BULLETIN: Juris Diversitas

JURIS DIVERSITAS

An interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of

Legal and Normative Mixtures and Movements

Note that Juris Diversitas (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.com/) has added an email subscription box to our blog. We’ve also added bloggers and will be announcing an Advisory Board of senior academics over the next few weeks.

Juris Diversitas aims to negotiate the boundaries (i) between hybrid legal and normative traditions and (ii) between comparative law and other disciplines. Both of these aims are pursued in our ‘Mediterranean Legal Hybridity’ symposium to be held in Malta on Saturday, 12 June 2010. The symposium is the first event in a project that, while focused on the region, may produce a model that can be used around the world.

In conjunction with the symposium, there will also be an informal roundtable discussion of any research related to our general themes on Friday, 11 June 2010. For information on the symposium or roundtable, email me (sean.donlan@ul.ie). The deadline for the former is Monday, 29 March 2010.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, suggestions, links, and events. And please spread the word about us to interested individuals and institutions.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Worlds of the Trust

CALL FOR PAPERS THE WORLDS OF THE TRUST
Faculty of Law, McGill University
23‐25 September 2010

Until recently, the trust was often described as foreign to the logic of the law of property in the civilian tradition. This assertion is increasingly untenable, as the profile of the trust in legal systems with a civilian law of property continues to develop and expand. This conference seeks to explore the multiple ways in which civilian and mixed legal systems have embraced the trust, with the goal of allowing jurists from different jurisdictions to better understand their different approaches to this increasingly important legal institution. The working languages of the conference will be English and French.

Some of the themes which we expect to be covered include: the historical development of trusts in civilian and mixed systems; the differing conceptual structures of such trusts, including how they are understood within the general law; the language of trust law; comparative trust law; the uses and applications of trusts in the modern world; and the possibilities for internationalizing trust law through increased recognition of foreign trusts and of party autonomy in choosing the governing law for trusts.

Confirmed participants include: François Barrière (Paris II—Panthéon‐Assas); Madeleine Cantin Cumyn (McGill); Yaëll Emerich (McGill); George Gretton (Edinburgh); Lusina Ho (Hong Kong University); Adam Hofri‐Winogradow (Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Mr. Justice Nicholas Kasirer (Quebec Court of Appeal); John Langbein (Yale); Paul Matthews (King’s College London); Michael McAuley (McGill); Robert Sitkoff (Harvard); Lionel Smith (McGill).

Proposals for papers are now invited. If you would like to offer a paper, please submit a working title and an abstract (of no more than 350 words) by email to crdpcq.law@mcgill.ca before 15 April 2010. The abstract should be written in English or French, the language of the abstract indicating the language of the proposed full paper. Papers will be selected on the basis of their quality and originality, as well as their engagement with the conference theme and their fit with other papers being presented at the conference. The selection will be made by a scientific committee.

Presenters whose proposals are accepted will be expected to meet their own travel and accommodation costs, although the conference registration fee will be waived. Depending on the outcome of applications for financial assistance, some funds may be available to assist presenters with travel and accommodations; those who have need of such funds should indicate this in their applications.

Journal of Civil Law Studies

The Center of Civil Law Studies of the Louisiana State University Law Center announces the publication of Volume 2 of the Journal of Civil Law Studies (JCLS). Volumes 1 and 2 of the JCLS are freely accessible online, at www.law.lsu.edu/jcls

Volume 2 of the JCLS contains:

ARTICLES

Jacques Vanderlinden, Aux origines de la culture juridique française en Amérique du Nord

Olivier Moréteau, The Future of Civil Codes in France and Louisiana

Andrea Borroni & Charles Tabor, Caveat Emptor’s Current Role in Louisiana and Islamic Law: Worlds Apart yet Surprisingly Close

Catherine Piché, The Cultural Analysis of Class Action Law

Georges A. Cavalier & Thomas Straub, Mergers and Acquisitions Comparative Economic Analysis of Laws: France vs. USA

BOOK REVIEW

Agustín Parise, Gustavus Schmidt, The Civil Law of Spain and Mexico

GENERAL INFORMATION

Olivier Moréteau & Agustín Parise, The Bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code
(1808-2008)

The JCLS invites the submission of articles for Volume 4, to appear in the Fall of 2010. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2010. Please visit www.law.lsu.edu/jcls or email jcls@law.lsu.edu

NOTICE: Juris Diversitas Advisory Board

Over the next few weeks, Juris Diversitas will be assembling an Advisory Board.

While a formal announcement will not be made until we've finalised the Board's members, we'll add their names to 'Our Advisory Board' as they confirm their acceptance.

As always, feel free to email me (sean.donlan@ul.ie) with questions and suggestions.

CONFERENCE: Mediterranean Legal Hybridity

A symposium on ‘Mediterranean Legal Hybridity: Mixtures and Movements’ is to be held in Malta on Saturday, 12 June 2010. The event is 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.

Studies of Mediterranean legal and normative diversity have been isolated, sporadic, and too often framed within narrow disciplinary constraints. The symposium addresses this lacuna by fostering an international and interdisciplinary network of experts—in law, history, and the social sciences—to investigate legal hybridity and diffusion in the region.

Those interested in making a presentation (twenty minutes long) should email Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (sean.donlan@ul.ie) by Monday, 29 March 2010 with a short (250 word) proposal. The conference fee is €100; transportation and accommodation are not included.

LAUNCH AND CALL FOR PAPERS: European Society for Comparative Legal History

For those interested in the legal mixtures and movements of the European past, the European Society for Comparative Legal History recently announced the creation of the Society, the launch of their blog, and an inaugural conference, 'Law and Historical Development from a Comparative Perspective', to be held at the University of Valencia (Spain) on 5-6 July 2010.

I confess that I'm biased, but check it out.

BOOK REVIEW: Cotterrell on legal pluralism

Check out Roger Cotterrell (Queen Mary University of London, School of Law)'s 'Does Legal Pluralism Need a Concept of Law?' available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). The abstract reads:

This paper, reviewing Emmanuel Melissaris' Ubiquitous Law, argues that the book's project – that of seeking a 'thin' concept of law to underpin legal pluralist theory, together with a highly flexible and open approach to institutional characteristics of law – is problematic from a sociolegal viewpoint. Melissaris seeks to preserve legal philosophy's concern with the question 'What is law?' while recognising that this question can receive only vague and open answers if legal pluralism is to be taken seriously in legal theory. His discussion is sophisticated and thoughtful, but he is wrong to imply that sociology of law depends ultimately on legal philosophy's conceptual inquiries. Sociolegal studies need rich and provocative, but only provisional, flexible and endlessly revisable specifications of 'the legal' as a guide for research practice. Legal philosophy's conceptual inquiries may help to shape these specifications, but are not prerequisites for the task.

NOTICE: Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law Abstracts

The Center for Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship at Syracuse University College of Law has released its Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law Abstracts. These include:

• 'The Meaning and Liberal Justifications of Israel's Law of Return' (Dan Ernst, Ewha Womans University)
• 'Legal Pluralism, Customary Law and Environmental Management: The Role of International Law for the South Pacific' (Erika J. Techera, Macquarie University - Macquarie Law School)
• 'One Step Forward, Two Giant Steps Back: How the ‘Existing Indian Family’ Exception (Re)Imposes Anglo American Legal Values on American Indian Tribes to the Detriment of Cultural Autonomy' (Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne, Mercer University School of Law) 
• 'The New Status of the Lands of Native Populations in Brazilian Constitutional Law and International Law' (Othon Moreno de Medeiros Alves, Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte [S.Court of Auditors of the State of Rio Grande do Norte], Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte - Departamento de Direito Público [Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte - Department of Public Law])

These are each available through the Social Science Reserach Network (SSRN).

EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE

Juris Diversitas has now added an email subscription service. Assuming it's been properly installed, subscribers will receive new posts through their email accounts. Please notify us if you encounter difficulties.

CALL FOR PAPERS: CONGRESS OF THE WORLD SOCIETY OF MIXED JURISDICTION JURISTS

The World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists has issued a Call for Papers for its Third International Congress (20-23 June 2011, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)). The theme of the Congress is Methodology and Innovation in Mixed Legal Systems.

Mixed legal systems, both the classical ‘mixed jurisdictions’ combining common law and civilian law and more exotic hybrids, are increasingly important touchstones for comparative law. The Third Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists focuses on legal methodology and innovation in mixed systems in the twenty‐first century: investigating past experiences, exploring present practices, and predicting future possibilities.

Proposals for papers on any of a number of topics are welcome. They may be submitted by jurists from any jurisdiction, and by members and non-members of the Society alike. Proposals should be submitted to the Secretary-General of the Society, Prof. Celia Fassberg (mscelia@mscc.huji.ac.il), by 1 May 2010. They should not exceed 500 words and should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae of one page only. The Planning Committee will make its selection by 1 August 2010. The time allocated for delivery of papers will be no longer than 20 minutes. Papers delivered at the conference will be considered for publication in the conference proceedings. The Society regrets that it cannot guarantee publication of all papers delivered and cannot cover travel expenses of participants in the congress.