CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Space and Place Conference

4th Global Conference: Space and Place Monday 9th September - Thursday 12th September 2013 Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom Call for Presentations Questions of space and place affect the very way in which we experience and recreate the world. Wars are fought over both real and imagined spaces; boundaries are erected against the "Other" constructing a lived landscape of division and disenfranchisement; while ideology constructs a national identity based upon the dialectics of inclusion and exclusion. The construction of space and place is also a fundamental aspect of the creative arts either through the art of reconstruction of a known space or in establishing a relationship between the audience and the performance. Politics, power and knowledge are also fundamental components of space as is the relationship between visibility and invisibility. This new inter- and multi-disciplinary conference project seeks to explore these and other topics and open up a dialogue about the politics and practices of space and place. We seek submissions from a range of disciplines including archaeology, architecture, urban geography, the visual and creative arts, philosophy and politics and also actively encourage practitioners and non-academics with an interest in the topic to participate.

BOOK & SERIES: The Arts and the Legal Academy & Emerging Legal Education

Our friends as Ashgate have just published Zenon Bankowski,  Maksymilian Del Mar, and Paul Maharg (eds), The Arts and the Legal Academy: Beyond Text in Legal Education (2012):

 

In Western culture, law is dominated by textual representation. Lawyers, academics and law students live and work in a textual world where the written word is law and law is interpreted largely within written and printed discourse. Is it possible, however, to understand and learn law differently? Could modes of knowing, feeling, memory and expectation commonly present in the Arts enable a deeper understanding of law's discourse and practice? If so, how might that work for students, lawyers and academics in the classroom, and in continuing professional development?

 

Bringing together scholars, legal practitioners internationally from the fields of legal education, legal theory, theatre, architecture, visual and movement arts, this book is evidence of how the Arts can powerfully revitalize the theory and practice of legal education. Through discussion of theory and practice in the humanities and Arts, linked to practical examples of radical interventions, the chapters reveal how the Arts can transform educational practice and our view of its place in legal practice. Available in enhanced electronic format, the book complements The Moral Imagination and the Legal Life, also published by Ashgate.

The introduction is available here.

The book is part of a wider series on Emerging Legal Education, edited by Maharg and Elizabeth Mertz:  

Emerging Legal Education is a forum for analysing the discourse of legal education and creating innovative ways of learning the law. The series focuses on research, theory and practice within legal education, drawing attention to historical, interdisciplinary and international characteristics, and is based upon imaginative and sophisticated educational thinking. The series takes a broad view of theory and practice. Series books are written for an international audience and are sensitive to the diversity of contexts in which law is taught, learned and practised.

JOURNAL & LECTURE: Jurisprudence

Hart Publishing has announced that latest issue of Jurisprudence.

It includes Hamish Stewart's 'The definition of a right', a symposium on Nazi law, and numerous reviews.

In addition, 

Hart Publishing would also like to announce that Professor Nicola Lacey will deliver a lecture entitled: 'Institutionalising Responsibility: Implications for Jurisprudence' at the 3rd Annual Jurisprudence Lecture.  The lecture will be chaired by Professor Sean Coyle on Friday 25th January 2013 at 6.00pm in The Wolfson Theatre, London School of Economics. A reception will follow after the lecture. To book your place and for information about Professor Lacey's lecture please click on the following link: www.hartpub.co.uk/3rdJurisprudencelecture.pdf

CONFERENCE: Learning by doing - making interdisciplinarity work

Learning by doing -

 making interdisciplinarity work

The role of interdisciplinarity in European research and perspectives from the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities

Date: 15 January 2013

Location: Brussels

The conference is organised by the international network of National Contact Points for Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) NET4SOCIETY in partnership with the European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH). The conference sessions will convene at the beautiful premises of the Museum of Natural Sciences (Rue Vautier 29) in Brussels.  The event will allow researchers from different disciplines and SSH stakeholders to interact in order to share experiences and good practices and finally draw lessons from interdisciplinary research projects in different FP7 themes. 

LETTER: JURIS DIVERSITAS UPDATE

All, 

I hope this finds each of you well.

I write on behalf of the Juris Diversitas Executive with an update on our activities and links to additional information.

I’m pleased to announce that our first open annual conference will be held in June 2013. Membership arrangements have also been finalised, including considerable conference discounts (€50-€60). And, in addition to voting rights and other possible savings, ordinary membership will now include a selected volume from our new book series with Ashgate Publishing.

It’s been a busy year. In addition to other publications and projects, we published a special issue of the Journal of Civil Law Studies (US) and held a workshop in Rabat that’ll result in another event and publication in our book series. We’ve added a Facebook Page for the group. Most recently, we co-organised a workshop in Turin to take place early next year. We’ve also arranged a 20% discount on Hart Publishing titles for our blog readers.

To continue this work, however, it’s very important that we receive your support, not least through membership fees. More generally, please help us spread the word about our activities. And, as always, we welcome your thoughts. We’ve so much more to do. For example, we’re looking for additional proposals for the book series—we’ve a third already—and volunteers to assist with our online presence. Indeed, ideally we’d make the blog a place in which we can converse, collect teaching materials, etc.

For those who haven’t already done so, I urge you to sign up for our blog notices (on the right-hand side of the page). You can also add your name to our Facebook Page and Conference Site (the latter allowing you to see some of those attending).

We hope to see many of you at the conference, if not sooner. Best wishes to all for the holidays and the new year.

Seán

Dr Seán Patrick Donlan, University of Limerick, Ireland

SEMINARS: The Liquefaction of Borders:

A seminar series has been organised at the Collège international de philosophie, Paris. 

The theme is: 

The Liquefaction of Borders:

Time, Law and Money against Space and Matter

The description of the seminars is (in French):

Jusqu’à nos jours, les frontières – nationales, sexuelles, religieuses, ... – ont classé durablement des populations entières. Mais ces délimitations collectives orientent de moins en moins notre destin. Y suppléent le temps horloger, le droit et l’argent, mieux adaptés à tracer des frontières entre individus. Ne prescrivant aucun comportement particulier, ils les laissent libres de leurs actes en tant qu’entrepreneurs de soi… Les individus acquièrent donc la possibilité technique et le droit de choisir et de changer les paramètres définissant leur existence, s’organisant ainsi comme entités spatio-temporelles juxtaposées les unes aux autres. Cette individualisation correspond à une liquéfaction des sociétés, concorde avec la mutation des régimes migratoires et accompagne l’achèvement actuel de l’unification multiséculaire du monde dont la finitude se révèle. 

Inspiré d’une pédagogie interactive, le séminaire s’adresse aux étudiants et chercheurs en sciences humaines, en droit et en philosophie ainsi qu’à toute personne intéressée par la thématique. Chaque séance sera co-animée par un spécialiste réputé. La participation est gratuite et sans inscription.

VACANCY: Director of Studies, Institute of Law, Jersey

Director of Studies

Institute of Law, Jersey 

 

Applications are invited for the post of Director of Studies at the Institute of Law, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. The Institute’s main teaching provision is the Jersey Law Course and tuition to LLB students enrolled on the University of London International Programmes.

 

The successful candidate will provide academic leadership in this small but ambitious law school as it enters its next phase of development. The Director will develop and implement strategic and operational plans for expansion. Experience of student recruitment, especially in overseas markets, is important. The Director is expected to contribute to teaching and to develop research and scholarship projects related to one or more of the Institute’s areas of interest (laws of the Channel Islands, mixed jurisdictions, the challenges of small jurisdictions and off-shore finance).

 

This is a full-time post. The Director will be expected to spend a substantial amount of time in Jersey and to be a visible presence to students (who study mostly at weekends). Some international travel may be required. A fractional or secondment appointment would be considered to secure an outstanding candidate.

The post is at a level of seniority comparable to reader/chair level at a UK university, which will be reflected in the remuneration package.

 

The post is available from 1 September 2013. 

 

Informal Enquiries: Informal enquiries may be made to the current Director of Studies, Andrew Le Sueur (Andrew.lesueur@lawinstitute.ac.je), whose 4-year period of secondment from Queen Mary, University of London, will expire in September 2013. 

Applications: For further information about the appointment and how to apply, please visit our website: by clicking the APPLY button below (under ‘people’). 

Closing date: 24 January 2013.

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS: Legal Cultures - Confrontations Beyond Comparison

The Berlin-based Postdoctoral Program Rechtskulturen: Confrontations beyond Comparison invites scholars to apply for seven postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2013/2014.

Rechtskulturen (‘legal cultures’) is a Berlin-based postdoctoral research program which is designed to explore the law in new and innovative ways.  We intend to create a space of reflection and communication where fundamental and salient questions of the law and its context(s) can be re-negotiated from a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives, and re-connected with jurisprudence and legal methodology.

As a central element of the Berlin research network Recht im Kontext (‘law in context’) based at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Rechtskulturen aims at re-contextualizing established understandings of law by transcending the scope of comparative legal studies and international law. It is designed to enhance a re-location of law among its neighboring disciplines—the humanities, the cultural and social sciences—, and can thus allow affiliated scholars, fellows and faculty to develop innovative research agendas in transregional constellations beyond a European or Anglo-American focus. The program addresses scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, regional contexts and academic fields of discourse. In Berlin, the postdoctoral fellows will work on projects of their own choice. The program’s scholarly environment is designed to enable and to encourage both fellows and the wider community to explore and create new orientations in their transdisciplinary research on law.

The program Rechtskulturen is directed by Susanne Baer (Bundesverfassungsgericht/Humboldt-Universität), Christoph Möllers (Humboldt-Universität/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) and Alexandra Kemmerer (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), and is supported by an international group of scholars.

Applicants should be at the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their doctorate within the last five years before their application to the program. We welcome candidates with various disciplinary backgrounds, such as the field of legal studies, sociology, political science, philosophy, history, anthropology, theology, and area studies, representing a broad range of diverse approaches to the law, including gender studies, comparative research, law & literature, critical legal studies, administrative sciences, transitional justice, postcolonial theory, and legal philosophy and theory. In particular, we encourage applicants with a firm disciplinary background in law to engage in reflexive and transdisciplinary research.

For the academic year 2013/2014, we welcome in particular applicants interested in the law’s place in systems of knowledge and knowledge production (e.g. its relation to science, theology, philosophy, philology), in legal methodologies, in the law as a professional field, and in law in professional practices. We strongly encourage applications from scholars analyzing the law in various cultural contexts, engaging with confrontations beyond comparison.

Candidates should demonstrate their strong interest and innovative approaches to engage with the law. Rechtskulturen fellows are expected to participate in the regular Rechtskulturen Colloquium series, as well as in workshops, conferences and seminars organized by the program and the overarching project Recht im Kontext. The program seeks to create a context of intellectual synergy, where scholars from various disciplinary and regional backgrounds can work together comparatively (and confrontational) and develop a common language necessary for intra- and transdisciplinary exchanges and for an engagement with fundamental questions of the law and its cultural and political entanglements.

We encourage and welcome applications from all regions of the world.  Especially candidates from Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia are strongly encouraged to apply.  Fellows are given the opportunity to pursue their individual research projects within a transdisciplinary and transregional context. During the fellowship in Berlin, they will be associated with the Faculty of Law at Humboldt-Universitat. In the overall context of the program Rechtskulturen and the framework of the Forum Transregionale Studien, they will be part of a vibrant discursive environment.

To apply, please make use of our web-based electronic application procedure that will be open for applications from 10 January 2013 to 24 January 2013 (24:00 CET).

More information here.

REMINDER: Crossroads East and West Call for Papers

REMINDER:

Today is the deadline for the Paper Proposals for 

 

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

See the original notice for additional details.

ARTICLE (PRE-PRINT): Lau on The Language of Westernization in Legal Commentary

The American Journal of Comparative Law, the journal of the American Society of Comparative Law, has an article on pre-print status that might be of interest to members.

Holning Lau's 'The Language of Westernization in Legal Commentary' is described as:

With the rise of globalization, American legal commentators are increasingly directing their attention at developments abroad. When commentators discuss changes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, they frequently use the terms “westernization,” “westernize,” and “westernized.” This language elevates the status of the West, framing it as the reference point for understanding changes in other parts of the world. In this Essay, I draw from the fields of law, linguistics, and post-colonial studies to illuminate problems with this common practice of discussing changes in terms of westernization. I show that this discursive framework limits understandings about changes around the world and I expose normative problems that these limitations present. In light of these concerns, I propose substituting the language of westernization with alternative terminology.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS: Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging Conference

7th Global Conference
Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging

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

Call for Presentations
This multi-disciplinary project seeks to explore the new and prominent place that the idea of culture has for the construction of identity and the implications of this for social membership in contemporary societies. In particular, the project will assess the context of major world transformations, for example, new forms of migration and the massive movements of people across the globe, as well as the impact of globalisation on tensions, conflicts and on the sense of rootedness and belonging. Looking to encourage innovative trans-disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand what it means for people, the world over, to forge identities in rapidly changing national, social and cultural contexts.

Papers, workshops and presentations are invited on any of the following themes:

PUBLICATION: Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law

Routledge has published Mark Tushnet, Thomas Fleiner, and Cheryl Saunders (eds), Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law (2012):

The Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law is an advanced level reference work which surveys the current state of constitutional law. Featuring new, specially commissioned papers by a range of leading scholars from around the world, it offers a comprehensive overview of the field as well as identifying promising avenues for future research. The book presents the key issues in constitutional law thematically allowing for a truly comparative approach to the subject. It also pays particular attention to constitutional design, identifying and evaluating various solutions to the challenges involved in constitutional architecture. 

The book is split into four parts for ease of reference:

• Part One: General issues "sets issues of constitutional law firmly in context including topics such as the making of constitutions, the impact of religion and culture on constitutions, and the relationship between international law and domestic constitutions.
• Part Two: Structures presents different approaches in regard to institutions or state organization and structural concepts such as emergency powers and electoral systems
• Part Three: Rights covers the key rights often enshrined in constitutions
• Part Four: New Challenges - explores issues of importance such as migration and refugees, sovereignty under pressure from globalization, Supranational Organizations and their role in creating post-conflict constitutions, and new technological challenges.

Providing up-to-date and authoritative articles covering all the key aspects of constitutional law, this reference work is essential reading for advanced students, scholars and practitioners in the field.

JOURNAL: German Law Journal

The editors of the German Law Journal have written the following about their latest issue.

We are pleased to announce that the new issue of the German Law Journal, Review of Developments in German, European and International Jurisprudence is now available at no cost at www.germanlawjournal.com. The table of contents of the Symposium Issue can be downloaded here.

This issue is 'fully loaded' and features fourteen papers from the Fifth CLPE - Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy Network - Conference on "Transnational Private Regulatory Governance: Regimes, Dialogue, Constitutionalization", which was held at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto in March 2012. The Conference was convened through a collaboration between CLPE, an international and interdisciplinary research centre at Osgoode Hall Law School, the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law [HiiL], the Centre for Regulation and Governance at University College Dublin [RegGov] and the European University Institute [EUI] in connection with the transnational research program on 'Private Transnational Regulatory Regimes'.

The Fifth CLPE Conference brought together a number of renowned experts on financial and environmental regulation but featured, most importantly and in keeping with a longstanding CLPE Conference tradition, a very substantive group of early career scholars, including law students in their second and third years of training as well as Master's and PhD candidates. You are welcome to read the excellent scholarship presented at this conference by visiting the Journal's homepage.

With this last issue in 2012, the GLJ concludes its thirteenth volume and wishes its readers and authors a restful break and a very happy new year! May you all be well and continue to strive for the right balance between "life" and "work". 

As always, but especially mindful of these wishes: Happy Reading!