ARTICLE: Halliday and Morgan on Legal Consciousness and the Critical Imagination

Current Legal Problems has made Simon Halliday and Bronwen Morgan's 'I Fought the Law and the Law Won? Legal Consciousness and the Critical Imagination' available:
 
The study of legal consciousness within socio-legal studies entails a focus on the ordinary, quotidian and, crucially, almost invisible life of law in society. To study legal consciousness is to study the taken-for-granted and not-immediately-noticeable: the background assumptions about legality which structure and inform everyday thoughts and actions. This article examines legal consciousness through the lens of the cultural theory of Mary Douglas. The application of her grid–group analysis offers important insights into the dimensions along which legal consciousness may vary. In doing so, it sheds light on an under-studied feature of the legal consciousness landscape: collective voices of dissent. We explore, via a secondary data analysis of radical environmental activists, a legal consciousness which expresses particularly clearly a collective rejection of the authority of state law. The analysis reveals a complex and multi-faceted legal consciousness where a rejection of state law may be coupled with a gaming approach towards it for collective aims, and can be fuelled by a faith in legality above or beyond state law. It also points to the organizational vulnerability of dissenting collectivism and a corresponding affinity between a legal consciousness of collective dissent and one of fatalism. Our analysis allows us to critique and refine Ewick and Silbey’s influential account of legal consciousness. These analytical and theoretical insights point towards a future research agenda, which maintains the legal consciousness tradition of focusing on the structural qualities of law while avoiding the pitfalls of a theory of general legal hegemony.               

ARTICLES: Tamanaha on Social Legal Theory and the Rule of Law

Two interesting articles by (the always interesting) Brian Z Tamanaha have recently appeared on SSRN:

The Third Pillar of Jurisprudence: Social Legal Theory

Jurisprudence is generally thought to consist of two main classical rival branches — natural law and legal positivism — followed by a bunch of modern schools — legal realism, law and economics, critical theory, legal pragmatism, etc. In this essay I argue that three main branches of jurisprudence have existed, and battled, for centuries, not two, but the third goes unrecognized as such because it has traveled under different labels and the underlying connections have been clouded by various confusions. The core insights and focus of this third branch, what I call “Social Legal Theory,” trace in a continuous thread from Montesquieu, through historical jurisprudence, sociological jurisprudence, and legal realism, up to the present. This third branch, I argue, provides a contrasting/complementary perspective, in conjunction with natural law and legal positivism, which rounds out the full range of theoretical angles on law: natural law is normative; legal positivism is analytical/conceptual; and social legal theory is empirical. (Among a number of clarifications, I answer the common objection that empirically-grounded theories are not sufficiently theoretical.) The conventional jurisprudential narrative is redrawn in this essay in a way that exposes unseen connections among theoretical schools and brings into focus critical issues about the nature of law that currently are marginalized by natural law and legal positivism.

The History and Elements of the Rule of Law

I have written extensively about the rule of law for two basic reasons. First, the notion of the rule of law is perhaps the most powerful and often repeated political ideal in contemporary global discourse. Everyone, it seems, is for the rule of law. The rule of law is a major source of legitimation for governments in the modern world. A government that abides by the rule of law is seen as good and worthy of respect. In recent decades, billions of dollars have been spent by theWorld Bank and other development agencies on developing the rule of law around the world — with limited success.

JURIS DIVERSITAS: ON BLOGGER, FACEBOOK, AND TWITTER!

Juris Diversitas can now be followed three different ways:

ON BLOGGER

The Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/) is our home. You can sign up there for daily, bundled alerts about articles, books, conferences, etc, etc. There’s information on our upcoming conference, our activities and publications and you can also, of course, become a member. And please feel free to share the posts with others.

ON FACEBOOK

The Juris Diversitas Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/JurisDiversitas) has additional information. If you’re interested in following posts there, simply ‘Like’ us and notices—both our own and relevant information shared from other sites—will pour in as they’re posted. Again, please feel free to ‘Share’ our posts with others. In addition, we have a Conference Page as well (https://www.facebook.com/JurisDiversitas#!/JurisDiversitas/events).

ON TWITTER

Finally, we’ve a Twitter Account (https://twitter.com/JurisDiversitas). If you're interested in providing or receiving information there, please 'Follow' the account or join the ‘Comparative Law’ List I’ve created. And, again, please 'retweet' our posts when you think it matters.

As you’ll see, I’m still feeling my way around these different resources. I’d be happy to have help ...

CONFERENCE: Transitional Justice in Africa: Lessons Learned in Going Forward

Transitional Justice in Africa:
Lessons Learned in Going Forward

A non-CLE program proudly presented by
ABA Section of International Law
Africa Committee

Co-Sponsored by
International Human Rights Committee
and
Women's Interest Network (WIN)

Wednesday, May 29, 2013
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM US EDT
By teleconference only

REGISTER NOW

The objective of the program is to initiate discussion on the role of, and challenges faced by, mechanisms addressing human rights abuses and promoting conflict resolution (i.e. truth and reconciliation commissions, criminal prosecutions, gender justice initiatives) in African countries in transition, especially in relation to the promotion and enjoyment of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. From this discussion, we hope to access positive steps taken, and to recommend ways to go forward in promoting transitional justice on the continent.

Speakers: Dr. Phil Clark, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Comfort Ero, International Crisis Group Pablo de Greiff, UN and International Center for Transitional Justice Binaifer Nowrojee, Open Society Foundations Moderator: Professor Charles T. Call, American University

Registration Rates:

$15 - Section of International Law Members
$25 - SIL Non-Members

REGISTER NOW

DISCUSSION: International Financial Institution Dispute Resolution Mechanisms to Resolve Environmental/Social Issues

International Financial Institution Dispute Resolution Mechanisms to Resolve Environmental / Social Issues

A free, non-CLE brown bag program proudly presented by
ABA Section of International Law
International Environmental Law Committee

Cosponsored by
International Human Rights Committee
and
International Investment and Development Committee

in cooperation with
George Washington University (GWU) Law School

Tuesday, May 14, 2013
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM US EDT
In Person or by Webcast Only
George Washington University Law School
Jacob Burns Moot Court Room (Room L101)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

REGISTER NOW

What happens when local conflicts arise around development projects supported by international financial institutions? This lunch time brown bag panel discussion will feature three speakers, each one directly responsible for implementing processes to address environmental and social issues related to projects sponsored by their respective institution. The presentation for each speaker will be 20 minutes and will discuss a specific dispute resolution case involving environmental or social issues from start to finish. The final 30 minutes of the program is allocated for audience member participation via Q&A and further discussion of the topic.

Speakers: Keith Kozloff, Director, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Office of Accountability Isabel Lavadenz Paccieri, Project Ombudsperson, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (ICIM) Meg Taylor, Vice President, International Finance Corporation (IFC)/ Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) Moderator: Alicia Cate, Attorney-Adviser, U.S. Department of State

This brown bag program is free and open to the public.

REGISTER NOW

CONFERENCE: Hybrid Law Teaching

The Institute for Law Teaching and Learning will present its summer 2013 conference on June 7-9, 2013, at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. The conference, Hybrid Law Teaching, features 34 workshops with 47 presenters representing nearly three dozen law schools.

Structure of the Conference

Tailor the Conference to Suit Your Interests

The conference includes eight workshop sessions. During each session, four or five workshops will run simultaneously. Participants will be able to tailor the conference to fit their individual interests by choosing which workshop to attend during each session. The workshops will deal with:

• Innovative materials;
• Alternative teaching methods;
• New technologies;
• Ways to enhance student learning in all types of courses;
• Techniques to better prepare students for their bar exams;
• Means of restructuring legal education to foster practice-ready lawyers.

Each workshop will include materials that participants can use during the workshop and when they return to their campuses, and all the presenters will model effective teaching methods by actively engaging the participants.

Benefits to Participants

Improve Teaching and Learning

During the conference, participants can expect to encounter many new ideas about a wide variety of ways in which they can create hybrid law school courses. In addition, the conference is intended to facilitate informal interaction among creative teachers who love their work with students.

Participants should leave the conference with both inspiration and the information they need to seamlessly integrate skills, doctrine, and values in their teaching, to bridge traditional law school categories, such as legal writing and doctrine, clinics and skills courses, and academic support and doctrinal courses, and even to flip their classes. The ultimate goal of the conference is to help the participants improve their teaching, improve their students' learning, and further their school's efforts to offer attractive, effective courses that prepare students to practice law.

QUESTIONNAIRE: Women, Business, and the Law

Greetings,


The ABA Section of International Law has been invited again by the World Bank Group's Women, Business, and the Law Project (WBL) to contribute by completing questionnaires for the 2014 edition of the Women, Business and the Law report. The WBL focuses on setting out legal differentiations on the basis of gender in 142 economies around the world, covering 6 areas—accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, dealing of wide-ranging factors for women’s economic opportunities, but focuses on one particular area: aspects of the formal legal and regulatory environment that enable women to find jobs or start their own businesses. WBL’s work entails surveying national laws, regulations and institutions that may affect women's incentives and capacity to start businesses and get jobs.

WBL’s pilot edition was launched in 2010 and the latest edition of the report titled Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion was launched on September 26, 2011 with great success. A copy of the previous editions of the report and database can be found on WBL website: wbl.worldbank.org.

For their 2014 edition, WBL is working on expanding coverage of the existing indicators and including a new case study indicator on Violence against Women. The project relies on the valuable expertise of legal practitioners, such as you, to gather information on how the legal environment may impact women’s economic rights. WBL is looking to expand their network of legal contributors by reaching out to members of the Section from the following countries to participate in this project:

Benin · Liberia · Mauritius · Rwanda · South Africa · Sudan · Tanzania · Zambia · Sri Lanka · Philippines · Indonesia · Jordan · Netherlands · New Zealand

NEWS AND REVIEWS: European Network on Law and Society (Réseau Européen Droit & Société)

The excellent 'Nouvelles du monde’, 'Au fil des revue', and 'Repères'--both Anglophone and Francophone--of the European Network on Law and Society (Réseau Européen Droit and Société) are now available for this month. 

 

Have a look.

CONFERENCE: Filling the Gaps: The Study of Judicial Creativity and Equity in Mixed Jurisdictions and Beyond

“Filling the Gaps: The Study of Judicial Creativity and Equity in Mixed Jurisdictions and Beyond”

Department of Political and Social Sciences

 University of Catania

Aula Magna

University of Catania

Catania, Italy

May 27-28, 2013

PROGRAM AGENDA

Day 1: May 27, 2013

09:00-09:30  Welcome Remarks

Mohamed Mattar, Senior Research Professor of International Law, Executive Director, The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, Washington, DC, USA

Vernon Palmer, Thomas Pickles Professor of Law, President, World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists, Co-Director, Eason Weinmann Center for Comparative Law, Tulane Law School, New Orleans, LA, USA

Biagio Andó, Professor of Law, University of Catania, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Catania, Italy

JURIS DIVERSITAS: Now on Twitter?

If it matters, and I'm honestly unsure that it does, I created a Juris Diversitas Twitter account last night (Sean Patrick Donlan@JurisDiversitas). 

If you're interested in providing or receiving information there, please 'Follow' the account.

Don't forget, too, about our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JurisDiversitas. 

And if anyone's interested in helping with any of these, let me know ...