RE: Legal Pluralism in Europe

The following article, now available on SSRN, might be of interest:

Nils Jansen, "Legal pluralism in Europe: national laws, European legislation, and non-legislative codifications"

The paper compares the present state of European private law with the plural structure of early modern law in Europe. This comparison reveals – despite important differences – important structural similarities. Perhaps the most striking one is the structural parallel in the piecemeal political legislation of the acquis communautaire on the one hand, and medieval Canon law and early modern local legislation on the other hand. The resulting fractions between the formal acquis communautaire and the informal acqus commun are an expression of a new plural structure of modern European private law that resembles the plural structure of the earlier ius commune, itself based on an informal and a formal body of law (Roman law viz Canon law).

NOTICE: Laïcité in Comparative Perspective

The Center for Law and Religion at St John's School of Law (US) has recently published a collection of papers drawn from its inaugural conference, Laïcité in Comparative Perspective:

At this conference, held in June 2010 at the St. John's Paris campus, American and European scholars presented papers and participated in robust roundtable discussions that compared the French model of church-state relations, laïcité, with models that exist in other countries, including the United States, Italy and Spain. Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia gave the Conference Introduction. The proceedings are now available at 49 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 1 (2010).

The Center for Law and Religion at St. John's School of Law provides a forum for an open dialogue on, and the in-depth study of, law and religion from domestic, international and comparative perspectives. We also offer our students a unique opportunity to examine the interplay between law and religion in our local and global communities. For more information about the Center and our programs, please visit our website or contact us at clr@stjohns.edu.

NOTICE: Fulbright Scholar Awards in the Middle East and North Africa, 2012-13

Fulbright Scholar Awards in the Middle East and North Africa, 2012-13

The Fulbright Scholar Program is now accepting applications for awards to teach and/or carry out research in the Middle East and North Africa in the 2012-13 academic year for periods of from 3 to 10 months.

Approximately 50 awards will be offered to scholars in any field of the arts, humanities, sciences, technology, social sciences, law, business and education. A PhD or terminal degree, a record of teaching and research and U.S. citizenship are required. Foreign language proficiency is not required for most teaching.

Deadline for applications is August 1, 2011.

For more information, visit http://catalog.cies.org/ or contact Gary Garrison, ggarrison@iie.org, 202-686-4019.