be on both the Scottish experience and the wider international context.  Key themes will include the extent to which cultural representations of crime and policing -- for example print and visual media, both fictional and non-fictional -- differ from realities, and how far media portrayals shape popular understandings of crime and policing.  Central to these discussions will be the question of what causes cultural representations and perceptions of crime and policing to change over the longer term.  The event is aimed at a wide range of academic disciplines, criminal justice practitioners, and cultural media, with a view to stimulating interdisciplinary dialogue on the conference themes.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS: The Value of Work

3rd Global Conference
The Value of Work

Sunday 1st September - Tuesday 3rd September 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford

Call for Presentations

This conference aims to bring together people from a wide range of disciplines to focus on a fundamental aspect of human life: work.

Work has pervasive influence on human life. Where we live, how we live, how we learn and how we see the world is strongly shaped by the work we do. Since the industrial revolution some of the expected benefits of the implementation of technology, and contemporary management have not been realised. 

While working hours are generally not what they were in the Industrial revolution, actual working hours for many people have not decreased in the last 10-15 years. This is because many people work more than their formally specified hours in order to meet their job requirements. A common feature of contemporary management is an ongoing expectation of 'doing more with less'. This means many people are working at an increased pace of work, and/or are working longer. 

This conference seeks to gain understanding of the nature of work and the specific nature of its impacts. It also seeks perspectives and understanding that breaks from the logic of how work is often done. In particular what are the possibilities of work that contributes to human well being, and is the idea of excellence at work? It also seeks to investigate the relationship of work to leisure and friendship.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Italian Association of Comparative Law Conference

From the Italian Association of Comparative Law (AIDC) Blog

XXII AIDC CONFERENCE

COMPARATIVE LAW:

INTELLECTUAL TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES.

A SCHOLARLY DEBATE
30 May-1 June 2013

The XXII AIDC Conference will explore anew the intellectual assessment of comparative law, moving from a critical re-mapping of traditional and conventional views. The aims are both to explore and debate the recent trends in legal scholarship, and to suggest arguments for a pluralistic comparative law epistemology. What is at stake is the strategic power of comparative law as a discipline in order to construct a global theorization of legal and geopolitical order; to shape and control cultural flows and forms; to articulate contemporary spatial dialectics.

Submissions may include, but are not limited to, an exploration of the following possible themes and issues:

- comparative law, governance and politics

- legal origins and law reforms

- methods and perspectives

- legitimating discourses and practices

- the globalization of contract, torts and property

- order and sovereignty

- corporate perspectives and secured transactions

- hybridity and legal systems.

See the conference notice here for more information.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Anthropologies of Conflict in a New Millennium Conference

Anthropologies of Conflict in a New Millennium

American Ethnological Society and 

Association for Political and Legal Anthropology

Spring Conference 2013

April 11-13, 2013

Chicago, Illinois

From the events of September 11 to the war in Iraq, from the Arab spring to Greek riots, from the invasion of Afghanistan to the occupation of Wall Street, the opening of the new millennium has witnessed a burst of new forms of conflict around the world. For anthropologists, these events have raised profound questions both about the nature of human conflict and about the place of our discipline within it. How should anthropologists understand the new forms of conflict that increasingly dominate the world stage? In what ways do we need to rethink our accustomed notions of power, of nation, of technology, and of the relationship between individual and group? And how do we situate ourselves, scientifically and morally, amid the contending groups whose cultures we study?

In April of 2013, the American Ethnological Society and the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology will explore these questions at our joint Spring Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.  We look forward to special plenaries by Susan Coutin, Sally Merry, Katherine Verdery, and Carolyn Nordstrom.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Spatial Justice

Call for Submissions:

Spatial Justice

 

SouthernSpaces invites essays, photo essays, video productions, and digital projects which explore the relationships between social justice and real and imagined spaces and places of the U.S. South and their global connections.

"Spatial Justice" will examine social justice in the context of critical regional studies. The publication of this series will coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and the centennial of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. While we welcome essays and projects that deal with the legacies of these events, we especially encourage new treatments and analyses of how the making of space and place expresses power, injustice, and social conflict from the pre-colonial period to the twenty-first century.

NOTICE: Juris Diversitas on Facebook

For those who don't already know, Juris Diversitas now has both a Facebook group page and an event Page for the 2013 Conference in Lausanne.

Let me know if you'd like your name added to the group page and feel free to indicate your attendance at our conference on the event page. 

And if you 'like' the posts or the group, please let others know.

Note that additional information on membership is also imminent.

JOURNAL: Journal of Legal Pluralism

I'm not sure when it came out, but I've just noticed that the (2012) 65 Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law is out. 

In addition to member Mariano Croce's ‘All Law is Plural: Legal Pluralism and the Distinctiveness of Law’, its articles include:

 

• Martina Locher, Bernd Steimann and Bishnu Raj Upreti, ‘Land Grabbing, Investment Principles and Plural Legal: Orders of Land Use’
• Ann Black, ‘Replicating “A Model of Mutual Respect”: Could Singapore's Legal Pluralism Work in Australia?’
• Ebenezer Durojaye, ‘Substantive Equality and Maternal Mortality in Nigeria’
• Ido Shahar, ‘Legal Pluralism Incarnate: An Institutional Perspective on Courts of Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Settings’
• Pascale Fournier, ‘Halacha, the “Jewish State'”and the Canadian Agunah: Comparative Law at the Intersection of Religious and Secular Orders’

INTERVIEW: HLA Hart with David Sugarman (from 1988)

The following was just posted on the always excellent Legal History Blog.

Oxford University Press has digitalised the audio version of David Sugarman's (Lancaster University Law School, UK) interview with H.L.A. Hart of 1988 and posted it on the Web as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations marking the publication of Hart's Concept of Law and a new (third, 2012) edition.  

The interview delineates the particulars of Hart's life and work: his background, early education, and undergraduate studies; learning law, practising at the Bar, and journalism; working in military intelligence; the early years as a philosophy don and the principal philosophical influences that shaped his work; and the state of Oxford jurisprudence in the 1940s and 1950s. It then addresses Hart's work and ideas between 1945 and the 1980's: his appointment to the Chair of Jurisprudence at Oxford; the Hart-Fuller Debate and his year at Harvard; the writing of Causation in the Law and The Concept of Law; the 1950's, the Cold War, and the 1960's; "The Hart-Devlin Debate"; and what Hart called, "the Thatcher world". The interview also illuminates Hart's work beyond legal and political philosophy - the seminars to Labour Party groups on closing loopholes in the tax law; and the duties he undertook for the Monopolies Commission (1967-73) and the Oxford University Committee on Staff-Student Relations (the "Hart Report", 1968-69). The interview includes Hart's assessment of Bentham, Nozick and Dworkin, a general discussion of the virtues and limitations of sociology, sociological jurisprudence and analytical jurisprudence, of legal education, and the relationship between university legal education and the legal profession. A succinct summary of Hart's contribution to legal philosophy brings the interview to a close. 

An edited version of the interview was published as: "Hart Interviewed: H.L.A. Hart in Conversation with David Sugarman", (2005) 32 Journal of Law and Society pp. 267-293.  The audio version of the interview, and a blog about the interview, can be accessed here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Irish Society of Comparative Law Annual Conference (24-25 May 2013; Galway, Ireland)

The School of Law at NUI Galway, Ireland will host the Irish Society of Comparative Law (ISCL) 5th Annual Conference on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of May 2013 in Galway. The theme for the ISCL Conference is ‘Comparative Public Law’. Papers placing Irish public law in comparative perspective are especially encouraged, but any topic in comparative or legal systems may be proposed including private law topics. Proposals for thematic panels of papers are also welcomed.

The primary objective of the ISCL is to encourage the comparative study of law and legal systems. Students fully registered for a masters in law, or law-related area (LL.M, MA) are encouraged to submit papers, and the 2nd ISCL Young Researcher Prize will be awarded to the best paper delivered by a student in this category.

Proposals for papers for the 2013 conference should be short (250 words max) and sent to Charles O’Mahony at charles.omahony@nuigalway.ie. The deadline for receipt of proposals is Friday 15 February 2013. Applicants will be notified by Thursday 28th February 2013 if their paper proposal is successful. There will be an opportunity for poster presentations (Posters A1 size) to be displayed in the foyer of the conference venue, Aras Moyola. Poster presenters are expected to attend the conference in the normal way and to be available to discuss their work. You do not have to be a member of the ISCL to propose a paper or be selected to present a poster. Registration forms and additional information will be available early in 2013.

JOB OPENING: European University Institute (EUI) - Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS)

[The following was listed on the Legal Scholarship Network of SSRN]

European University Institute (EUI)
Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) 
The European University Institute (EUI) in Florence invites applications for the post of Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), which becomes vacant in September 2013.

ABOUT THE RSCAS: The mission of the RSCAS is to contribute to policy-relevant research on the main issues confronting Europe. Its activities are based on the findings of basic research in the human and social sciences, in particular the disciplines represented at the Institute (economics, history, law and the social and political sciences). It promotes comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.

JOB DESCRIPTION: The director is responsible for leading the activities of the Centre. Applicants must have an outstanding academic record in a discipline represented at the Institute and proven experience in interdisciplinary research and in university administration or research management. A practical knowledge of at least two main European languages is required. The successful candidate will be expected to further the development of the Centre.

The director of the Centre will be hired at the 'senior professor' level of the EUI's professorial scale, on a five-year contract renewable for a further three years. The Institute is an equal opportunity employer.

PUBLICATION: The Cambridge Companion to Edmund Burke

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Cambridge University Press has recently published D Dwan and C Insole (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Edmund Burke:

Edmund Burke prided himself on being a practical statesman, not an armchair philosopher. Yet his responses to specific problems – rebellion in America, the abuse of power in India and Ireland, or revolution in France – incorporated theoretical debates within jurisprudence, economics, religion, moral philosophy and political science. Moreover, the extraordinary rhetorical force of Burke's speeches and writings quickly secured his reputation as a gifted orator and literary stylist. This Companion provides a comprehensive assessment of Burke's thought, exploring all his major writings from his early treatise on aesthetics to his famous polemic, Reflections on the Revolution in France. It also examines the vexed question of Burke's Irishness and seeks to determine how his cultural origins may have influenced his political views. Finally, it aims both to explain and to challenge interpretations of Burke as a romantic, a utilitarian, a natural law thinker and founding father of modern conservatism.

The Companion includes my ‘Burke on law and legal theory’. The introduction notes that:

Burke’s frequent recourse to legal arguments and principles gleaned from traditions of common law and natural law jurisprudence also need to be interpreted within a broader historical and intellectual context. As Seán Donlan argues, Burke could sing the praises of England’s ‘ancient constitution’ as well as any other Whig, but he could also challenge parochial views of English legal history and was especially critical of the insularity of popular common law histories associated with William Blackstone. Instead, he chose to emphasise the degree to which English law was the result of frequent and constructive communication with the continent. Throughout his life he expressed impatience at narrow or excessively positivist constructions of law and insisted that all legal schemes must accommodate the particular manners and morals of nations as well as ethical constraints imposed by human nature. Of course, critics have disputed the meaning and importance of these ethical constraints, and it is an issue that Christopher Insole addresses in his chapter on Burke’s use of natural law. 

Other members should feel free to contact me about posting information on their own publications.

PUBLICATION: Casabona on the Law of Macau and its Language

The always interesting Law and Humanities Blog recently noted that Salvatore Casabona has published The Law of Macau and its Language: A Glance at the Real 'Masters of the Law' in the (2012) 4 Tsinghua China Law Review 223.

The article is also available on SSRN:

This article discusses the biligualistic legal system in Macau. The discussion begins with the outline of the history of the Macanese bilingualism. The author then examines the crucial distinction between the language in the law and the law in the language. By analogy to European Community and other bilingual legal systems, this article identities the characteristic of Macanese mulitlingualism. This article concludes with suggestions about a new approach and the role of universities in resolving the matter.

Salvatore, a member of Juris Diversitas, never mentioned the article. 

JOURNAL: Acta Universitatis George Bacovia. Juridica

The new issue of Acta Universitatis George Bacovia. Juridica has been published. The issue is available here. 

The journal is described as:

We have proposed ourselves, as main objective, to make this journal a framework for debate and academic research undertaken by personalities of legal science and reputed legal practitioners. We will also try to connect this publication to the big European and worldwide circuit of ideas and contemporary legal culture.

        The journal aims to include within its structure parts regarding studies of Public and private law, Comparative law, European Law,  Jurisprudence, Critical legal, New legal acts, from the history of great universities, Symposia and Congresses.

         Due to the collaboration of distinguished personalities from the field of research and legal practice in the country and abroad we also want to ensure that more demanding and rigorous studies will be published.
           "Acta Universitatis George Bacovia. Juridica” also proposes itself to initiate and enhance the scientific exchanges with other specialized publications in the country and abroad, and to be included in specialized catalogs, centralized by domains.
         Finally, our desire is to include our journal, “Acta Universitatis George Bacovia. Juridica”, in the international databases.

Individuals interested in publishing in the journal should see the 'Instructions to authors' and 'Submissions and the reviewing process'.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Women’s Access to Justice in Plural Legal Systems

 CALL FOR PROPOSALS

National Component of a Regional Research on Women’s Access to Justice in Plural Legal Systems in one of the following countries: 

Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam

The UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment ofWomen (UN Women) is calling for proposals to conduct national component of a regional research project on women’s access to justice in plural legal systems in Southeast Asia, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.

In all societies in the region, laws and justice systems are not adequately working for women. Where justice systems reflect existing power imbalances that favor men’s privilege, women’s rights are less protected. Plural legal systems present challenges to women’s access to justice because they often include strands of law that are based on custom, religion and traditional rules and values that restrict women’s rights. When these traditional rules are incorporated into state and non‐state legal and justice systems (such as village courts) women’s rights in the private and domestic sphere, including their rights to live free from violence and make decisions about their sexuality, marriage, divorce and reproductive health, can be limited. The plural legal systems may also limit women’s economic rights including the right to decent work, inheritance and control of land and other productive resources. These legal systems are sometimes procedurally biased against women. The Progress of World Women Report of UN Women noted that the existence of legal plural system in itself can pose particular challenges to women seeking justice as it may create a complex web of overlapping systems in which women can lose their protection or access to rights. Also there are confusions over jurisdictional boundaries, and under-resourced justice systems present barriers to justice for women, especially for those from excluded groups. The challenges for reform of state-recognized and non state legal systems are enormous as they are linked to the complex problems, require state approval and also closely linked with the identity politics.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Workshop on International and Comparative Law

Call For Papers
Third Annual Workshop on International and Comparative Law
Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA
1-2 March 2013

The Center on Law, Innovation and Economic Growth (CLIEG) of Washington University in St. Louis will organize the Third Annual Workshop on International and Comparative Law on March, 1-2, 2013. JSD/SJD candidates, PhD students, research fellows, postdocs and visiting assistant professors are invited to present original research papers on international or comparative law, broadly defined. Participation (including meals) is free, but participants should finance their own travel and hotel costs.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: To apply, send a paper or abstract to Gerrit De Geest (degeest@wustl.edu) no later than December 31, 2012. Please indicate academic affiliation and attach a short CV. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, and early submissions have a higher acceptance chance. For questions, please contact Michael Peil at mpeil@wulaw.wustl.edu, phone: (314) 935-3346.

JOURNAL: European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst)

The latest European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst) has been published.

The journal is:

a peer reviewed English language journal, is a platform for advancing the study of European constitutional law, its history and evolution. Its scope is European law and constitutional law, history and theory, comparative law and jurisprudence. Published triannually, it contains articles on doctrine, scholarship and history, plus jurisprudence and book reviews.... EuConst is addressed at academics, professionals, politicians and others involved or interested in the European constitutional process. Its Editorial Advisory Board is composed of eminent members in the field of constitutional studies from across the Continent in its new EU format.

PUBLICATION: Ginsburg and Dixon on Comparative Constitutional Law

Elgar Publishing has announced the publication of Tom Ginsburg and Rosalind Dixon (eds), Comparative constitutional law (2012), part of their Research Handbooks in Comparative Law Series:

This landmark volume of specially commissioned, original contributions by top international scholars organizes the issues and controversies of the rich and rapidly maturing field of comparative constitutional law.

Divided into sections on constitutional design and redesign, identity, structure, individual rights and state duties, courts and constitutional interpretation, this comprehensive volume covers dozens of countries as well as a range of approaches to the boundaries of constitutional law. While some chapters reference the text of legal instruments expressly labeled constitutional, others focus on the idea of entrenchment or take a more functional approach.

Challenging the current boundaries of the field, the contributors offer diverse perspectives – cultural, historical and institutional – as well as suggestions for future research. A unique and enlightening volume, Comparative Constitutional Law is an essential resource for students and scholars of the subject.

PUBLICATION: Bogdan on Comparative Law

Europa Law Publishing has announced the publication--in early January 2013-- of Michael Bogdan's Concise introduction to comparative law (2013).

In today's globalized world, jurists cannot limit themselves to studying the laws of their own country. This book is mainly intended to be used as a textbook for beginners taking introductory courses on foreign and comparative law. Its concise format makes it fit for use also in other courses, such as legal history or jurisprudence, having the ambition to provide the students with a basic knowledge about English, American, French, German, Chinese and Islamic law and legal culture, as well as about the methodological problems that arise in connection with studying, comparing and working with foreign legal systems in general. The book will hopefully also be useful as a spring-board towards more profound studies by students and others seeking more advanced knowledge.

Bogdan is Professor of Comparative and Private International Law at the University of Lund, Sweden.

CALL FOR PAPERS (Due 17 December 2012): Crossroads East and West: Visions of the Economy in the Islamic and Western Legal Traditions

Call for Papers

Crossroads East and West: 

Visions of the Economy in the Islamic and Western Legal Traditions

International Workshop

(co-organised with Juris Diversitas)

 Turin, International University College

4-5 February 2013

As the world enters a post-global phase featuring a growing multipolarity of economic and political systems (e.g. with the BRICS countries, as well as economic, demographic and financial powers such as Turkey, Persian Gulf countries, Indonesia and others emerging as significant regional and international players), this multipolarity is, in the 21st century, redefining the global model that emerged at the end of the 20th, one which was clearly dominated by the economic and legal models of Western origin.

Muslim countries, and countries with significant Muslim populations, will, in all their diversity and complexity, be major actors in this polycentric environment, interacting with the West as well as with the geo-political realities of the East, producing new legal developments both regionally and on a global scale.

The international workshop will therefore be devoted to the emerging trends and dynamics in the economies and economic relations and legal interplay within and between Muslim legal systems, traditions and developments, on the one side; and the West, with its legal traditions and the Western-influenced global legal order, on the other.

Divergences and convergences should emerge from the workshop, permitting a better assessment of current developments and of some future legal features of economies and economic relationships in a possible multi-polar world.

The macro-theme of the event will therefore be the economy in its largest sense, with a view to developing legal comparative analyses of economic phenomena in the Islamic and Muslim traditions; perspectives should include both common law and civil law, for the West, and both Shi'a and Sunni approaches, for the East.