CALL FOR PAPERS: Scientia Juris: Metz Law Review

A new law review, Scientia juris: Metz Law Review has been announced and, with it, a call for papers for the first issue on 'Law and Borders – the Frontiers of Law':

There are many relationships between law and borders. International borders may immediately come to mind, as they define the area of validity of each legal system and are in turn determined by public international law. In a broader sense, the notion of border proves to be inherently linked to law. First of all, law, borders and other limits seem to be the main tools for creating order. Moreover, law as a whole can be seen as the most exemplary system of delimitation: “the norm is the boundary” (Anthony COHEN), and “law is this art of the limit; it is this socially approved discourse that names, classifies and divides” (François OST), namely territories, social spaces and areas of competence; persons, roles, institutions, objects, actions and processes; the allowed from the forbidden, etc. Nevertheless, the reach of law is not without limits. This raises the question of its frontiers in relation to other social systems and modes of regulation. Furthermore, there will undoubtedly be the need to make certain distinctions: law may either draw new borders or create penalties for the transgression of preexisting ones (Émile DURKHEIM); on the political and constitutional level, we can distinguish with Max WEBER between norms of power limitation (Gewaltbegrenzung) and norms of separation of powers (Gewaltenteilung).

Based on this rough outline, we request papers in English, French or German that explore the relationships between law and borders. The submissions may develop the above mentioned themes or focus on the following questions:

Can we observe an individualization of – especially territorial – borders, if not a “liquefaction” (Zygmunt BAUMAN) of society by law?

Do delimitations working in law enhance groups or individuals? Or is it necessary to distinguish according to sectors of social life and branches of law? For example, territorial borders sanctioned by law may set the stage for groups whereas the delimitation of privacy would concern individuals.

Can law and borders be considered as structural or “formal investments” (Laurent THEVENOT)?

The legal language is particularly rich in nouns, which could be the most appropriate category of words for delimitation. What lessons may follow from this for our subject and for the understanding of law in general?

This list is far from complete; numerous other problems and points could be addressed as well. Similarly, the bibliography given below is only meant as a research tool; consultation of documents mentioned here is thus neither required nor objectively indispensable. The papers sought should put forth and defend ideas, hypotheses, models or theories, but not simply present data or already published research work in a more or less descriptive way.

Submissions shall be sent as an Open Office or Word file to the editors by September 30, 2010. There is no minimum or maximum length.

Note that contributors can also submit papers outside of the focus of this call on any comparative or transnational subject. All submissions should be sent to rjfdm@univ-metz.fr or licari@univ-metz.fr

CALL FOR PAPERS: Regionalism and Authoritarianism in the Contemporary Arab World: An Interdisciplinary Research Workshop

The Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (TRI) at Princeton University has issued a call for papers on the topic of 'Regionalism and authoritarianism in the contemporary Arab world: an interdisciplinary research workshop'.

Across the Arab world, most regimes are authoritarian—that is, characterized by a high degree of limitation on political competition, with those limits enforced by state coercion. Within these authoritarian systems, whether republican or monarchical, the state structure is as a rule strongly unitary and highly centralized. With rare exceptions (the United Arab Emirates; in the last decade, Sudan and Iraq), federal systems are absent in the Arab world. Scholars, meanwhile, have tended to take the unitary state at face value. In a number of disciplines, studies of the modern Arab world focus disproportionately on the central state. The state’s relationship to its population is assumed to be invariable across the territory; where differences in that relationship are recognized and analysed in the literature, they are usually communal rather than geographical ones (one regime favours cAlawis or Bedouins; another discriminates against Shicis or Berbers). And yet in practice, the expression of power in authoritarian Arab regimes is clearly modulated according to region—whether it is the Sacid and Sinai in Egypt, the Oranais in Algeria, the Hijaz in Saudi Arabia or the Rif in Morocco. Even in a country such as Syria this is the case: modes of governance differ greatly between the capital and Aleppo, let alone between settled and tribal areas.

That this is so reflects the relative weakness of the concerned regimes, but also the continuing strength of regional identities. Scholars and other commentators are very ready to assert that the borders of modern Arab states are artificial and lack legitimacy in the eyes of their populations. But, whereas this is usually taken to mean that Arab populations would view a larger territorial unity as more legitimate, it is often the case that regional loyalties within states remain stronger than, or at least as strong as, national (let alone pan-Arab) ones.

This workshop, drawing on multiple disciplinary perspectives, will seek to examine the relationship between authoritarianism and regionalism in the Arab world. How have practices of regionalism functioned in authoritarian regimes which recognize little or no formal differentiation between regions within their state? By “practices of regionalism”, we mean both the manifestations of regional loyalties within the central state agencies (such as Takriti domination over the upper echelons of the former Iraqi regime) and regional variations in the implementation of state authority (in Syria, for example, an internal circular of the Ministry of awqaf sets levels of control on the composition of Friday sermons that differ by region).

Authoritarianism, however, has not only been forced to cope with pre-existing regional identities and particularities: it has also reinforced them, either directly, by deliberately neglecting rebellious peripheral areas (the Rif in Hassan II’s Morocco), or indirectly, by opposing a free press and genuine party politics—that is, the arenas that might have helped transcend the regional fragmentation of the national territory. Looking at the question in the other direction, to what extent have regional considerations shaped non-state actors’ interactions with regimes? To what extent have mobilizations characterized as sectarian in nature (including ‘Islamist’ mobilizations) in fact represented an outlet for regionalist sentiment? We are interested in how regional feeling affects interactions with a state whose effective authority is not in itself challenged, rather than separatist or autonomist movements (Kurds in Iraq and Syria, South Yemen) or de facto independent regions within failed states (“Smaller Christian Lebanon” during the civil war, Somaliland and Puntland).

Format: The workshop will bring together a group of 12-15 participants with relevant expertise, including doctoral students and younger academics as well as more established researchers, for a series of round table discussions. Papers will be pre-circulated, allowing the maximum time for discussion and the exchange of ideas. The workshop will not be public, but will involve Princeton faculty and graduate students as discussants.

The language of the workshop will be English.

Submission guidelines: Prospective participants are invited to submit abstracts (up to 400 words) to the organizers: Thomas Pierret (tpierret@princeton.edu) and Benjamin White (bw5@princeton.edu).

Deadline for submissions is Friday 9 July 2010. Abstracts may present a single-country case study or one that draws material from more than one Arab country, but in all cases submitters should draw out the wider comparative significance of their specific subject. The workshop will take place on 15-16 November 2010.

Accommodation and meals will be provided, and travel costs will be reimbursed up to a reasonable limit.

NOTICE: Identity and Otherness: Dealing with Difference without Borders Conference

The following interesting, transdisciplinary postgraduate conference is fast approaching:

Identity and Otherness: Dealing with Difference without Borders

University of Birmingham, College of Arts and Law Graduate School

28th May 2010

The law panel, one among many, includes:

• Fiona Batt, University of Bristol, “Ancient Indigenous Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and Intellectual Property Rights”

• Luke Butler, University of Birmingham, “Putting Lawyers in Boxes: “You are Either One of Us, One of Them or One of the Other” – Conflicts of Norms and Legal Cultures”

For any enquiries or for further information, contact: Claire Peters (cim951@bham.ac.uk) or Sarah Botfield (SJB923@bham.ac.uk)

NOTICE: New issues of PoLAR (Political and Legal Anthropology Review)

I just received the following:

We are pleased to simultaneously release two issues of PoLAR, our “regular” May issue and a supplemental issue entitled At Disciplinary Edges which explores the edges of anthropology and its neighboring disciplines. The supplement issue symposium offers extensive cross disciplinary book reviews emphasizing the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary dialogue, and articles and commentaries on urban policing, the war on terror, and politics/history.

The editor’s introduction can be found at this link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123439911/abstract

Not to be overshadowed, the articles in the May issue, highlight the contribution of ethnographic inquiry and analysis to modern social science; as editor Beth Meertz writes, “we celebrate this anthropological expertise in "capturing the crossroads" with a set of studies that richly exemplifies this potential for integrative analysis.”

The editor’s introduction can be found at this link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123423281/abstract

The May issue (33,1) table of contents can be found below as text, or directly at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123439892/issue

The Supplement (33,s1) table of contents can be found below as text, or directly at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118902509/home

Finally, please join us at the digital spillover pages, where we continue our conversations. http://www.aaanet.org/sections/apla/spillover.html

JOB LISTING: McGill University Faculty of Law

The following job listing might be of interest:

MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Law
Entry-Level Tenure-Track Professorship Position in Law

Applications are currently invited for one or more entry-level tenure-track professorship positions at the Faculty of Law, McGill University.

ABOUT THE FACULTY OF LAW:

The Faculty of Law at McGill University was established in 1848. Through its research programs and pedagogical initiatives, it reflects a central commitment to the study of legal traditions, comparative law and the internationalization of law. In conjunction with this overarching mission for the study of law at McGill University, four areas of academic priority have been identified by the Faculty: Transsystemic Legal Education; Trade, Mobility and Enterprise; Public Policy and Private Resources; and Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Faculty of Law is offering one or more entry level, tenure-track professorships in Law and invites applications from candidates with a strong commitment to innovation and excellence in teaching and research, and who will make a creative contribution to the governance of the Faculty and the University. These appointments are expected to start either on January 1 or July 1, 2011.

Candidates with demonstrated expertise in fundamental private law, international trade law or civil procedure and dispute resolution are particularly encouraged to apply.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS:

Candidates must envisage teaching and research in several substantive fields of law and we encourage diverse approaches to law, legal research and legal education. Given the competitive nature of the applicant pool, candidates without a doctoral degree are unlikely to be considered. The bilingual environment of our Faculty requires that successful candidates be able to evaluate written and oral work presented in both English and French.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Applications, including a detailed cover letter, a curriculum vitae, up to three samples of published research and the names and addresses of three referees, are now being accepted for this competition and must be submitted no later than September 15, 2010. Applications should be addressed to:

CONTACT: Professor Genevieve Saumier, Chair
Staff Appointments Committee
Faculty of Law
McGill University

Applications should be sent by electronic mail to: linda.coughlin@mcgill.ca

Alternatively they may be mailed to this address:

POSTAL: 3644 Peel Street
Montreal, Quebec
Canada, H3A 1W9

FURTHER INFORMATION:

For more information and to see the complete postings, visit: http://www.mcgill.ca/law/employment/

NOTICE: Maltese Symposium on Mediterranean Law (11-12 June 2010)

A symposium on Mediterranean law will take place on 11-12 June 2010 in Malta.

Friday’s activities will be held in Villa Parisio in Lija and are sponsored by the Strickland Foundation. Registration will start at 4:30 pm; the symposium begins at 5 pm. A plenary paper will be presented by Professor Olivier Moréteau (Director of the Center for Civil Law Studies at the Paul M Hebert Law Center of Louisiana State University). A reception will follow at 7 pm.

Saturday’s activities will be held at the Old University Building in Valletta. Registration will begin at 8:40 am; the symposium will begin at 9 am and end at 7 pm. A light lunch will be provided onsite from 1-2 pm (sponsored by the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Malta). The afternoon will include additional sessions, the launch of the 'Mediterranean legal hybridity' project, and a walking tour of Valletta. A light reception (sponsored by the Maltese Ministry of Justice) will be held from 7 pm.

A tour of Mdina is being organised for Sunday.

Confirmed speakers include the following:

• Biagio Andò (Catania), ‘‘Mixed systems and sources of law: the case of Malta’

• Kevin Aquilina (Malta), ‘Maltese legal hybridity: a chimeric illusion or a grafted European law blended mixture?’

• Eliana Augusti (Salento), ‘Consuls and mixed courts: the contradictions of an extraterritorial language of jurisdiction in Turkey’

• Stathis Banakas (East Anglia), ‘Global legal cultures and private law remedies: dominant patterns and the challenges they pose for social justice’

• Simone Benvenuti (Rome, La Sapienza), ‘Judicial training between constitutional traditions and Europeanization: the case of Turkey’

• George C Bugeja (Malta), ‘The development of the commenda in the Mediterranean region’

• Ignazio Castellucci (Macau/Trento), ‘The Mediterranean identity of the legal aversion to usury’

• Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick), ‘Mediterranean legal and normative hybridity: a project for the legal and social sciences’

• Sue Farran (Dundee), 'The not so pacific Pacific: the issue of domestic violence'

• Ruth Farrugia (Malta), ‘The pre-nuptial contracts and the common law/civil law divide’

• Nikitas Hatzimihail (Cyprus), ‘Legal education and the legal profession in Cyprus’

• Alessio Lo Giudice (Catania), ‘The Mediterranean legacy in the concept of sovereignty: a case of legal-philosophical hybridity’

• Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia), ‘Legal and normative diversity in Spain: Spanish legal traditions and the codification of private law’

• Simon Mercieca (Malta), ‘How was judicial power balanced in Malta in early modern times?: a cursory look at the Maltese legal system through a historical perspective’

• Paul Edgar Micallef (Maltese Communications Authority), ‘Maltese consumer law: a reflection of diverse legal cultures’

• Claude Micallef-Grimaud (Independent), ‘Moral damages in Maltese law: an overview of certain legal peculiarities’

• Vernon Palmer (Tulane), ‘Empire as engine of the mixed legal systems’

• Teresa Sartore Senigaglia (Heidelberg), ‘The empty ghetto: transcultural interactions in Hospitallers’ Rhodes’

• Jotham Scerri-Diacono (Independent) and Gabriella Zammit (Independent), ‘The hybrid nature of the Merchant Shipping Act’

• Giovanni Tamburrini (Rome, La Sapienza), ‘State aid to the banks: a comparative law analysis of Mediterranean countries’

• David Zammit (University of Malta), ‘The interface between formal and informal law’

The conference fee is €100; transportation and accommodation are not included.

Those wishing to attend from outside Malta should contact Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (University of Limerick) at sean.donlan@ul.ie; those wishing to attend within Malta should contact Dr David Zammit (University of Malta) at david.zammit@um.edu.mt.

The symposium is being hosted by the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law and the Mediterranean Institute, both of the University of Malta. It is organised in conjunction with Juris Diversitas and has received funding from the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Malta, the Strictland Foundation, and the Maltese Ministry of Justice.

CALL FOR PAPERS: International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences Inter-Congress (Antalya, Turkey)

A Call for Papers has been announced for the Commission of Anthropology of the Middle East, IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) Inter-Congress from 3–6 October 2010 in Antalya, Turkey.

NOTICE: Law and Culture - Meaningful legal pluralism in the Pacific and beyond (Vanuatu)

A conference on 'Law and Culture: Meaningful Legal Pluralism in the Pacific and Beyond' will be hosted by the USP School of Law, Emalus Campus in Port Vila, Vanuatu from 30 August-1 September 2010.

The Call for Papers and Posters reads:

The question of how to make law operate effectively whilst remaining culturally appropriate is critical for all Pacific islands.

In the Pacific, where much law is now made by local Parliaments we are moving beyond the immediately post-colonial discourse of law as “imposed by foreigners” but the position of State law within society is still not clearly situated. The uneasy relationship between law and culture is giving rise to a number of pressing contemporary issues so a conference on this topic is very timely.

These issues are shared by many post-colonial States. Internationally the recognition (that may/should be) given to indigenous peoples by State law is evolving, particularly following the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, so the issues facing Pacific islands have global resonance.

The issues that this conference gives rise to are not only legal. Legal pluralism is a topic that is inherently interdisciplinary, and developing “meaningful legal pluralism” requires conversations across a range of disciplines. Pacific scholars from other subject areas, including anthropology, development studies, governance and political studies are encouraged to attend this conference.

Papers and posters that explore any aspect of the relationship between State law and other norms that may regulate society, including customary law, are welcome. Some potential areas are listed below:

• The relationship between human rights and custom
• State dispute resolution and customary dispute resolution and governance
• The interaction between State environmental regulation and customary control of the environment

• Customary land tenure and development

• Informal institutions that govern business practice and their relationship with State law

These areas are only examples, and are not intended to place limits on the subjects discussed at the conference.

As the conference organizers are committed to the development of young Pacific scholars, students and early career researchers from a range of disciplines are particularly encouraged to participate.

Abstracts are due by 25 June 2010.

For further information, including information on how to submit, and presentation and poster guidelines see the conference website http://www.paclii.org/law-and-culture/.

NOTICE: German Law Journal

The latest German Law Journal has been released.

See especially Derek McKee's review of Emmanuel Melissaris' Ubiquitous Law: Legal Theory and the Space for Legal Pluralism.

CONFERENCE AND JOURNAL LAUNCH: Crossings - The Nexus of Migration and Culture

I received the following announcement about a conference and journal launch linked to Queen Mary (London)'s Centre for the Study of Migration:

CROSSINGS: THE NEXUS OF MIGRATION AND CULTURE
July 1st and 2nd 2010
Law Building, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

This two-day conference celebrates the launch of Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture (Intellect Publishers) based at the Centre for the Study of Migration. The conference will cover key thematic and theoretical areas that emerge from the nexus of migration and culture, when examined from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives. Speakers will interrogate questions of cultural migrancy, as well as of cultural identity and representation in the context of migration.

Areas of theoretical enquiry will include borders, diaspora, cultural difference and cultural memory, transnational connections and hybridity from disciplines as diverse as Law, Medicine, Politics, English, Development Studies, Museum Studies, Film Studies, Gender Studies and Anthropology. The conference will further count on the participation of those working creatively in the culture industry on aspects of migration, so as to foment dialogue between the latter and the academy.

Conference Organizers:
- Professor Parvati Nair (Director, Centre for the Study of Migration)
- Dr Omar García-Obregón (Reader in Poetics of Exile, Censorship and Cultural Resistance)

Keynote speakers:
- Professor Robin Cohen (Professor of Development Studies and Director, International Migration Institute, University of Oxford)
- Dr. Anne Kershen (Deputy-Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration, Queen Mary)
- Professor Yosefa Loshitzky (Professor of Film and Media at the University of East London).

Invited artists:
- Poets, including: Choman Hardi, John Siddique
- Photographer/artist/curator: Shahidul Alam, founder/director of the Drik picture agency and of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as of Chobi Mela, the festival of photography in South Asia. Shahidul Alam will show Under the Shade of the Banyan Tree, a short film that he made on migration and will offer a talk on his work on ?Migrant Lives.?
- The conference will end with a Poetry Fest, where the invited poets will offer readings and discussions of their work.

Please note that to enable us to make the conference free, we can only offer refreshments and meals to the speakers. Others attending can find many good-quality, reasonably-priced options on and around the campus.

If you will need to stay over, the Queen Mary University website offers some information on accommodation in the area. A list of hotels is available at http://www.residences.qmul.ac.uk/alternative//hotels/index.html

There is also information about other options in the area at: http://www.residences.qmul.ac.uk/

Please do get in touch if you have other questions.

Tendayi Bloom,PhD student, School of Law
Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Migration Queen Mary University of London
http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/people/research/bloom.html