CONFERENCE: The XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law (25 July - 1 August 2010)

The XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law will be held in Washington, DC from 25 July-1 August 2010. It:

will take place at American University Washington College of Law, George Washington University Law School, and Georgetown Law from July 25 to August 1, 2010.

This weeklong conference of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Paris), which takes place only once every four years, is being held for the first time in the United States and is presented by the American Society of Comparative Law along with the International Academy and the host schools. The program features over forty scholarly programs with some of the most prominent academics, judges, and justices from around the world.

Confirmed speakers include:

- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States
- Justice Sabino Cassese of the Italian Constitutional Court

Every effort is being made to achieve truly interactive meetings in the Academy-format sessions, which are led by a distinguished chair and a general reporter but which will allow comment and conversation between national reporters from many countries and others in attendance at each session. In addition, the agenda includes a number of panels exploring innovative topics in comparative law.

Aside from the academic program, the XVIIIth Congress will include social events, such as breakfasts, lunches, and receptions almost every day and a closing banquet at the Organization of American States on the National Mall. The conference hotel will be the Ritz-Carlton Washington DC, which is offering extraordinary rates for those attending the XVIIIth Congress, but availability is limited.

For complete details and registration, please visit: http://www.wcl.american.edu/events/2010congress/

CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE DCFR, KORTRIJK, 10-11 JUNE 2010

The Subfaculty of Law of the University of Leuven (Campus Kortrijk) organises an international conference on “The Draft Common Frame of Reference: a national and comparative perspective”. The conference will take place in Kortrijk on 10-11 June 2010.

Interested parties are invited to submit a proposal for a contribution relating to this theme for consideration to Vincent Sagaert. Abstracts should reach us no later than 15 May 2010 and should not exceed 400 words. All submissions will be considered on relevance and merit.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 30 June 2010, and full papers must reach us no later than 15 September 2010.

For more information contact: vincent.sagaert@law.kuleuven.be

REMINDER - CALL FOR PAPERS: 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)). Proposals are due Saturday, 1 May 2010.

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.

NOTICE: SSRN e-Journals

Various SSRN e-Journals have announced new articles. A few that might be of interest include:

Comparative Law e-Journal

The State Management of Legal and Cultural Diversity in Canada
Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens, University of Montreal - Centre de recherche en droit public

Tribal Citizen Participation in State and National Politics: Welcome Wagon or Trojan Horse
Michael D. Oeser, University of Wisconsin Law School

Constitutionalism, Legal Pluralism, and International Regimes
Alec Stone Sweet, Yale Law School and Yale Political Science
(also in Law, Institutions & Development e-Journal)

Law & Humanities e-Journal

The Intellectual Properties of Geography
Dwijen Rangnekar, University of Warwick - School of Law

Law, Norms & Informal Order e-Journal

Disrupted Attachments: A Social Context Complex Trauma Framework and the Lives of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada
Lori Haskell, University of Toronto - Department of Psychiatry
Melanie Randall, Faculty of Law, UWO

Dear Colleagues
I hope you find useful to have the links to the new issue of OPINIO JURIS in COMPARATIONE. once again we look forward to host contribution from our Juris Diversitatis group.
If you have problems to read the post, please let me know.
With my bests
ciao
Giovanni

if this message does not display correctly, click here LSN LAW RESEARCH CENTERS PAPERS OPINIO JURIS IN COMPARATIONE (STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE & NATIONAL LAW, ETUDES DE DROIT COMPARE ET NATIONAL, ESTUDIOS DE DERECHO COMPARADO Y NACIONAL) Vol. 2, No. 1: Apr 02, 2010 GIOVANNI COMAND�, EDITOR Professor of Private Comparative Law, LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna gico@sssup.it Browse ALL abstracts for this journal Links: Subscribe ~ Unsubscribe | Distribution | Network Directors | Advisory Board | Submit ~ Revise Your Papers Table of Contents Opinio Juris in Comparatione Vol. 1/2010 Opinio Juris Comparatione Submitter, LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna What Price for the Community Enforcement of WTO Dispute Settlement Body’s Rulings? Sara Poli, University of Southampton Alessandra Arcuri, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Law Financial Contracts and ‘Junk Bonds’ Purchases in the Italian Legal System: A Matter of (In)Correct Disclosure Cristina Amato, University of Brescia Legal Education in Italy Vittoria Barsotti, University of Florence Vincenzo Varano, University of Florence Italian Report on Insurance Law between Business Law and Consumer Law Onofrio Troiano, affiliation not provided to SSRN Diana Cerini, Universit� degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Maria Gagliardi, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Giovanni Comand�, LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna ^top LSN LAW RESEARCH CENTERS PAPERS OPINIO JURIS IN COMPARATIONE (STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE & NATIONAL LAW, ETUDES DE DROIT COMPARE ET NATIONAL, ESTUDIOS DE DERECHO COMPARADO Y NACIONAL) "Opinio Juris in Comparatione Vol. 1/2010" Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Vol. 1/2010 OPINIO JURIS COMPARATIONE SUBMITTER, LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Email: opiniojuris@sssup.it Contents/Sommaire/Sumario Articles/Articles/Art�culos Paper n. 1, pp. 1 - 46 Alessandra Arcuri and Sara Poli What price for the community enforcement of WTO dispute settlement body’s rulings? Essays/Essais/Ensayos Paper n. 2, pp. 1 - 20 Cristina Amato Financial Contracts And ‘Junk Bonds’ Purchases in the Italian Legal System: A Matter of (In)Correct Disclosure Conference Proceedings/Rapports des conf�rences/Reportes des conferencias Paper n. 3, pp. 1 - 16 Vittoria Barsotti and Vincenzo Varano Legal Education In Italy Paper n. 4, pp. 1 - 35 Onofrio Troiano, Diana Cerini, Giovanni Comand� and Maria Gagliardi Italian report on Insurance law between business law and consumer law News/Annonces /Noticias Comparative Health Care Liability and Regulation: A Technology-Based Approach – International Summer School Pisa, Italy 24th – 4th June 2010 New Frontiers of Pharmaceutical Law - Young Researchers Workshop Lecce, Italy, 6th and 7th of May 2010 "What Price for the Community Enforcement of WTO Dispute Settlement Body’s Rulings?" Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Vol.1/2010, Paper No. 1 SARA POLI, University of Southampton Email: S.Poli@soton.ac.uk ALESSANDRA ARCURI, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Law Email: arcuri@frg.eur.nl Under the World Trade Organization (WTO) legal framework, when a violation is deemed to occur, Members have recourse to a quasi-automatic dispute settlement system. If the breach persists after the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) has adopted a ruling, Members hurt by the illegal measures can be authorized to retaliate against the scofflaw Member. Rights and obligations are, thus, centrally enforced within the WTO. The object of this article is the decentralized enforcement of WTO law, and more precisely of DSB rulings through the ECJ. The aim is to explore whether it is in the Community (EC) as well as in the WTO’s interests to ensure that these acts are enforced before the Luxembourg Courts. Notoriously, the European Courts have been resistant to Community enforcement of DSB’ rulings. Unlike many legal commentators that have criticized the European Courts, we conclude that the approach of the Courts is justified both from a purely legal standpoint and from a Law and Economics perspective. In relation to the latter, we develop a theoretical framework, building on Calabresi and Melamed’s ‘Cathedral’, and show that the Community enforcement of DSB’s decisions bears costs that outweigh the benefits. "Financial Contracts and ‘Junk Bonds’ Purchases in the Italian Legal System: A Matter of (In)Correct Disclosure" Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Vol.1/2010, Paper No. 2 CRISTINA AMATO, University of Brescia Email: amato@jus.unibs.it The essay is concerned with the protection of investors against purchases of ‘junk bonds’. As financial transactions are characterized by inherent risk, contractual unconscionability is not the relevant legal issue to be dealt with. The argument submitted by the author is therefore that protection of purchasers of financial products should focus of the nature and consequences deriving from liability triggered by reliance on negligent misstatements concerning economic information which induces investors to purchase ‘junk bonds’. Moreover, as the complex process underlying the issue and placement of financial securities involves the contribution of different professionals, their different roles should be reflected in a gradated liability scale covering each player contributing to the provision of these financial products. The conclusion is that civil liability remedies do not necessarily provide the only possible answer for the protection of investors: in addition, alternative remedies subsequent to the occurrence of damages (i.e., stricter criminal penalties), or preventive measures (such as applicable rules of conduct), as well as collateral sanctions (reputational risks), or new powerful procedural tools (class actions) may be able to support and protect investors more effectively than simple civil liability rules. "Legal Education in Italy" Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Vol.1/2010, Paper No. 3 VITTORIA BARSOTTI, University of Florence Email: vittoria.barsotti@unifi.it VINCENZO VARANO, University of Florence Email: vincenzo.varano@unifi.it This article examines the present situation of legal education in Italy. What becomes readily clear is that practical elements are almost totally absent from legal education, which remains largely theoretical. Though some attempts have been made at making legal education more practical, it is only after graduation that students, by and large, will have to become familiar with the practical side of the law. "Italian Report on Insurance Law between Business Law and Consumer Law" Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Vol. 1/2010, Paper No. 4 ONOFRIO TROIANO, affiliation not provided to SSRN DIANA CERINI, Universit� degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Email: diana.cerini@unimib.it MARIA GAGLIARDI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Email: gagliardi@sssup.it GIOVANNI COMAND�, LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Email: gico@sssup.it This paper is the Italian report, sent to the 18th international congress on comparative law - Washington 2010, on the specific subject “Insurance law between business law and consumer law”. It consists of detailed answers to the questionnaire, on several topics among which economic aspects, academic perception of the field, procedural aspects, legislation, “consumer” and “commercial” risks, substantive aspects. ^top Solicitation of Abstracts Scope of the Series Opinio Juris in Comparatione is a generalist electronic open platform devoted to "Studies in Comparative and National Law". It aims at enhancing the dialogue among all legal traditions in a broad sense. The intend of diffusing contributions on national law as well and not only to focus on comparative issues, is to expand access to foreign legal materials and ideas to those who do not already have access to the traditional avenues (such as journals in the language of the explored legal system. Authors will retain their copyrights. Authors will only mention in further publication(s) of the article/essay/case note that it has previously belonged to the Opinio Juris collection. Quotation suggested: "This article/essay/case note, was previously selected by Op.J., Vol. __/20__, Paper n. __" Conversely, if the article/essay/case note is never published elsewhere the final citation mode will read as follow: "Title, Op.J., Vol__/20__, Paper n. ___" All contributions will be inserted in our on-line platform to remain accessible http://www.ssrn.com/ and http://lider-lab.sssup.it/joomla/opinio-juris. Opinio Juris in Comparatione offers the strength of a peer reviewed international publication. It has an official ISSN (2036-4423). Opinio Juris offers the benefits of a preliminary and early diffusion of the contributions before the papers are actually published somewhere else. Indeed, accepted papers can be also published on national or international law journals: in this case it would be likely that they be removed from the Opinio Juris collection upon request of the author or the final publisher. Opinio Juris will give preference to articles under 25,000 words in length including text and footnotes. A piece will be considered an Essay if it is 8.000 words or less in length, and its primary purpose is to advance an idea, to summarize a development, or to initiate or engage in discussion. Case notes shall not exceed 7.000 words and will focus on an important decision. Selected Conference Proceedings, news and book reviews, overview of conferences, new books, etc. are welcomed as well. The three different languages of preferred submission are English, French and Spanish. The constraints set out for dealing with purely national law contributions is to give descriptions of domestic law in a language other than the language of the system itself (please see instructions for submission on http://lider-lab.sssup.it/opinio-juris for further details). NOTE for publication purposes all contributions must have their title and abstract translated into English. To submit your research to SSRN, log in to the SSRN User HeadQuarters, and click on the My Papers link on the left menu, and then click on Start New Submission at the top of the page. Distribution Services If your organization is interested in increasing readership for its research by starting a Research Paper Series, or sponsoring a Subject Matter eJournal, please email: RPS@SSRN.com Distributed by: Legal Scholarship Network (LSN), a division of Social Science Electronic Publishing (SSEP) and Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Directors LAW RESEARCH CENTERS PAPERS A. MITCHELL POLINSKY Stanford Law School, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Email: polinsky@stanford.edu BERNARD S. BLACK Northwestern University - School of Law, Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, University of Texas at Austin - School of Law, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) Email: bblack@northwestern.edu RONALD J. GILSON Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School Email: rgilson@leland.stanford.edu Please contact us at the above addresses with your comments, questions or suggestions for LSN-RES. Advisory Board Opinio Juris in Comparatione (Studies in Comparative & National Law, Etudes de Droit Compare et National, Estudios de Derecho Comparado y Nacional) Research Paper Series FRANCESCO DONATO BUSNELLI LIDER-Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna GUIDO CALABRESI Yale Law School NICHOLAS KASIRER McGill University - Faculty of Law RODOLFO SACCO Universita' di Torino GERT BRUEGGEMEIER University of Bremen - Faculty of Law HUGH COLLINS Professor of English Law, London School of Economics - Law Department FERNANDO HINESTROSA Universidad Externado de Colombia EWOUD H. HONDIUS University of Utrecht - Faculty of Law DAVID LAMETTI Associate Professor, McGill University - Faculty of Law DAVID G. OWEN University of South Carolina - School of Law VERNON V. PALMER Thomas Pickles Professor of Law, Tulane Law School STEPHEN D. SUGARMAN University of California, Berkeley - School of Law GENEVIEVE VINEY Universit� Paris I Panth�on-Sorbonne ^top Links: Subscribe to Journal | Unsubscribe from Journal | Join Site License | Financial Hardship Subscription Management You can change your journal subscriptions by logging into SSRN User HQ. If you have questions or problems with this process, please email UserSupport@SSRN.com or call 877-SSRNHelp (877.777.6435 or 585.442.8170). Outside of the United States, call 00+1+585+4428170.

REMINDER: Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History (23 April 2010)

'New Perspectives on Legal Pluralism', a Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History held under the auspices of the Center for Renaissance Studies will take place at the Newberry Library in Chicago on Friday, 23 April 2010.

The symposium meets:

to discuss the comparative legal history of the Atlantic world in the period c1492 to 1815. Each year we offer a one-day conference that brings together law professors, historians, and social scientists to explore a particular topic in comparative legal history, broadly understood.

The site reads:

Colonialism enhanced legal pluralism. European, African, Asian, and American polities relied on layered and multi-centric systems of law, and their encounters generated new and often repeating patterns of jurisdictional politics. This widespread legal pluralism at times contributed to regional integration by making substantively different legal systems intelligible to travelers and merchants. It also posed challenges to imperial administration as subordinate authorities sought to establish, expand, or protect prerogatives to act independently of metropolitan sovereigns and courts. With recent scholarship establishing clearly the benefits of framing colonial law as jurisdictionally complex and unstable, opportunities are now in sight to push this perspective further in a number of directions.

One interesting set of problems involves questions about how conflicts over the prerogatives of delegated legal authorities to discipline and control subordinate or dependent populations related to the changing contours of imperial constitutions or ideologies of rule. Conference participants may explore the ways in which such figures as garrison commanders, plantation owners, ship captains, Company officials, missionaries, and others with some measure of legal authority positioned themselves in relation to both metropolitan and colonial law. Did they make innovative legal claims or exert influence on regional patterns? We invite investigations of the conditions under which such actors deferred to imperial authority, the sources they drew upon to defend their legal prerogatives, and the nature of their interactions with various courts. Other studies might consider the degree to which the politics of making and defending claims to semi-autonomous legal authority informed broader, even regional, political processes. As we bring such connections into sight, it may be possible to refine comparisons of the politics of legal pluralism in different parts of a colonial regime, or between the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean worlds.

A related theme focuses on the legal strategies of subordinate groups. Taking into account a framework of legal pluralism, scholars can move beyond the study of “resistance” to ask questions about the legal participation of formally subordinate groups—even some that were seemingly powerless before the law. Forum shopping, petitions for mercy, violence against magistrates, new genres of legal writing, maneuvers to escape indebtedness—these and other strategies had immediate and sometimes far-reaching institutional effects. In addition to tracing such connections, we might probe the formative influences on legal strategies. How did knowledge about law circulate? To what extent did information or stories about of the effectiveness of particular legal strategies carry across social strata, imperial divides, and oceans? How did legal actors imagine and describe plural legal orders? With attention to these and other, related topics, the conference seeks to open the study of legal pluralism to new approaches and insights.

Additional information, including the schedule, is available here. Note that attendance is free, but advance registration is required.

NOTICE: SSRN e-journals - (i) Laws, Norms, & Informal Orders and Indigenous Nations and (ii) People's Law

Two SSRN e-journals have announced the following

The Laws, Norms, & Informal Orders e-journal has announced:

Catholic Schools and Broken Windows
Margaret F. Brinig, Notre Dame Law School
Nicole Stelle Garnett, Notre Dame Law School

Debts, Disasters, and Delinquencies: The Case for a Mandatory Force Majeure Provision in Consumer Credit Agreements, and for a Consumer Credit Insurance Fund
Norman I. Silber, Hofstra University School of Law

Islamic Legal Theory, Secularism and Religious Pluralism: Is Modern Religious Freedom Sufficient for the Shari'a 'Purpose [Maqsid]' of 'Preserving Religion [Hifz Al-Din]?'
Andrew F. March, Yale University

Assessing the Effects of a 'Loser Pays' Rule on the American Legal System
Marie Gryphon, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

Disaster Mythology and the Law

Lisa Grow Sun, Associate Professor

Comparative Deterrence from Private Enforcement and Criminal Enforcement of the U.S. Antitrust Laws
Robert H. Lande, University of Baltimore - School of Law
Joshua P. Davis, University of San Francisco - School of Law

Should States Have a Legal Right to Reputation? Applying the Rationales of Defamation Law to the International Arena
Elad Peled, University of Haifa

China’s Lax Law Harbors Academic Misconduct
Xinglong Cao, A University, School of Law

The Indigenous Nations and People's Law e-journal has announced:
 
Relocation Revisited: Sex Trafficking of Native Women in the United States
Sarah Deer, William Mitchell College of Law
 
Tribal Citizen Participation in State and National Politics: Welcome Wagon or Trojan Horse
Michael D. Oeser, University of Wisconsin Law School
 
Notes on the Implementation by Latin American Courts of the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples
Christian Courtis, affiliation not provided to SSRN
 
Disrupted Attachments: A Social Context Complex Trauma Framework and the Lives of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada
Lori Haskell, University of Toronto - Department of Psychiatry
Melanie Randall, Faculty of Law, UWO
 
Note that with these and many other SSRN e-journals, you can subscribe for automatic updates.

NOTICE: Centre for the Study of Migration (Queen Mary University)

The Centre for the Study of Migration (Queen Mary University of London) has announced:

• The  London the Promised Land Revisited conference in celebration of 15 years of the Centre to be held on 15 May 2010. For registration and further information, contact louise.mead@qmul.ac.uk.
• The launch of Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture at a conference on 1-2 July 2010. The conference explore the points of nexus between migration and culture from theoretical and interdisciplinary angles as well as from artistic and pragmatic ones.

For these and other events, see the Centre’s website.

NOTICE: Stigall and Picker on Comparative and International Law

Dan Stigall and Colin Picker, both bloggers here, are also guest blogging on the Comparative Law Blog. Each has begun a discussion, from different positions, on the relationship between comparative and international law. You might have a look-in.

NOTICE: SSRN's Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law e-Journal

The latest SSRN Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law e-Journal includes the following:

• The Substantial Burden Mountain: Implications of the United States Supreme Court’s Denial of Certiorari in Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service- Kristine Pham, affiliation not provided to SSRN
• Indigenizing Intellectual Property Law: Customary Law, Legal Pluralism, and the Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, Identity, and Resources - Danielle M. Conway, University of Hawaii at Manoa - William S. Richardson School of Law, Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law at William S. Richardson Law School
• Formal and Informal Justice in Palestine: Dealing with the Legacy of Tribal Law - Asem Khalil, Birzeit University, NYU - School of Law
• Legal Subversion of the Criminal Justice Process? Judicial, Prosecutorial and Police Discretion in R. v. Edmondson, Kindrat and Brown - Lucinda Vandervort, University of Saskatchewan

Don't forget that you can sign up for automatic updates for this e-Journal. See SSRN for details.