SEMINAR: Islamic Law and the French and European Legal Order

Islamic Law and the French

and European Legal Order

The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, in cooperation with the Eason Weinmann Center for International and Comparative Law at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, the World Society for Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists, and the Société de Législation Comparée, Paris, France, are organizing an international seminar on the topic of “Islamic Law and the French and European Legal Order: The Public Law and Private Law Issues,” scheduled to take place in Paris, France, on the dates of April 28-29, 2014, at the Westin Paris - Vendome.

The international seminar will serve as a forum for a discussion of Islamic law as evidenced in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the European Court of Justice (ECJ), in the Conseil d’Etat and Constitutional Council decisions in France, and such questions as Islamic finance, marriage and divorce, successions under the Civil code, and so forth. 

The seminar will also examine various topics of comparative law in both public law and private law in the Islamic legal system and the French and European legal order. 

Finally, the seminar will serve to foster academic exchange and dialogue in these areas of law between European and Middle Eastern legal scholars, as well as scholars from the United States. 

Participants will include scholars from countries including Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, France, and the United States, among others.

ANOTHER CRY FOR HELP: Juris Diversitas Needs a Web Editor

JURIS DIVERSITAS needs a WEB EDITOR!

I’ve managed the Blog since its creation in 2010 and our Facebook and Twitter pages since they followed in 2012 and 2013. My other obligations mean that I can’t continue to do this. 

A new Web Editor is essential if the Blog, etc is to continue.

The Editor will have primary responsibility for the development of the Blog and related pages. But the Editor doesn't need to merely continue as I’ve done, ie to providing information on events and publications related to our very broad themes. 

The new Editor might instead make the site a more active place for discussion. This was always our hope. The new Editor might forge more active links with other associations and websites. There's so much more that can be done.

But the Blog is essential to our overall aims. The new Editor would work closely with our Executive and additional bloggers. They'd play an active part in determining the shape of our Society into the future.

And, in truth, while we're especially interested in people with blogging experience, the job isn't really all that difficult. At most, only a few hours a week would be required.

In addition, we could also use additional Bloggers:

Guest Bloggers would be permitted to create discursive, opinion-oriented posts, within the bounds of our aims, for an agreed period of time. The time commitment is likely to be minimal and individuals needn’t have previous blogging experience.

Numerous individual Bloggers would commit to making the occasional informative or discursive posts, largely by collating existing information on events, publications, etc. The time commitment for this will be minimal and individuals needn’t have previous blogging experience.

Interested individuals should contact me at sean.donlan@ul.ie.

COMPETITION: 2014 SIEL Essay Prize

The Society of International Economic Law welcomes submissions to its 2014 Essay Prize Competition.

Submissions may be on any area of international economic law, except for international commercial arbitration and EU law, and the deadline is 30 September 2014.

The Prize consists of £200, plus £300 worth of books from Cambridge University Press and a 3 year print subscription to the World Trade Review, and an invitation to present at the next SIEL Biennial Conference.

The winning essay will be considered for publication by the World Trade Review. The Essay Prize Competition is open to students, practitioners and academics whose last degree was after before 30 September 2009. Further details are available at http://www.sielnet.org/essayprize.

SUMMER SCHOOL: German Law in Russian

Russian-German Law Institute has announced Summer School of German Business Law 21 July 2014 – 02 August 2014 in Germany. Language of the course is Russian.

Target group of the School is young scholar and practicing lawyers interested in comparative law.

The Course contains information on main institutes and tracks of German law development with comparative law attitude to development of law of post-socialist countries, and consist of lectures and seminars.

Professors of the Course are faculty members of Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Freie Universität Berlin, Hochschule RheinMain in Wiesbaden, Hochschule Wismar, Institut für Ostrecht e.V. (München), Universität Bremen, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Universität Passau, and practicing lawyers.

Fee: 1800 Euro (covers the cost of the course, accommodation,  cultural program, travels in Germany).

Details here: http://www.shkolaprava.de/index.php/menuoschkole-2

On-line registration is available here: http://www.shkolaprava.de/index.php/menuregistrierung-2
 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 3rd Anti-Corruption Forum in Moscow

The Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation with the support of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation has announced The Third Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum «Modern Standards and Technologies of Combating Corruption» on April 24-25, 2014.

The Forum is focused on consolidation of scientific capacity of Eurasian countries in counteraction of corruption, conceptualizing of current counteraction of corruption, on searching for new ideas and effective anti-corruption mechanisms.

The format of the Forum provides the discussion of the questions posed by reporters at plenary session and section meetings (problem seminars, round tables, trainings).

Main topics of the Forum are:

• role of international organizations in seeking of optimal means of combating corruption;

• problems of implementation of international anti-corruption documents into national legislation;

• scholar methods of corruption rating;

• modern means of combating corruption;

• standards of combating corruption in contracts.

The Third Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum will take place in the premises of the Accounting Chamber of the Russian Federation at the address: Russia, Moscow, Zubovskaya st., 2.

Time 12:00, registration of the participants – 11:00.
Deatils here http://www.izak.ru/node/1591 (in Russian).

For potential participants: please, contact Olga Makarenko by tel. +7 499 724 22 51 or e-mail: mc@izak.ru

 

JURIS DIVERSITAS: Membership Information, with a New Special Discount from Ashgate Publishing

Juris Diversitas is an international, interdisciplinary community for the study of legal and normative mixtures and movements.

We want to hear from you. 

Why not join the conversation?

Ordinary Membership is €50 ($66) for the calendar year. A Discounted Membership, for young scholars under the age of thirty or for scholars in developing nations, is €25 ($33).

In addition to being able to vote in elections, both memberships include discounts on conference fees.

Ordinary members will also receive a free selected volume from our Juris Diversitas Series.

Now, for the first time, thanks to Ashgate Publishing, all members will receive a 20% discount on all of its titles.

For more information membership, see here.

JOURNAL (Special Issue): Erasmus Law Review (Law as a Plural Phenomenon)

I somehow neglected to mention the publication of the (2013) 6:3/4 Erasmus Law Review, a special issue on 'Law as a Plural Phenomenon: Confrontations of Legal Pluralism', edited by Wibo van Rossum and Sanne Taekema.

The volume includes:

Wibo van Rossum & Sanne Taekema - Introduction to Law as Plural Phenomenon: Confrontations of Legal Pluralisms

Mark S. Weiner - Imagining the Rule of Law in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Liberal Society and the Dialectic of the Clan

Agnes T.M. Schreiner - How Law Manifests Itself in Australian Aboriginal Art

Emmanuel Melissaris - From Legal Pluralism to Public Justification

Ronald Janse - A Turn to Legal Pluralism in Rule of Law Promotion?

Urszula Jaremba - At the Crossroads of National and European Union Law. Experiences of National Judges in a Multi-level Legal Order

Esther Van Eijk - Unity in Multiplicity: Shared Cultural Understandings on Marital Life in a Damascus Catholic and Muslim Court

This is required reading. 

- SPD

LECTURE: Licari on 'François Gény: A Louisiana Judge’s Best Friend'

The Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society and

the Law Library of Louisiana present a Free CLE

Co-sponsored by the Louisiana State Bar’s Francophone Section

and the French American Chamber of Commerce Gulf Coast Chapter

François Gény: A Louisiana Judge’s Best Friend

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

5:30 p.m. Lecture,  6:30 p.m. Reception

Courtroom, Louisiana Supreme Court, 400 Royal Street

One hour credit

On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, the Law Library of Louisiana will sponsor a free CLE entitled “François Gény: A Louisiana Judge’s Best Friend” presented by Dr. François-Xavier Licari.  Dr. Licari will identify 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, and he will study expressions of such successful reception, analyzing some leading cases of the Louisiana Supreme Court. 

Speaker:

Dr. François-Xavier Licari is Associate Professor of Private Law at the University of Lorraine, France.  He holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Strasbourg (France) and the University of Saarland (Germany).  Professor Licari’s scholarship appears in French, German and American law reviews (The American Journal of Comparative Law, The Louisiana Law Review, Tulane Law Review).

 

For more information or to reserve a seat, please contact Georgia Chadwick via

email (gchadwick@lasc.org) or phone (504-310-2402).

EVENTS: Tomlins on Legal History

Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Professor Christopher Tomlins

In May 2014, the School of History and the Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London will be hosting Professor Christopher Tomlins as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Professor Tomlins is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at University of California, Irvine, Affiliated Research Professor with The American Bar Foundation, Chicago, and from July 2014, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Professor Tomlins will be involved in the following three events during his Fellowship:

Seminar on the Methodology of Legal History

3pm to 5pm, 13 May 2014

L103/L104 Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Russell Square, London

Chaired by Professor Michael Lobban (LSE)

Commentators: Professor Eric Heinze (Queen Mary), Professor Axel Korner (UCL), Professor Gareth Stedman-Jones (Queen Mary) and Professor David Sugarman (Lancaster)

To register, please visit www.methodologyoflegalhistory.eventbrite.co.uk

There is a pre-circulated paper for this session. Please email m.delmar@qmul.ac.uk to receive the paper.

JOURNAL: Islamic & Law of the muslim world eJournal

The following articles from Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal (2014),  have been published on SSRN:

"An Analysis of Women's Contribution to the Gender Discourse of Jamaat-I-Islami of Pakistan"   Wagadu, Volume 11, 2013 SHAHBAZ AHMAD CHEEMA, Punjab University - Law College Email: shahbazcheema@ymail.com This article explores different facets of women's contribution to gender discourse of the Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan. Their contribution is demonstrative of the fact that they want to live a life as honorable human beings while observing their religious responsibilities. "Essay: Maria Was a Christian - Nadra Was a Muslim: Hertogh Revisited" Australian Journal of Asian Law, Vol. 14, No. 2, Article 8, 2013 M. B. HOOKER, Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society Sixty years on, the Hertogh litigation (1950-51) continues to resonate in the Malay-Muslim world. The person on whom the courts focussed was a 13 year-old girl, ‘Maria’ in her Dutch-Christian persona and ‘Nadra’ in her Muslim reincarnation. The Singapore Court at the time was bound by wholly inappropriate law to decide which of her two religious identities was the correct one for determining custody and validity of marriage. There was, in fact, no ‘right’ answer and Maria/Nadra suffered the consequences. This essay describes the litigation, the result of which (apart from personal tragedies) was a complete loss of trust by Singapore Muslims in the post-war colonial legal system. The issue of trust is of vital importance and has recently re-appeared in Malaysian syariah. The issue there is exactly the same – what law determines the legal identity of women and children whose religious identity is uncertain as, for example, in circumstances of apostasy and conversion. The Malaysian answers are inconsistent and in the view of many (both Muslim and non-Muslim) are bidding fair to allow, or even encourage, distrust of the law and the courts. The subject itself, the personal status of women and children, is always crucial in Muslim societies, as is the question of who decides the appropriate law and determines its effects for daily life. In this respect the Hertogh litigation lives on and we ignore its historical lessons at our peril. "Legal Frameworks and Land Issues in Muslim Mindanao" in Land and Post-conflict Peacebuilding, Jon Unruh & Rhodri Williams (eds.), Earthscan, 2013, pp 451-474 PAULA DEFENSOR KNACK, Leiden University - Public International Law Studies Programme Email: paula.knack@hotmail.com Mindanao, the second largest island grouping in the Philippine archipelago, has experienced lengthy conflict over land, resources, and identity. It is the only island grouping with a large Muslim population, while the rest of the country is predominantly Christian. Territorial conflict in Mindanao began in the sixteenth century, when Spain conquered northern Mindanao and a small part of southern Mindanao from the sultanates or royal kingdoms of Sulu and Maguindanao. After years of revolts, the Philippine war for independence from Spain broke out in 1898. This was overtaken later that year by the Spanish-American War, which resulted in America’s purchase of the Philippines from Spain. Mindanao was subdued by American forces, but conflict between the Moros and American-sponsored Christian migrant settlers and workers from other islands continued, resulting in laws legalizing confiscation of lands owned by the Moros, large-scale land acquisitions (also referred to as land grabbing), and prejudice against and marginalization of the Moros. After Philippine independence from American rule in 1946, temporary calm ensued. However, in the 1960s, conflict resumed between Moros and Christian settlers, giving rise to a secessionist movement. In the 1970s, a war of independence was launched by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Twenty years of negotiation, beginning with the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 and culminating in a second peace agreement in 1996, put a temporary stop to the conflict. In 2008, the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which marked a significant step in the Moro quest for a homeland by setting up the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). Publication of the proposed area of the BJE sparked vehement public opposition, however, because the territory overlapped with non-Muslim regions and was determined without consultation of affected Christian communities. The Supreme Court ruled in Province of North Cotabato v. GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) that this entity violated the constitution. This chapter discusses the complex legal framework for resolving the struggle over land and natural resources in Mindanao. It demonstrates how conflicting laws and policies inherited from colonial regimes have added another layer of complexity to the conflict and made the achievement of lasting peace more difficult. A comprehensive understanding of such frameworks is crucial in preventing a return to conflict and achieving stable political and social regimes in post-conflict countries. The chapter is organized as follows: The first part reviews the relationship between the legal framework and the land conflict in Mindanao; the second part reviews the historical roots of the conflict. The third discusses the peace agreements and the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM); the fourth discusses the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) and its impacts on the legal framework; and the fifth discusses critical land issues arising from the 2008 MOA-AD. The chapter concludes by reviewing lessons learned. "The Significance of Socio-Political Context in Shaping the Authenticity of Jamaat-I-Islami's Gender Discourse" Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 5, No. 2 (2013) SHAHBAZ AHMAD CHEEMA, Punjab University - Law College Email: shahbazcheema@ymail.com This paper analyses an important series of episodes in politico-legal history of Pakistan from a particular perspective. It is generally contended by Islamic religious discourses that whatever has been presented by them that is the only authentic manifestation of the divine sources, i.e. the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. The paper problematizes the above contention and argues that the link between the divine sources and its human interpretations is not so straight forward. Without denying or undermining the role of the divine sources, it is argued that there are many factors which help formulate the authentic stances of the religious discourses and one of them is socio-political context of a particular discourse. To substantiate the above argument, the paper analyses the gender discourse of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan. The analysis underscores the relevance and scope of those socio-political factors which have played a significant role in construction of authentic stances of the Jamaat-i-Islami’s gender discourse at different stages of its formation. "The Federal Shariat Court’s Role to Determine the Scope of ‘Injunctions of Islam’ and Its Implications" Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law, Vol. 9, Issue. 2 (2013) SHAHBAZ AHMAD CHEEMA, Punjab University - Law College Email: shahbazcheema@ymail.com The Federal Shariat Court (FSC) of Pakistan has been granted extensive power to determine validity of any law or custom having the force of law on the yardstick of ‘injunctions of Islam’. It is the original jurisdiction of the court. This paper explores the scope of ‘injunctions of Islam’ as construed by the FSC along with its implications on the constitutional system of Pakistan. Although it is an important jurisdiction having many implications for the role of Islam and its introduction into the legal system by judicial pronouncements, the irony of this jurisdiction is that it’s very foundation, i.e. ‘injunctions of Islam’ has not been defined precisely by the Constitution of Pakistan. Leaving this important phrase undefined, the Constitution has abdicated its task to the FSC. Hence, the court has to give a connotation to the ‘injunctions of Islam’ in order to exercise its jurisdiction. The paper posits that the court’s exercise of jurisdiction in this regard is somewhat ambivalent and amounting to interference in the tasks assigned to other constitutional courts.