ARTICLE: Vico Valentini on the relationship between Continental Criminal Law and European Human Rights Law

New article from Italy on SSRN might be of interest: Vico Valentini "Continental Criminal Law and European Human Rights: A Complicated Reltionship"

The abstract for Valentini' paper reads:

The relationship between Criminal Law and European Human Rights Law (EuHRL) is a complicated one. It is well-known that human rights and Criminal Law are deeply linked, for the simple reason that Criminal Justice System as a whole, namely substantive criminal law and the criminal process, "violates" human rights and ontologically affects basic freedoms: liberty and security, right to respect for private and family life, freedoms of expression and association, and so on; all rights protected by the European Convention of Human Right (ECHR) and the European Court of Strasbourg (ECtHR). Therefore, even if the Convention, compared to other international Covenants on human rights, is particularly 'poor' in criminal provisions , it is obvious that a 'judge of human rights' constantly deals with criminal law. All human beings have fundamental rights that should be protected by criminal law. The problem, however, is that within the criminal justice system, offender’s and victims’ human rights -- more often than not -- conflict with each other, and therefore must be balanced. This paper is aimed at answering the question on why does that relationship between domestic Criminal Law and EuHRL appear so complicated, and often unresolvable.

COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY (JOURNAL): CALL FOR PAPERS

The editors of Comparative Legal History (CLH), the official publication of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH), invite contributions: articles, review articles and book reviews.

ESCLH Members receive a free subscription!

The journal:

is a peer-reviewed international and comparative review of law and history. Its articles explore both internal legal history (doctrinal and disciplinary developments in the law) and external legal history (legal ideas and institutions in wider contexts). Firmly rooted in the complexity of the various Western legal traditions worldwide, it also provides a forum for the investigation of other laws and law-like normative traditions around the globe. Scholarship on comparative and trans-national historiography, including trans-disciplinary approaches, is particularly welcome. 

CLH has an exceptional staff and international board and is published by the forward-thinking, helpful folks at Hart Publishing.

The preface introducing the journal is available here; a sample article is available here.

Spread the word, become a member, and ask your library to stock us!!

- Seán Patrick Donlan, Editor

JOURNAL: Glocalism and Hybridity

Most of you know that through Juris Diversitas and in a series of (repetitive) articles over the last few years (see here), I've tried to encourage jurists to see the comparative enterprise as a deep reading of normative-legal complexity (in the past and present and in principle and practice). I've done this in the language of 'hybridity'. 

'Hybridity' is only rarely used in legal and normative scholarship. When employed by comparatists, it is a mere synonym for mixed legal systems of positive, state law. But, building on the work of comparatist Esin Örücü and 'legal pluralists', I've suggested that 'hybridity' may be used with more precision as a constructive term-of-art in an holistic, relational analysis of the legal-normative complexity of different time-spaces. (I know, I know ...)

In doing so, I've intentionally borrowed from other disciplines. In post-colonial studies, for example, 'hybridity' serves as part of a critique of binary, reified thinking about cultures and their members. It emphasizes the deep and dynamic complexity of individual identities in colonial and post-colonial contexts. In short, I've applied an analogous approach to institutional legality and normativity, revealing its inherent complexity. Anyway, you know where to find more on the subject.

Of course, 'hybridity' has a life of its own. Most recently, the editors of Glocalism: the Journal of Culture, Politics and Innovation created a special issue on, you guessed it, 'hybridity'. The articles can be found here. I suggest that you have a look.

STUDY (IN IRELAND): LLM in European and Comparative Law

LLM in European and Comparative Law

University of Limerick, Ireland

The LLM in European and Comparative Law programme is both broad and deep. Over one year of full-time enrolment or two years of part-time enrolment, it combines education on the legal traditions that touch every corner of the globe with focused instruction on the laws and legal systems of Europe and North America (especially Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States).

Semester 1	Semester 2	Summer
Advanced Legal Research Skills Introduction to Comparative & European Law Comparative Law of Civil Obligations Comparative Property Law	Dissertation Methodology Comparative Public Law Two Electives, for example*: -          Comparative Competition Law -          Comparative Criminal Justice -          European Criminal Law -          International Protection of Intellectual Property Rights	Dissertation (15,000 words)

*Not all of these electives are available each year.

Through taught core and elective modules, our expert faculty provides an advanced, well-rounded international legal education. Each of the classes offered—in civil obligations (contract and tort), competition law, criminal law and procedure, property law, and public law—places its subject in comparative, transnational context. Indeed, students will better understand their own traditions by placing them in this global setting. Students will also complete a substantial dissertation on a topic of their choice. As a result, the programme develops expertise in a wide-range of subjects and transferable skills in legal research, analysis and logical reasoning, oral and written communication, and organisation and teamwork.

Our graduates will be very attractive to employers not only throughout Europe—including the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Europe—and North America, but around the world. The programme’s balanced, comprehensive curriculum ensures that graduates bring added value to both employers and clients. This is true whether they wish to be a practising solicitor or barrister or seek employment in academia, governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or private industry.

For additional information, contact Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (sean.donlan@ul.ie).

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Donlan on Nugent, Eighteenth-Century Man of Mystery

The Voltaire Foundation has just published L Andries, F Ogée, J Dunkley, and D Sanfry (eds), Intellectual journeys: the translation of ideas in Enlightenment England, France and Ireland (2013). 

The collection also includes my long-delayed '“If my labour hath been of service”: translating Thomas Nugent (c1700?-1772)', a short piece on an eighteenth-century enigma:

Translators were among the most important and influential cultural intermediaries in Europe, negotiating between cultural and ideological systems. Thomas Nugent was one of the most distinguished and prolific translators of European Enlightenment thought for an Anglophone audience. This is especially true of French texts, but he also translated from German, Spanish, and Tuscan. He is best remembered for the first English translation (1752) of Montesquieu‘s De L’Esprit de Lois (1748), but he also translated the well-known  ‘Port Royal’ grammars and the works of Burlamaqui, Cellini, Condillac, de Isla, the Abbé Dubos, Grosley, Hénault, Macquer, Rousseau, Totze, Velly, and Voltaire. Nugent also wrote original works, including popular pocket language dictionaries and works of travel literature. The most famous of the latter was the Grand tour, containing an exact description of most of the cities, towns, and remarkable places of Europe (1749). Little is known, however, of the details of Nugent‘s life. He was likely a native of Ireland: he may have been catholic; he may have studied on the continent or trained in the law; he seems to be linked to English antiquarian and may have worked on a history of Ireland; and he may be linked to Dr Christopher Nugent, Edmund Burke‘s father-in-law. This study investigates Nugent‘s role in knowledge-transfer and intercultural exchange from the centre to the periphery of Europe.