VACANCY: Postdoctoral researcher in International and European Sports Law

The T.M.C.Asser Institute is looking to appoint a full-time (38 hours per week) postdoctoral researcher in international and European Sports Law to join its dynamic and multinational research team.

The successful candidate will :

• conduct fundamental and applied, comparative research in the area of international and European sports law at an advanced level, leading to high-level academic publications and high quality advice/opinions for a multitude of clients;

• acquire and carry out externally financed research and academic service projects and participate in coordinating tasks in the management of projects;

• be expected, where possible and appropriate, to give presentations on your specific subject field;

• help organize dissemination activities such as trainings, workshops and conferences;

• maintain and further develop an international network of experts and stakeholders.

Requirements: 

• you have recently completed your Ph.D. in an area of law relevant to sport; 

• you have a good knowledge of EU law;

• you have a broad general knowledge of European and international sports law. Prior professional expertise in this specialist area, as can be demonstrated by publications and/or experience in legal practice, is desirable. It is more important, however, that you can demonstrate great potential and commitment to pursue a research career in the area of International and European sports law;

• you have an established record of research, publications, and acquisition of external funding for research and dissemination projects;

• you have experience in participating in collaborative research projects and are open to carry out inter-disciplinary research;

• you are an ambitious and motivated scholar with an international profile and an extensive professional network;

• you have excellent writing and presentation skills for promoting and reporting on research;

• you have an excellent command of English, both written and spoken.  Knowledge of Dutch and other languages is an asset;

• you are flexible, proactive, and able to work both independently and as a strong team-player;

• you are capable of performing well under the stress of strict deadlines.

Asser Institute offers employment as full-time senior researcher initially for 1 year, but renewable for a period of up to 6 years. The Institute is affiliated with the University of Amsterdam, whose conditions of employment are applicable. The salary will be in accordance with the CAO of the Dutch Universities and depending on the candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Applications should comprise a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae in EUROPAS format, a list of publications and the contact details of two referees. Applications must be sent in English, in MS-Word format to HRM@asser.nl before 16 October 2013.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Asian Journal of Law and Society

Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University will be publishing the Asian Journal of Law and Society (AsianJLS).

This independent, peer-reviewed publication encourages empirical and multi-disciplinary research and welcomes articles on law and its relationship with society in Asia. AsianJLS will publish articles bringing an Asian perspective to socio-legal issues of global concern, and articles using Asia as a starting point for a comparative exploration of law and society topics.

Find out how to submit your paper to AsianJLS here.

This opportunity is forum for Asian and Western scholars to exchange ideas of interest to Asian scholars and professionals, those working in or on Asia, as well as all working on law and society issues globally.

Registration for free content alerts here.

ARTICLES: ISLAMIC LAW & LAW OF THE MUSLIM WORLD eJOURNAL

Articles: Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal

The following articles from Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal(2013),  have been published on SSRN:


Islam and the Politics of Secularism in Europe
By Peter O'Brien
Modern secularism, as theorized by prominent liberal philosophers such as John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, prescribes that the state should treat all religions equally on condition that they and their adherents relinquish their theocratic aspirations and recognize the political sovereignty and superiority of man-made law. Convinced that the secular bargain undermines the moral virtue of society and its members, a small, fragmented, but nevertheless conspicuous number of Islamists in Europe prefers to observe Islamic law in all walks of life, private and public. Alarmed by Islamists and informed by Orientalist readings of Islam, an increasingly vehement and vociferous contingent of Islamophobes avers that Islam is inherently incompatible with democracy and urges European governments to treat neither Islam nor Muslims equally, but rather suspiciously as real or potential threats to the wellbeing of European societies. In contrast, advocates of Euro-Islam insist that Islam can be reformed, like Christianity, to meet the requirements of modern secularism. This paper contends that elements of all three of these vying positions have found their way into policymaking targeting Muslims in several European lands. The resulting inconsistency and contradiction – what I call policy “messiness” – corroborate the process of “mutual fragilization” theorized by Charles Taylor in which actors facing radical value pluralism develop solicitude regarding their own principles as well as greater tolerance for ambivalence. The latter, in particular, creates what Homi Bhabha terms a “third space” from which actors confronting cultural pluralism can freely and constructively explore cross-fertilizations and hybrid combinations with the potential to yield yet unimagined approaches and solutions to the problems of “super-diversity.” Just such creative hybridity does the paper identify among a younger generation of European Muslims whom many observers dub “post-Islamists.”

 
Governance Feminism's Imperial Misadventure: Progress, International Law, and the Security of Afghan Women
By: Cyra Akila Choudhury
After the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent U.S. engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, the question of how to 'help' Muslim women progress towards greater liberty and rights has become a near obsession. A multitude of voices joined the throng of 'experts' on Islam, including conservative Islam-o-phobes, liberal feminists, and elite, western-trained Muslim women themselves relying on their identities to provide credibility to their claims. The plight of Muslim women as victims of their religion and their hyper-patriarchal menfolk has become such common knowledge that it can barely be refuted. There are many obvious reasons as to why Americans have become so intimately familiar with the orientalist stereotypes, the burka and Islamic punishments. They are the most compelling marks of barbarity that have been used to advance a number of different agendas from women’s rights to armed intervention. Liberal feminists in legal academia and practice, particularly governance feminists, have not been silent in this discussion nor have they necessarily drawn a nuanced picture about the situation of women in the War on Terror. In Afghanistan, the construction of women as abject victims has yielded positive results in both garnering international funding and foreign policy response. It seems entirely obvious that 'women’s rights' have to be improved in Afghanistan and that Afghan women have to be helped. However, some of the approaches that have been taken in 'solving' the Afghan women’s problem are troubling for many reasons.

In this chapter, I examine two of these: First, from a theoretical perspective many liberal feminists consider religion and culture as obstacles to achieving women’s equality and rights. They fail to account for the alternative views of flourishing forwarded by many Muslim women who stray from the Liberal script and for whom rights and 'equality' may not be a priority. I explore the linkages between Liberalism’s troubled history with universalism, rights, and progress with Governance Feminism that also shares this history and a desire to use state power to effectuate change. Second, I examine the problems that result from this theoretical position: the reliance on victim subjects that have resulted in fractured transnational alliances and Governance Feminism’s support for international intervention that ignores the victimization of men and its effects on women’s security.

 

EXPERT NEEDED: ABA-CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

EXPERT NEEDED: ABA-Center for Human Rights

The ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has received a request from the ABA Center for Human Rights. 

 

The Center is convening a group of Indian attorneys working on cases concerning atrocities committed against members of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (“SC/ST communities”).  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss litigation strategies and share best practices concerning the investigation and prosecution of atrocities. 

The Center is seeking international experts in the investigation and prosecution of atrocities to participate in the meeting.  The Center hopes the selected attorneys will be a resource for the Indian attorneys, who might have other questions that come up during a case, and could help advise or provide their expertise and to as mentors to Indian attorneys working on related cases.  The meeting will be held over two days in early November or December in New Delhi, India.  The Center will pay all expenses related to attending the meeting, but will not provide remuneration.

Training/Workshop:

-          Present at workshop in New Delhi, India on issues of prosecuting hate crimes, effective investigations, or role of victim’s rights attorneys (depending on expertise)

-          Workshop is likely to be at the end of October (2-day workshop)

-          Experts are expected to participate on a pro bono basis

-          The Center will cover all costs associated  to travel

Interested experts should have the following background:

 

-          Former prosecutor of hate crimes/atrocities (OR) victim’s rights attorney

-          Background in prosecuting hate crimes in communities that are very hostile or  discriminatory (i.e. witness intimidation, victim forced to recant incident, etc.), with little political will, and lack of strong investigations by police

-          Previous related experience is an asset

-          Previous experience India and knowledge of the context of the human rights and political landscape

-          Strong interpersonal skills in a multi-cultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity

-          Excellent presentation, communication, analytical, and writing skills

-          Ability to speak and present in English

The application deadline is Friday, September 27^th, 2013 at 5pm (EDT).  Application materials must include a CV and a detailed cover letter. Please note that this is NOT a paid opportunity.

 

Completed applications must be sent to Jacqueline.Gichinga@americanbar.org.

MEETING AND CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Annual Law and Society Association Meeting and Call for Proposals

MEETING AND CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Annual Law and Society Association Meeting and Call for Proposals

The Law and Society Association has announced an annual meeting and a call for proposals.

Law and Inequalities: Global and Local

Recent decades have seen the persistence and growth of powerful inequalities within and between groups and within and among nations. The 2014 program theme returns to a question central to the Association’s founding: the role of law and legal institutions in sustaining, creating, interrogating, and ameliorating inequalities. The 2014 Program invites participants to explore and consider three questions:

·     How can Law and Society scholarship contribute to unearthing and understanding inequalities?
·     How can Law and Society scholarship contribute to the critical interrogation of discourses of equality and inequality and help to reveal what is at stake in these concepts?
·     What impact can we expect these scholarly contributions to have on the persistence of these inequalities and on public discourse about them?

Call for Proposals

The Program Committee invites proposals that engage with the program theme and other topics in law and society research. Proposals for individual papers or fully formed panels will be considered. As with every Annual Meeting, panels need not be centered on the conference theme. Submissions on any law and society topic are welcome.

For more information about the Annual Meeting and Proposal Submission Instructions, please visit http ://www . lawandsociety . org/minneapolis2014/Minneapolis2014 . html

JOURNAL: Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, volume 20, no.2 - 2013

The Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law is a peer reviewed quarterly that focuses on

the ius commune Europaeum. It carries in-depth analyses of EU and international law, reports on recent legal

developments of interest in European countries, case note comparing Union and .national decisions, and book reviews.

ARTICLES:

After the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Th e Court of Justice

as a Human Rights Adjudicator?

Gráinne de Búrca 

The EU Constitution of Social Governance in an Economic Crisis:

In Defence of a Transnational Dimension to Social Europe

Dagmar Schiek  

Withdrawal from the European Union: A Typology of Effects

Phedon Nicolaides

Reconciling Different Legal Spheres in Theory and Practice: Pluralism

and Constitutionalism in the Cases of Al-Jedda, Ahmed and Nada

Christina Eckes and Stephan Hollenberg

Translation in the EU: Language and Law in the EU’s Judicial Labyrinth

Martina Künnecke

The Contribution of the European Courts to the Common European Asylum

System and Its Ongoing Recast Process

Francesca Ippolito

European Union Fundamental Rights and Member States Action in

EU Criminal Law

Tony Margueryi

CASE NOTES

(Further) Signs of a Turn of the Tide in the CJEU’s Citizenship Jurisprudence,

Case C-40/11 Iida, Judgment of 8 November 2012, not yet reported

Alina Tryfonidou

LEGAL DEVELOPMENT

The New EU Directive on Energy Efficiency: A Critical View

Gianni Lo Schiavo

BOOK REVIEW

J.M. Smits, Th e Mind and Method of the Legal Academic

Tomi Tuominen

ABOUT THE MAASTRICHT JOURNAL 

Editorial Committee

Michael Faure, Professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law (Co-Chair

Jan M. Smits, Professor of European Private Law (Co-Chair)

Phedon Nicolaides, Professor at College of Europe

Raymond Luja, Professor of Comparative Tax Law

Monica Claes, Professor of European and Comparative Constitutional Law

Andrea Ott, Associate Professor of European Law

Caroline Cauffman, Assistant Professor in Private Law and Lawyer specialised in Commercial Law

Anne-Pieter van der Mei, Associate Professor of International and European Law

Elise Muir, Assistant Professor of European Law

All members of the Editorial Committee are members of the Faculty of Law at the University of Maastricht, unless otherwise stated.

Executive Editor

Thomas Biermeyer

Associate Editor

Laura Tilindyte

Language Editors

 Michael Forder (external) and Anjum Shabbir (internal)

Student Assistant

Stephanie Kohl

Advisory Board

Mark Dawson (Berlin), René de Groot (Maastricht), Bruno de Witte (Maastricht), Monica den Boer (Amsterdam), Albin Eser (MPI, Freiburg),

Cees Flinterman (Maastricht), Caroline Forder (Amsterdam), Vassilis Hatzopoulos (Komotini/Bruges), Aalt Willem Heringa (Maastricht), Jaakko Husa (Lapland), Anselm Kamperman Sanders (Maastricht), Ralf Michaels (Duke, North Carolina), Olivier Moréteau (LSU, Louisiana), Luke Nottage (Sydney)

Frans Pennings (Utrecht), Stephan Rammeloo (Maastricht), Dagmar Schiek (Leeds), Hildegard Schneider (Maastricht), Walter van Gerven, (Leuven/ Maastricht), Antoni Vaquer Aloy (Lleida), Luc Verhey (Leiden), Stefan Vogenauer (Oxford), Ellen Vos (Maastricht), Lisa Waddington (Maastricht)

Joseph Weiler (NYU), Jan Wouters (Leuven), Jacques Ziller (Pavia) and

Reinhard Zimmermann (Regensburg/Hamburg).

CALL FOR PAPER: LSA Conference Panel: Of Texts, Tweets, Social Media and the Law of Evidence (deadline: October 1, 2013)

LSA Conference Panel: Of Texts, Tweets, Social Media and the Law of Evidence, LSA Annual Meetings 2014

This panel considers the role of communication technology in judicial culture. As texts, status updates, voicemail, email and screenshots migrate into the world of adjudication, what questions and practices attend their use? How do courts receive such evidence as it relates to character, credibility, and corroboration? Drawing on work that spans different legal settings, this panel explores the ways in which evidence drawn from contemporary communication technologies is presented as authentic or shrouded with doubt.

Please send paper abstracts of no more than 250 words to sameena.mulla@marquette.edu by October 1st.