ARTICLE: Duve on European Legal History - Global Perspectives

Thomas Duve, the Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (MPIELH), has made his 'European Legal History - Global Perspectives' available on the MPIELH SSRN page. 

It's a Working Paper for the upcoming Colloquium 'European Normativity - Global Historical Perspectives' (MPIELH, 2-4 September 2013).

The abstract reads:

During the last decades, we have learned from authors like Helmut Coing, Franz Wieacker, Harold Berman, Peter Stein, Manlio Bellomo, Paolo Prodi, – to name but a few – that one of Europe’s major cultural achievements is its law, its unique legal culture. Europe, as is emphasized today not least in intercultural dialogue, or ‘the West’ have produced a wide range of cultural achievements that spread around the world: the rule of law, human rights, the differentiation between the realms of law and religion, codification techniques, etc. Yet, this historical self-reassurance has come under considerable pressure, not least through Global history, Postcolonial Studies, and Critical Legal Studies. Traditional European history is said to be Eurocentric, partial, incomplete and inadequate to the complexity of historical globalization. Even if we might not agree with this criticism: The discipline of ‚European Legal History’ has to consider these challenges. In the light of this criticism, we have to deliberate on fundamental questions about how we want to write European Legal History in the future. 

In this working paper, I would like address basically three questions: Which conception of Europe does ‘European Legal History’ hold; is it still valid for us today – and (how) can this tradition be combined with global perspectives on history? – Ultimately, I argue that we are moving from a ‘European legal history’ to a ‘Legal history (of Europe) in a global perspective’ and indicate what the latter could look like.

Highly recommended! - SPD

BOOKS: New Titles from Hart Publishing

Hart Publishing has released a number of new titles, including:

Geneviève Helleringer and Kai Purnhagen, Towards a European Legal Culture

European harmonisation efforts such as a European civil code, European constitutional treaties, European principles, and European fundamental rights are frequently criticised for building on or creating a European legal culture that does not exist; in reality what we have is European legal pluralism. Some have argued that the pluralistic structure of European law hinders the development of a community, which is a necessary requirement for a European legal culture. And if there can be no common European legal culture then there is no basis for harmonising exercises.

The contributors to this book explore in different legal areas whether in fact the contrary is true. Cultural pluralism might indeed be a distinctive feature of European legal culture. Diversity is not something that is in opposition to, but rather constitutes a new, different understanding of European legal culture. The contributions demonstrate in detail how such an approach inter alia in the areas of private, corporate, administrative and constitutional law furthers understanding of a developing European legal culture, how it offers theoretical and doctrinal insights, and how it adds critical perspective.

Yuanshi Bu, Chinese Civil Law: A Handbook

China is a major civil law jurisdiction. Since the end of the 1990s great efforts have been made in China to codify the entire civil law. With the major statutes governing contracts, property, torts and conflict of laws promulgated in 1999, 2007, 2009 and 2010 respectively, the most crucial steps have been taken towards the creation of a Chinese Civil code.

This book attempts to shed light on both the theoretical and the practical aspects of Chinese civil law, while extensive footnotes and a detailed bibliography and index allow for further study of specific areas and facilitate systematic research. 

JOURNAL: (2013) 4:1 Jurisprudence

The latest volume of Jurisprudence has been published by Hart Publishing. 

The volume, available here, includes the following articles:

Nicola Lacey, Institutionalising Responsibility: Implications for Jurisprudence

In this paper, the author suggest that the historical and institutional conditions of existence of the concepts which animate legal argumentation - like the historical and institutional conditions of existence of certain forms of law - are of interest not only in their own right, but also because they raise methodological issues for jurisprudence. These include questions about the relationship between concepts and the social phenomena which they purport to categorise; about the relationship between philosophical and other forms of legal theory; and about how a jurisprudence largely dominated by philosophical methods may be brought into productive dialogue with other forms of theoretical analysis. Only by broadening both its horizons and its methods, the author argues, will jurisprudence be capable of illuminating not only doctrinal analysis within particular jurisdictions at particular times, but also comparative and historical scholarship.

Marco Goldoni, Montesquieu and the French Model of Separation of Powers

JURIS DIVERSITAS: Deadline - Proposals to host 2014 Conference

We've already collected several offers to host our 2014 Conference and we'll be making a decision on this soon.


If anyone else wants to offer to host the conference--with our assistance--in the early summer of 2014, please email me as soon as possible.

JOURNAL: Australian Journal of Asian Law

(2013) 2:2  Australian Journal of Asian Law is now available.

Australian Journal of Asian Law  is the leading peer-edited journal of analysis, commentary and primary material on the laws, legal systems and legal cultures of Asia. It is a joint initiative of the members of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne and the Law Faculty of the Australian National University, with support and advice from Australian and international colleagues, and sponsored by the Asian Law Centre and the Australian National University. The journal provides a common forum for ideas and informed debate on current legal issues from a wide range of expert legal scholars and practitioners whose work focuses on Asia.

Table of Contents:

Genders and Genetics: The Legal and Medical Regulation of Family Forms in Contemporary Japan.

Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong - Faculty of Law, Institute for Social Transformation Research

Regulating Water Concessions in China: Towards a Transparent Pricing System.

Wei Yan, Shanghai University Law School

Legal Regulation of ‘Decent Work’: Evidence from Two Big Industries in Bangladesh.

Mia Mahmudur Rahim, Queensland University of Technology - School of Accountancy

The Establishment of Juvenile Courts and the Fulfilment of Vietnam's Obligations Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

 Thi Thanh Nga PHAM, University of Wollongong

Transnational Corporations and Human Rights Violations in Indonesia.

 Iman Prihandono, Airlangga University

Criminalisation of Money Laundering in the International Anti-Money Laundering Regime and its Adoption by Vietnam.

 Chat Le Nguyen, University of Canterbury