RE: Legal Pluralism in Europe

The following article, now available on SSRN, might be of interest:

Nils Jansen, "Legal pluralism in Europe: national laws, European legislation, and non-legislative codifications"

The paper compares the present state of European private law with the plural structure of early modern law in Europe. This comparison reveals – despite important differences – important structural similarities. Perhaps the most striking one is the structural parallel in the piecemeal political legislation of the acquis communautaire on the one hand, and medieval Canon law and early modern local legislation on the other hand. The resulting fractions between the formal acquis communautaire and the informal acqus commun are an expression of a new plural structure of modern European private law that resembles the plural structure of the earlier ius commune, itself based on an informal and a formal body of law (Roman law viz Canon law).

NOTICE: Laïcité in Comparative Perspective

The Center for Law and Religion at St John's School of Law (US) has recently published a collection of papers drawn from its inaugural conference, Laïcité in Comparative Perspective:

At this conference, held in June 2010 at the St. John's Paris campus, American and European scholars presented papers and participated in robust roundtable discussions that compared the French model of church-state relations, laïcité, with models that exist in other countries, including the United States, Italy and Spain. Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia gave the Conference Introduction. The proceedings are now available at 49 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 1 (2010).

The Center for Law and Religion at St. John's School of Law provides a forum for an open dialogue on, and the in-depth study of, law and religion from domestic, international and comparative perspectives. We also offer our students a unique opportunity to examine the interplay between law and religion in our local and global communities. For more information about the Center and our programs, please visit our website or contact us at clr@stjohns.edu.

NOTICE: Fulbright Scholar Awards in the Middle East and North Africa, 2012-13

Fulbright Scholar Awards in the Middle East and North Africa, 2012-13

The Fulbright Scholar Program is now accepting applications for awards to teach and/or carry out research in the Middle East and North Africa in the 2012-13 academic year for periods of from 3 to 10 months.

Approximately 50 awards will be offered to scholars in any field of the arts, humanities, sciences, technology, social sciences, law, business and education. A PhD or terminal degree, a record of teaching and research and U.S. citizenship are required. Foreign language proficiency is not required for most teaching.

Deadline for applications is August 1, 2011.

For more information, visit http://catalog.cies.org/ or contact Gary Garrison, ggarrison@iie.org, 202-686-4019.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Biennial Conference of the Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and Humanities (Ottawa, 20-22 October 2011)

The Biennial Conference of the Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and Humanities (CILCH) will be held in Ottawa, Canada from October 20-22, 2011. Its theme is Dis/Locating Law:

Dislocation is a phenomenon of space, place and time. To dislocate something is to upset, complicate, or displace it. It involves getting things out of place, out of order, and out of time, or to question if things are indeed in their ‘right’ place and time. Dislocating, then, can be disorienting; it can dislodge comfortable assumptions, and it can unsettle, perhaps even painfully, what has gone before. Dislocation invites different perspectives, produces new cartographies, disrupts teleologies. This conference will feature papers and presentations which unsettle the place of law in relation to political, ethical, social, cultural or symbolic orders.

The Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and Humanities (CILCH) invites you to participate in its 2011 conference on the theme of dis/locating law. The conference is interdisciplinary, drawing together scholars whose research addresses the intersections among culture, the humanities and law, including but not limited to studies of law and literature, law and film/television, cultural practices of regulation, mediation and law, intersections of cultural theory and the legal, alternative visions of legally coded practices, and so on.

This year’s theme is intentionally broad in order to provide an open-ended focus for exploration. The conference is hosted with the goals of stimulating conversations among diverse scholars with shared interests, of continuing to foster the growing community of law, culture and humanities scholars in Canada, and of contributing to a global network of scholarship in these areas.

If you are interested in giving a paper, hosting a roundtable, or offering another form of presentation (either almost finished works or works in progress), please submit a proposal to CILCH@carleton.ca, as follows:

- title of proposed paper/presentation
- 200 word biography of presenter(s)
- contact information for presenter(s)
- an abstract outlining the paper/presentation of a maximum of 300 words
- detail on any technical requirements (data projector, sound system, etc.)

We very much look forward to receiving your proposal and to yet another productive and thought-provoking CILCH gathering.

The deadline for submission is June 15, 2011.

REMINDER: Third International Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists

The Third International Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists will be held 20-23 June 2011 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Registration closes on 31 May 2011.


The theme 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

For additional information, including the (very diverse) provisional programme, see the conference website.

NOTICE: Transnational Legal Theory

The latest issue of Transnational Legal Theory has been released.

It includes

Articles

The Dual Foundation of Universal Jurisdiction: Towards a Jurisprudence for the ‘Court of Critique’

Itamar Mann

Civilising Globalism: Transnational Norm-Building Networks as a Lever of the Emerging Global Legal Order?
Ulrich Mückenberger

Reviews

Legality’s Frontier: A review of Keith Culver and Michael Giudice, Legality’s Borders: An Essay in General Jurisprudence
WJ Waluchow

Integration and Function: Taming Governance in the EU? A review of Poul F Kjaer, Between Governing and Governance: On the Emergence,Function and Form of Europe’s Post-National Constellation
Sarah Kahn-Nisser and Gianluigi Palombella

The Law of Laws: Reviews of Yuval Shany, Regulating Jurisdictional Relations between National and International Courts and George Letsas, A Theory of Interpretation of the European Convention of Human Rights
Pavlos Eleftheriadis

Locating the Limits of Negotiation: Islam, Human Rights, and Citizenship: A review of Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a
Mohamad Al-Hakim

Critical Notice: A Liberal Theory of International Justice: A review of Andrew Altman and Christopher Heath Wellman, A Liberal Theory of International Justice
Idil Boran

What’s New, and What’s Different? On the Republican Contribution to Political Theory: A review of Samantha Besson and José Luis Martí (eds), Legal Republicanism: National and International Perspectives
Cécile Laborde

Adapting to Climate Change: A review of Jane McAdam (ed), Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Benjamin J Richardson

NOTICE: Law and Language

The 2011 programme on Law and Language, part of the Current Legal Issues series, has been convened by Professor Michael Freeman and Dr Fiona Smith of UCL's Faculty of Law:

This interdisciplinary colloquium celebrates the wide and diverse relationship between Law and Language. Language and law are inextricably linked in many ways: rules are expressed, understood, and interpreted in language; legislation too is a special form of expression, as is a judge’s opinion. We might think too about the way we speak about law:

how does the language of rights or the language of power harness, constrain and change our perceptions of law? How language works to shape and enrich our understanding of law is also important: for example, semantics, hermeneutics, linguistics, logic, semiotics, psycholinguistics, syntax, pragmatics, each reveal deeper ideas. Analytic techniques from many other disciplines like Literature, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Economics, Geography, Anthropology and Psychology (to name but a few) each reveal new insights into the way we perceive language and law in general, how we work with language in law and how we might understand the place of language in specific areas of law, including Contract, Tort or International Law for example. The relationship between law and language extends to broader notions of language as communication too, like the crucial role of silence and non- verbal communication. In essence, the relationship between law and language is varied and complex. The ideas expressed here only touch on the many diverse ways law and language interact. The 16th Annual Colloquium of Current Legal Issues covers a broad spectrum of ideas and disciplines on the relationship between law and language.

See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/language/index.shtml for additional information.

NOTICE: Tuori on Reason and WIll in Law

Ashgate has recently published, as part of their 'Applied Legal Philosophy' series, Kaarlo Tuori (Helsinki)'s Ratio and Voluntas: The Tension Between Reason and Will in Law (2011):

From the ancient beginnings of Western legal tradition, law has been conceived as traversed by a fundamental tension between power (will) and reason. This volume examines the tension between these two poles in modern law, building on the views of distinctive features of the ideal-typical mature modern legal system that was previously presented in the author's work, Critical Legal Positivism (Ashgate 2002).

NOTICE: Emerging Strategic Research Theme on Diversity Studies (University of Hong Kong)

I just received the following call for papers for on the Emerging Strategic Research Theme on Diversity Studies (University of Hong Kong). Note that the call appears to be over, but that the conference has not yet taken place:

RECOGNITION AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY AND INCLUSION
IN THE 21ST CENTURY: MANAGING DIVERSITY IN PLURAL SOCIETIES

28th & 29th April 2011
The University of Hong Kong

Migration has generated an increasingly borderless world which has challenged the nation-state model as an effective tool for the governance of multiplicities and the management of diversity. As the nation state is faced with the challenge of dealing with immigrants, non-nationals, refugees and others with newly emerging identities, there is a need to reassess existing frameworks for recognition of the claims of minority communities.

Whilst civil society movements over the course of the last century have helped secure legal recognition of the rights of minorities, the complexities of plural identities showcase the weaknesses of the current categorizations which form the basis for the extension or denial of rights. As a result, it is necessary to critically examine the resulting marginalization of individuals and groups on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, national minority status, refugee status, gender, age, sexuality, health, and disability. This conference seeks to explore the changing dimensions of the politics of identity and inclusion and their implications for governance and the protection of minority communities in plural societies. It will draw on the concepts of equality, non-discrimination, identity, inclusion, minority rights and human rights to address the comprehensive challenges posed by life at the margins of society.

THEMES:

The Conference solicits papers that address any of the following themes:

1. National, Multiple and Fluid Identities: The New Politics of Identity and Recognition
2. Religion and the State: Fissured Discourses on Secularism, Accommodation and Tolerance
3. Legal Pluralism and Cultural Diversity
4. Citizenship, Participation, Inclusion and Belonging in Diverse Societies
5. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Inequality

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

People from all disciplines are invited to submit proposals for consideration. Please submit a 300 word abstract by 31 January 2011 to:

CONTACT: Puja Kapai
Email: puja@hku.hk

including the following information:

(a) Your full name
(b) Institutional affiliation
(c) Email address
(d) The relevant conference theme which your paper will address
(e) The title of your paper

Abstracts should be in Word format and the file name should be the author's full name.

The subject of the e-mail should be "Diversity Conference Abstract Submission" and should include a short CV. All submissions will be reviewed and the authors of accepted abstracts will be informed by mid-February 2011. Draft papers are due on 31st March 2011. Papers presented may be eligible for selection for publication in an edited volume.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

For further information, please visit: http://www.law.hku.hk/diversity/

NOTICE: Correlations -- Law, Language and Culture

I received the following message courtesy of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA):

Correlations: Law, Language and Culture, The Third International Summer School on the Cultural Study of the Law will be held from August 7 to August 21, 2011 in Osnabrück, Germany. Hosted by the Institute of English and American Studies, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, the Birkbeck School of Law at the University of London, York University, Toronto, The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and the European Legal Studies Institute at the University of Osnabrück, the summer school seeks to bring together graduate students from around the world to promote and examine the interdisciplinary study and research of law and culture.

During the two week program, students will partake in a unique experience of scholarly collaboration and exchange through workshops, public lectures, panel discussions, excursions and a final symposium. The School will offer a total of four workshops for 20-25 international graduate students over a two-week period. The first workshop will be concerned with basic theories, concepts and perspectives within the emerging field of cultural legal studies, focusing specifically on the range and potential of interdisciplinary studies and approaches. The remaining three workshops will focus on key areas of critical inquiry that have been central to the dynamic development of the field and are of particular importance within an European context, for example:

**The relation between human rights and cultural rights
**Towards a Culture of Rights?: Law, Literature and the Cultural Presence of the Law
**Copyright, Authorship and the 'Propertization' of Culture

Participant Eligibility: Doctoral candidates in literature, the law, the arts, the humanities, and the related social sciences are invited to apply, as are advanced students pursuing a J.D. or its equivalent (such as the L.L.B). Young scholars or junior faculty members who have received a Ph.D. or corresponding degree in the last five years are also eligible. There are openings for approximately 25 students to participate in the summer school.

Application Process: Applicants should complete:

**An application form, indicating preferred workshop that can be found at: http://www.blogs.uni-osnabrueck.de/lawandculture/admission/
**A statement of purpose no more than two pages long, describing current scholarly interests, previous research, and plans for how the Summer School would specifically further these interests and plans.
**An up-to-date curriculum vitae.

Students interested in taking part in the Summer School should submit their applications no later than April 30, 2011. Detailed information about the school, the workshops, international faculty, admission and fees can be found at: http://www.blogs.uni-osnabrueck.de/lawandculture. Please direct all inquiries about the school to our coordinator's office at lawandculture@uos.de.