WORKSHOP PROGRAMME: The Method and Culture of Comparative Law

THE METHOD AND CULTURE OF COMPARATIVE LAW

A workshop on epistemology, globalisation and context

15-17 May 2014 - Ghent, Belgium

Participants include: Jacco Bomhoff, Roger Brownsword, Seán Patrick Donlan, Patrick Glenn, Matthew Grelette, Jaap Hage, Jaakko Husa, Susan Millns, David Nelken, Heikki Pihlajamäki, Geoffrey Samuel,Mathias Siems, Catherine Valcke, Rob Van Gestel, and Alain Wijffels.

Thursday, May 15^th

Epistemology session

14.00 Introduction by Maurice Adams (Tilburg)

14.15 What is Legal Epistemology?

Geoffrey Samuel (Canterbury, Kent)

14.45 Comparative Law as Method and the Method of Comparative Law

Jaap Hage (Maastricht)

15.15 Research-Designs of Comparative Law – Methodology or Heuristics?

Jaakko Husa (Rovaniemi, Lapland)

15.45 discussion

16.15 break

16.45 Three Functions of Function in Comparative Law

Catherine Valcke and Matthew Grellette (Toronto)

17.15 Against Method?

Patrick Glenn (McGill, Montreal)

17.45 discussion

CONFERENCE: Superdiversity - Theory, Method and Practice

Registration for delegates for the international conference on Superdiversity: Theory, Method and Practice is now open. Deadline for registration is 1 June 2014.  Register online here

The conference is organised by the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) and will be held at the University of Birmingham on 23-25 June 2014. The conference will feature over 120 papers, including keynote speeches, academic and policy panels, workshops and posters on topics at the forefront of the superdiversity research agenda.

Keynote speakers include: Jan Blommaert (University of Tilburg), Peggy Levitt (Wellesley College), James Nazroo (University of Manchester), Jenny Phillimore (University of Birmingham), Gill Valentine (University of Sheffield), and Steven Vertovec (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity).

The registration fee (full fee £200, concession fee £150) covers delegate pack, lunches (23, 24 and 25 June). Conference dinner (£35) on 23 June is not included in the conference fee and should be booked via the online shop separately. Travel and accommodation are not covered by the registration fee. Delegates will need to make their own arrangements. For further information, please visit the conference webpage

ARTICLE: Indigenous Land Claims in Europe

The article "Indigenous Land Claims in Europe"   by Ghislain Otis and Aurelie Laurent in Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law eJournal is now available on SSRN.

This study examines the potential impact of recent developments in international human rights law relating to indigenous land claims on the protection of property under the European Convention on Human Rights. In a departure from colonial law the authors show how the doctrine of ancestral indigenous land title has recently been incorporated into international human rights law. This development, however, has yet to occur within the regime of the European Convention. The authors argue that the new decolonized approach to property can and should be adopted by the European Court of Human rights in its interpretation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention.

ARTICLE: We are not Born Alone and We Do Not Die Alone - Protecting Intergenerational Solidarity and Refraining Cain-ism Through Forced Heirship

 The article 'We Are Not Born Alone and We Do Not Die Alone: Protecting Intergenerational Solidarity and Refraining Cain-ism Through Forced Heirship' by Albert Lamarca Marques is now available on SSRN. 

Abstract:

English Abstract: In the current academic debate on family and succession law, the abolition or reform of forced heirship is often advocated. It is argued that this institution does not respond to the expectations and needs of today’s society. In the realm of freedom embodied by testate succession by will, the mandatory share is framed as a contradictory restriction on the individual right to decide freely. This paper contributes to the debate on the legal and social basis of forced heirship by offering a moderate defence of the institution. I argue that forced heirship actually protects individual choice while also respecting intergenerational ties. Moreover, the institution restrains competition and opportunistic behavior among siblings. It reflects the reality that we are alone in neither birth nor death and it reins in the Cain-like tendencies that threaten to tear apart families.

Spanish Abstract: En el debate académico reciente sobre el Derecho de Familia y Sucesiones es un lugar común plantear la reforma o la abolición de la legítima. Se argumenta que esta institución no responde a las expectativas y necesidades de la sociedad actual. En un reino de libertad, como es el de la sucesión testada, la legítima supone una restricción contradictoria con el derecho de las personas a decidir libremente sobre una parte de su patrimonio. Este trabajo intenta contribuir al debate sobre los fundamentos jurídicos y sociales de la institución de la legítima, así como sobre su mantenimiento, con la discusión de algunos de los argumentos en su contra, ofreciendo una moderada defensa de la misma, sobre la base de considerar que todavía existen buenas razones para abogar en su favor. La legítima protege la libertad individual respetando a la vez los vínculos intergeneracionales, y previene las conductas oportunistas y la competencia entre hermanos, Este instituto refleja el hecho que no estamos solos al nacer ni tampoco cuando morimos, y puede ser útil para mitigar el cainismo que tanto amenaza la convivencia familiar.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Spatial Justice and Diaspora: Law, Chaos and Postcoloniality Critical Legal Conference

 

A call for papers has been issued:

Spatial Justice and Diaspora: Law, Chaos and

Postcoloniality Critical Legal Conference, University of Sussex,
Brighton UK     4th-6th September 2014

DEADLINE JUNE 30TH 2014

This stream will engage with critical theories of spatiality in relation to issues of postcoloniality, globalisation, diaspora, and migration. It will interrogate scales of legality across multiple jurisdictions and consider the development of an aesthetics of resistance in diasporic communities. In an increasingly interconnected, globalised world, there is a growing demand for

a recognition of  processes of adaptation and resistance in the form  of legal pluralism as a historical contingency. This demand varies in  its articulation, from decolonial refraction to the empirical  negotiation of diasporic laws and the call for a redefinition of the  nation-state as the irrevocable centre . This stream will ask critical questions about the constantly  metamorphosing definition of the limit of the border in the face of  disorientating diaspora, the migration of law ,  and complex relations  of belonging. It invites papers that address the need to theorise  tempo-spatiality in law and consider how this embryonic chaos may be  filtered through transjurisdictional practice in all its many forms  and guises.

We are looking for papers from a wide variety of disciplines on (but  not limited to) the following themes:

 - diaspora communities and law

 - postcolonial identity and resistance

- legal pluralism

- globalisation and concepts of belonging

 - critical migration law

 Please send abstracts (max 250 words) to:

 Emma Patchett, epatc_01@uni-muenster.de

Sarah Keenan, sk128@soas.ac.uk

 See http://www.sussex.ac.uk/law/newsandevents/clc/streams for further

information

ARTICLE: Licari on Gény

Our good friend François-Xavier Licari (Université de Lorraine) has posted his 'François Gény in Louisiana' on SSRN at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2432634:


In his book "François Gény and Modern Jurisprudence" (LSU Press, 1978), Jaro Mayda wrote (p.69): "The important point…is that, despite the art represented by the current literature, the pragmatic temper of America and of its mixed jurisdictions, such as Louisiana, may well be the environment that will send Gény’s themes toward their integration into a rational, modern jurisprudence". This paper tells the story of the realization of this scholarly prophesy. It identifies sociological, historical and cultural factors that contributed to Louisiana's unique reception of the "free objective search for a rule" as set forth in François Gény's manifesto, "Méthode d'interprétation et sources en droit privé positif". It also studies expressions of such successful reception, analyzing some leading cases of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The article originally appeared in the Journal of Civil Law Studies here.

CONFERENCE: Judaism Law and Literature

The Jewish Law Association

18th International Conference

Central Theme: Judaism Law and Literature

July 14th-17th, 2014

University of Antwerp

The conference will commence mid-afternoon on Monday 14th July and finish mid-afternoon on Thursday 17th July.

The Conference Call for Papers is now closed. For the provisional list of papers, click here. A timetable will be published at a later stage. If you wish to be informed when it becomes available, please e-mail jacksob[at]hope.ac.uk.

Offers from those not presenting papers to participate as session/panel chairs will be welcome.

For details of registration, hotels, travel advice, kosher food arrangements and minyanim, click here. For maps of locations within Antwerp, click here.

SEMINAR: Twining on Globalization and Legal Scholarship

The Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy is delighted to announce the Perelman Seminar on Globalization and Legal Scholarship with William Twining, Emeritus Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London. The Perelman seminar aims to bring together senior and young scholars around the works of key figures in legal philosophy and global law. This seminar is addressed to scholars, researchers and PhD students working in all fields of law. It may also be of interest for scholars in the social sciences.

Professor Twining is undoubtedly one of the most influential contemporary scholars in jurisprudence. Some of his most significant works include Law in Context, Globalisation and Legal Theory and General Jurisprudence: Understanding Law from a Global perspective. As a student of H.L.A Hart and a discipline of Karl Llewellyn, Twining's works offer an insightful and original view on the transformation of law and legal scholarship in the context of globalisation.

[Professor Twining is also a member of the Juris Diversitas Advisory Council. - SPD]

PROGRAMMES: LLM in History and Philosophy of Law

Applications are now open for the LLM by Research in History and Philosophy of Law at the University of Edinburgh. The degree:

builds on the Law School’s international reputation in Legal History and Philosophy of Law to offer an advanced training in legal history and legal theory. Our goal is to develop the next generation of leading legal historians and legal theorists through a combined programme of teaching and research.

The programme is designed to promote cross-fertilization between the fields of Legal History and Philosophy of Law, while allowing students to focus on the areas that interest them the most. Certain courses (such as Traditions of Legal Enquiry) expressly explore the relations between research in Legal History and research in Legal Philosophy, while others focus on more discrete areas of legal enquiry. Students are encouraged to choose (under the guidance of the programme director) specialised optional courses and a dissertation topic that reflect their interests, under the supervision of a member of School.

More information on the LLM may be found here.

Recommended. SPD

BOOK: Braverman, Blomley, Delaney, Kedar on Legal Geography

Stanford University Press has announced the publication of Irus Braverman, Nicholas Blomley, David Delaney, and Alexandre Kedar (eds), The Expanding Spaces of Law: A Timely Legal Geography:

The Expanding Spaces of Law presents readers with cutting-edge scholarship on legal geography and pushes the current boundaries of the field, investigating new questions and reinvigorating previous modes of inquiry. 

Legal geography has contributed a great deal to understanding the many relationships between space and law. Earlier work has explored space that is static, such as the law's interaction with concepts of the home, public space, prison, restrooms, camps, territories, and nation states. But the past few years have seen an emphasis on analyzing the dynamic workings of space, and the understanding of space in various new ways. The Expanding Spaces of Law asks readers to consider what legal geography would look like if we were to give more prominence to conceptions of space as process, space as event, or space as situation or relationship. Questions of space and time are often implicit in the work of legal geographers, and this book seeks to bring these questions to the fore.

The Expanding Spaces of Law brings together some of the most prominent names in the field, and includes new voices in the field from around the world to introduce provocative and exciting research in legal geography.

Highly recommended. SPD

BOOK SERIES: Update on Juris Diversitas Book Series - Forthcoming Titles + Authors and Editor Sought

FORTHCOMING TITLES

The Juris Diversitas Book Series with Ashgate Publishing will publish a number of titles over the next year.

Two of those titles are now listed with Ashgate:

Seán Patrick Donlan and Lukas Heckerdon-Ursheler (eds), Concepts of law: comparative, jurisprudential, and social science perspectives

Sue Farran, Esin Örücü, and Seán Patrick Donlan (eds), A Study of mixed legal systems: endangered, entrenched, or blended

Additional titles will be listed soon.

*

AUTHORS AND EDITOR SOUGHT

In addition, we’re looking for additional authors to submit to the series as well as an experienced editor to work to lead the series.

For additional information, contact Seán Patrick Donlan at sean.donlan@ul.ie.