SUMMER INSTITUTE: International Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law

The fifth International Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law :  "Contested Properties: Culture, Rights and the Humanities" will be held from August 4 to 16, 2014, at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. Hosted by the Institute of English and American Studies (IfAA), the Osnabrück Summer Institute seeks to bring together advanced graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students of the humanities and/or the law from around the world to promote and examine the interdisciplinary study and research of law and culture.

During the two week program, students will partake in a unique experience of scholarly collaboration and exchange through workshops, public lectures, panel discussions, excursions and a final symposium. Participating faculty in this year's Summer Institute include:

ARTICLE: Kalanges on Religious Liberty: Between Strategy and Telos

Kristine Kalanges' "Religious Liberty:  Between Strategy and Telos", published in Review of Faith in International Affairs(2013)  is now available on SSRN.

It has become woefully commonplace to observe that threats to religious freedom are increasing in the United States and globally. In response, scholars, human rights activists, and policymakers are engaging courts, political institutions, and the public square to make the case that religious liberty merits robust protection. Historically, these arguments were crafted primarily in theological and political terms. But as the number of those disclaiming religious affiliation rises and the political climate becomes ever more gridlocked, the search is on for new ways to make religious freedom relevant to state leaders and salable to a diverse public. Thus, during a time when economic issues ranging from widening income inequality to the escalating national debt are much on people’s minds, one still-­developing strategy is to explore and explain the generally positive correlation between religious liberty and economic development.

On one account, there is a story here (variously intimated and explicit) about the integral nature of freedom that is quite compelling. At the same time, there are some very important reasons to be cautious about stepping away from theological and political arguments for religious liberty in favor of economic ones. Those who would protect religious freedom must first consider its telos (Part I), and then guard against the possibility that strategies deployed in its defense may unintentionally contribute to its restriction (Part II), particularly when a powerful alternative strategy exists (Part III).

APPLICATIONS: Joint PhD studentships in African Studies, University of Edinburgh | Aarhus University

Applications are invited for a four-year PhD studentship leading to the award of a joint PhD degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and Aarhus University,Denmark.

Background

The University of Edinburgh and Aarhus University have embarked on the collaborative project ExEDE (Excellence in European Doctoral Training).  As part of the project, the two universities invite applications to a total of 6 joint PhD scholarships in the fields of African Studies, Neuroscience and Arctic Studies where the two universities have mutual strengths and can offer excellent research environments. The doctoral candidates are required to spend at least a year at each university, have a supervisor at each institution and will receive a single joint degree signed by both universities. Furthermore, the candidate will take part in ExEDE through e.g. developing new standards for doctoral training and conference participation.

Within this programme, applications are now invited for 2 African Studies related PhD studentships, one to be hosted by the University of Edinburgh and the other hosted by Aarhus University.

Project hosted by the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh (for the Aarhus-hosted project consult the website of Aarhus University)

JOURNAL - UPDATE : The European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance

In December, I posted the following message:

Through an unusual arrangement with the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists (WSMJJ), the new European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance has brought together some two dozen articles generated by the WSMJJ Congress in the summer of 2011.

As I write in my introduction to this collection, the Congress

reflected a thriving Society consolidating its core scholarship on classical mixed jurisdictions (Israel, Louisiana, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Scotland, and South Africa) while reaching to new horizons (including Cyprus, Hong Kong and Macau, Malta, Nepal, etc). The collection reflects the complexity of contemporary scholarship on mixed and plural legal systems.  

The articles are available here. They were originally published in several law journals across Europe, the United States, and Africa. Another five articles will be made available soon.

In future, the journal will publish print versions of its volumes. The journal

publishes top-level academic contributions in English that explore the phenomena of law and governance from a comparative perspective. It includes comparative studies from different fields of law and regulation as well as multi-disciplinary studies on societal governance issues. Comparative studies involving non-European countries are welcome when they deal with topics relevant also for European science and society. All contributions will be subject to double-blind peer review.

Have a look. 

-SPD

The full list of articles is now available online. They include: 

·        Mixed and Mixing Systems Worldwide: An Introduction - Seán Patrick Donlan

·        Considering Precedent in Louisiana: Balancing the Value of Predictable and Certain Interpretation with the Tradition of Flexibility and Adaptability - Mary Garvey Algero

·        The Mélange of Innovation and Tradition in Maltese Law: The Essence of the Maltese Mix? - B. Andò

·        An African Doctrine of Equity in South African Public Law - Thomas W. Bennett

·        A Pluralist Approach to Mixed Jurisdictions - Mauro Bussani

·        Pure or Mixed? The Evolution of Three Grounds of Judicial Review of the Administration in British and Israeli Administrative Law - Margit Cohn

·        The Mediterranean Hybridity Project - Seán Patrick Donlan

·        Innovation in a Hybrid System: The Example of Nepal - Lukas Heckendorn Urscheler

·        Civil Recodification in an Anglophone Mixed Jurisdiction: A Bricoleur’s Playbook - Shael Herman

·        Shapeless Trusts and Settlor Title Retention: An Asian Morality Play - Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow

·        The Italian Legal Recipe: Basic Ingredients and the Bustle of Time - Marta Infantino

·        Unification of Private Law in Europe and ‘Mixed Jurisdictions’: A Model for Civil Codes in Central Europe - Mónika Józon

·         Inside the Judicial Mind: Exploring Judicial Methodology in the Mixed Legal System of Quebec - Rosalie Jukier

·        Precedent in Argentine Law - Santiago Legarre

·        Liability of the State and Public Authorities in Israel and South Africa - Max Loubser ; Tamar Gidron

·        Love, Loyalty and the Louisiana Civil Code: Rules, Standards and Hybrid Discretion in a Mixed Jurisdiction - John A. Lovett

·        Creating Mixed Jurisdictions: Legal Integration in the Southern African Development Community Region - Salvatore Mancuso

·        Double Reasoning in the Codified Mixed Systems – Code and Case Law as Simultaneous Methods - Vernon Valentine Palmer

·        Law Applicable to Unilateral Juridical Acts and Uniform Conflict-of-law Rules - Monika Pauknerová 

·        The Methodology Used to Interpret Customary Land Tenure - Gerrit Pienaar

·        The Enigmatic But Unique Nature of the Israeli Legal System - Antonios E. Platsas

·        What Happens When the Judiciary Switches Roles with the Legislator? An Innovative Israeli Version of a Mixed Jurisdiction - Haim Sandberg

·        The Characteristics of an Abstract System for the Transfer of Property in South African Law as Distinguished from a Causal System - P.J.W. Schutte

·        Comparative Legal Scholarship as Ordinary Legal Scholarship - Stephen A. Smith

REMINDER - CALL FOR PAPERS: Juris Diversitas Conference - Proposals due 28 February 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS/APPEL À COMMUNICATIONS

JURIS DIVERSITAS

ANNUAL CONFERENCE/CONGRÈS ANNUEL

17 July (evening) to 19 July 2014/17 juillet (soir) au 19 juillet 2014

Faculty of Law and Political Science/Faculté de droit et de science politique

Aix-Marseille University/Aix-Marseille Université - Aix-en-Provence, France

COMPARATIVE LAW AND …/LE DROIT COMPARÉ ET …

Inherently interdisciplinary, the conference’s primary focus will be comparative law’s links to a wide variety of other disciplines and themes (e.g., anthropology, economics, feminism, history, the humanities, legal education, legal philosophy, literature, politics …). Proposals may be theoretical analyses or case studies on the past or present, North or South, East or West …

Le congrès sera interdisciplinaire et explorera les liens entre le droit comparé et toute branche, discipline ou thématique des sciences humaines et sociales (anthropologie, économie, féminisme, histoire, éducation juridique, philosophie, littérature, science politique etc.). Les propositions peuvent prendre la forme d’approches théoriques ou pratiques, portant sur le passé ou le présent, le Nord ou le Sud, l’Orient ou l’Occident…

Proposals may be in either English or in French. Any proposal on comparative law will be considered. Panel proposals are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law. Proposals of circa 250 words (or 1000 words for panel proposals) should be submitted to Olivier Moréteau at moreteau@lsu.edu by 28 February 2014. Please attach a short biography or resume.

Toute proposition portant sur le droit comparé, en anglais ou en français, sera considérée. Les offres de table ronde sont bienvenues, de même que la participation de doctorants et d’universitaires non juristes. Les propositions de 250 mots environ (ou 1000 mots pour une proposition de table ronde) sont à envoyer à Olivier Moréteau (moreteau@lsu.edu) avant le 28 février 2014. Merci de joindre une biographie ou un bref CV.

Registration fees are €200 (€125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2014). Membership information and information on fee payment is available on the Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/).  Note that registration fees don’t cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€50).

Les droits d’inscription sont de €200 (€125 pour les membres de Juris Diversitas à jour de leur cotisation pour 2014). Les informations pratiques sont disponibles sur http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/.  Les droits ne couvrent pas les frais de voyage et de logement, ni le banquet du congrès (€50).

JOURNAL: (2014) 22:1 African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law has been published. 

OPPORTUNITY: Baseline Study for the Maldivian Justice Sector and Its Relevant Partners

I recently received the following. SPD

In view of the existing challenges and needs, UNDP/Maldives has developed the integrated Governance Programme (IGP) consolidating the projects under the Democratic Governance Portfolio into 3 results areas of Institutional Development, Rule of Law and Access to Justice and Social Cohesion. Result 2 areas of the programme addresses the justice sector under rule of law and access to justice. The lack of baselines in the justice sector and its relevant institutions has been an obstacle to measure the impact of changes that have taken place in the country in the past 5 years. While anecdotal information are available on people’s perception and institutions performance and challenges, lack of concrete information on the progress made within the justice sector has negative effects on formulation of focused programs for the sector.

OPPORTUNITY: Liability of Legal Entities: A study of international practices and applications for Viet Nam

 

I received the following notice recently. SPD

The ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has received a request from UNDP/Viet Nam for a senior expert to conduct policy research on “Liability of Legal Entities: A study of international practices and applications for Viet Nam.” In order to analytically support the on-going process on amendment of the Penal Code, UNDP has commissioned this research study on international experiences using a comparative approach with emphasis on institutional and legislative analysis. The study will help identify good practices and lessons for Viet Nam to consider in its review of criminalization of corruption acts to supplement and/or revise in the amendment of the Penal Code, and to narrow the identified gap between Viet Nam’s AC legislation and the UNCAC.

REMINDER: Juris Diversitas Annual Conference - Proposal Deadline

The Proposal Deadline is fast approaching. 

Will you be there? 

JURIS DIVERSITAS ANNUAL CONFERENCE 
17 July (evening) to 19 July 2014
Faculty of Law and Political Science –
Aix-Marseille University - Aix-en-Provence, France

COMPARATIVE LAW AND …

Inherently interdisciplinary, the conference’s primary focus will be comparative law’s links to a wide variety of other disciplines and themes (e.g., anthropology, economics, feminism, history, the humanities, legal education, legal philosophy, literature, politics …). Proposals may be theoretical analyses or case studies on the past or present, North or South, East or West …

Proposals may be in either English or in French. Any proposal on comparative law will be considered. Panel proposals are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law.

Proposals of circa 250 words (or 1000 words for panel proposals) should be submitted to Olivier Moréteau at moreteau@lsu.edu by 28 February 2014. Please attach a short biography or resume.

Registration fees are €200 (€125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2014). Membership information and information on fee payment is available on the Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/).

Note that registration fees don’t cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€50).

CALL FOR PAPERS: Locating Guyane - An Interdisciplinary Conference

'Locating Guyane': 
An Interdisciplinary Conference

University of London Institute in Paris

French Guiana (Guyane française), overseas department of France in equatorial South America and ‘ultraperipheral region’ of the EU, consists of a land area equivalent to that of a European country, though boasts a population that would barely people a European city. The region seems to typify the “faultline between the large and the little” which Richard Price has attributed to Martinique, yet it remains on the margins of Antilles-dominated discourses of postcolonial/creole identities. This conference aims to explore the conceptual situation of Guyane, as a relational space characterised by dynamics of interaction and conflict between the local and the global. Does Guyane have, or has it had, its own place in the world or is it a borderland which can only make sense in relation to elsewhere; to France and its colonial history, for example, or to African and other diasporas, or as a ‘margin’ of Europe?

Contributions are invited, in either English or French, from literary and cultural studies, sociology, history, archaeology, anthropology, visual studies, musicology, environmental and development studies, history of science and medicine, politics, linguistics, geography, and other relevant disciplines. Postgraduate students are warmly encouraged to submit abstracts. We welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers and for other relevant contributions. Please send abstracts of between 200 and 300 words by 28th February 2014 to locatingguyane@gmail.com.