CALL FOR PAPERS: Mid-Winter Meeting of the Canadian Law and Society Association

A Call for Papers has been issued for the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Canadian Law and Society Association:

The Canadian Law and Society Association’s (CLSA’s) Mid-Winter meeting will take place at the University of Ottawa on January 27th and 28th, 2012 and will be co-hosted by the Justice Studies and Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. The mid-winter meeting provides an opportunity for members to get together to discuss professional and intellectual issues in a small, informal context. All presentations will be held on Friday, January 27th, 2012 and the Board meeting will be on Saturday, January 28th, 2012. (Board members are asked to attend since this is the main Board meeting of the year.)

RE: The Future of Law and Society (3-4 November 2011)

The Fiftieth Anniversary Conference of Berkeley's Center for the Study of Law and Society looks very exciting:

THE FUTURE OF LAW AND SOCIETY

Bancroft Hotel

November 3-4, 2011

The response to the announcement of the Center for the Study of Law and Society's 50th Anniversary Conference on the Future of Law and Society has been enthusiastic. To accommodate the growing numbers, the Conference sessions have been relocated to Booth Auditorium at Berkeley Law, just up the block from the Bancroft Hotel.

For those of you who have not yet registered, you are invited and encouraged to register (free) at the Conference. Online registration has been closed because Thursday dinner and Friday lunch have reached room capacity (at the Bancroft Hotel). But there is plenty of room at all the conference panels in Booth on Thursday and Friday, and you are welcome to partake of the continental breakfast on Friday and attend the Closing Reception on Friday. We hope to see you there.

REMINDER: The Concept of 'Law' in Context

REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER

'The concept of "law" in context: comparative law, legal philosophy, and the social sciences' Conference will be held this weekend (21-22 October 2011) at the Swiss Institute of Comparative law (SICL).

NOTICE: Brown and Donlan on The Laws and Other Legalities of Ireland, 1689–1850

One or two of you might be interested in a book I've just edited, with Michael Brown (Aberdeen), and published, with Ashgate. The Laws and Other Legalities of Ireland, 1689–1850:

is the first to concentrate attention on the actual relationship that existed between the Irish population and the state under which they lived from the War of the Two Kings (1689–1691) and the Great Famine (1845–1849). Particular attention is paid to an understanding of the legal character of the state and the reach of the rule of law, addressing such themes as how law was made and put into effect; how ordinary people experienced the law and social regulations; and how Catholics related to the legal institutions of the Protestant confessional state. These themes will help to situate the study of Irish society into the mainstream of English and European social history.

Other members should feel free to post similar information. Contact me and I'll add you as a blogger.

The contents of The Laws and Other Legalities of Ireland, 1689–1850 include:

NOTICE: Framing Multicultural issues in Terms of Human Rights

A one-day Seminar on ‘Framing multicultural issues in terms of human rights: solution or problem?’ will be held at the Utrecht University Law School on Monday 14 November 2011:

Building further on our special issue of the Utrecht Law Review of June 2010 called ‘Human rights law as a site of struggle over multicultural conflicts; Comparative and multidisciplinary perspectives’, we at Legal Theory in Utrecht felt the need to address the question which role human rights play in framing specific multicultural issues. Take for example the refusal to shake hands with the other sex. This ‘problem’ can easily be resolved, as often happens, in an informal and pragmatic manner. It can however also be framed in terms of ‘reasonable behaviour of an employee’, but just as well, it seems, in terms of a ‘horizontal working of human rights’: ‘freedom of speech/expression’ or ‘freedom of religion’ vs ‘non discrimination’ and ‘gender equality’.

We want to investigate whether it makes a difference (for whom, in what sense?) to frame an issue one way or the other, and what the role is that the (human rights) law itself plays. Do human rights, especially the ready availability of for example ‘freedom of religion’ these days, steer towards and thus influence certain solutions? If so, what are the consequences in terms of ‘backfire’ for the human rights system and for social relations (both on micro and macro level)? What are the gains, and for whom? And not the least interesting: what does a comparison between countries teach us? These questions partly need to be addressed empirically, like whether framing multicultural issues in terms of human rights is a recent phenomenon and whether shifts in the use of specific human rights can be discerned.

NOTICE AND CALL FOR PAPERS: ELSA Malta Law Review

ELSA MALTA, the Maltese chapter of the European Law Students' Association (ELSA) have recently launched the ELSA Malta Law Review, a new annual law review supported by the Chamber of Advocates (the Bar Association of Malta):

The aims of the Law Review are to provide students with exposure and to publish their research; to provide opportunities for students and young practitioners to enhance their academic writing and editing skills; to provide greater accessibility to legal scholarship for practitioners, academic and students; to publish research by academia.

Submissions are now being accepted for the second edition. The contents of the first issue include:

CALL FOR PAPERS: Seventh Annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop (USA)

A Call For Papers for a Workshop on Works in Progress on comparative law has been issued. It is described as:

Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University, Program in Law and Public Affairs), Jacqueline Ross (University of Illinois College of Law), and James Whitman (Yale Law School) are calling for paper submissions for the Seventh Annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop which will take place at the Princeton University on February 10-12, 2012. This workshop has been established jointly by Princeton University, the University of Illinois College of Law and Yale Law School and will be co-sponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law.

CONFERENCE DETAILS: The participants will consist of the respective authors, one commentator on each paper, faculty members of the host institution, particularly those with expertise in comparative law and research, and others interested in attending. The overall group will be kept small enough to sit around a large table and to allow serious discussion (20 people maximum). The papers will not be presented at the workshop. They will be distributed two weeks in advance and every participant must have read them before attending the meeting. The commentator will present a 10 to 15 minute introduction and critique, leaving at least one hour for discussion. There are no plans to publish the papers. Instead, it is up to the authors to seek publication if, and wherever, they wish.
 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Junior Faculty Interdisciplinary Scholarship Workshop

The Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis will host an exciting new Junior Faculty Interdisciplinary Scholarship Workshop from 22-23 March 2012:

The workshop will explore “Objectivity in the Law” and is open to non-tenured academics whose research is interdisciplinary in nature. The normative value of objectivity runs through the purpose for most law, though social practices influence how laws are implemented. Submitted papers should focus on a chosen area of law and examine that law’s objective purpose and the relationship between its purpose and its actual implementation.

NOTICE: Lerner and Rabello on Israeli (Re-) Codification

The Summer 2011 edition of the American Journal of Comparative Law (AJCL) recently published Pablo Lerner and Alfredo Mordechai Rabello, 'The (Re) Codification of Israeli Private Law: Support for, and Criticism of, the Israeli Draft Civil Law Code'.

Somehow I missed this. I spotted it on the Associazione Italiana di Diritto Comparato (AIDC, the Italian Association of Comparative Law) blog.

The abstract reads:

The drafting of the Israeli Civil Law Code is perhaps the most ambitious legal project—certainly in the area of civil law—undertaken by Israel since the establishment of the state. This Article highlights various aspects of the Draft Israeli Civil Code, demonstrating the manner in which a mixed legal culture undergoes the process of codification and paying particular attention to the relationship between codification and judicial discretion.

The success of the Israeli Civil Law Code depends on a broader understanding of the phenomenon of codification and the acceptance that codification is not an outdated form of law-making but rather a vital and flexible instrument that can be used to achieve a more adaptable and organized private law. Should it be approved as law, the Civil Code will afford a solid basis for a consistent development of Israeli Civil Law. With all its defects and flaws, it reveals the vitality of Israeli legal thinking, a vitality necessary to avoid stagnation and to keep a legal tradition relevant to changes in society.

Note, too, the AJCL's pre-print articles at http://comparativelaw.metapress.com/content/121176/?Content+Status=Accepted.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Third Biennial Literature and Law Conference (29-30 March 2012)

The Third Biennial Literature and Law Conference will take place at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), New York, New York (on the newly expanded campus near Lincoln Center in Manhattan) from 29-30 March 29-30, 2012:

Conference Organizer and Contact Person

Conference Theme: The Idea of Justice

Overview: This conference aims to bring scholars of literature and law into an interdisciplinary setting to share the fruits of their research and scholarship. Generally this conference consists of approximately 12 paper panels and roundtables, two talks by prominent speakers, and a post-conference reception. The conference fee will be $75, which will be payable by credit card through a link on the conference website (details below).

Call For Papers and Panels

We invite proposals for papers and panels that address topics that relate the humanities & arts (especially literary texts (broadly conceived)), to this year’s conference theme, the “idea of justice.” Of particular interest are papers and panels that in addition engage aspects of Professor Sen’s book, The Idea of Justice, or that attempt to integrate the theory with the practice of justice, and/or that engage and compare differing notions and perspectives of justice.

Panel proposals should contain the names and affiliations of the speakers, the titles of their papers, a clearly identified contact person, and an overall title for the panel. Panel proposals should be received by November 25th 2011. Given the 75-minute length for the panels at this conference, the panels should include no more than three presenters plus a commentator or moderator.