BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: The Evolution of Law and the State in Europe

A new book from Hart Publishing by Spyridon Flogaitis. Click here to buy this title.

Most books about public power and the state deal with their subject from the point of view of legal theory, sociology or political science. This book, without claiming to deliver a comprehensive theory of law and state, aims to inform by offering a fresh reading of history and institutions, particularly as they have developed in continental Europe and European political and legal science. Drawing on a remarkably wide range of sources from both Western and Eastern Europe, the author suggests that only by knowing the history of the state, and state administration since the twelfth century, can we begin to comprehend the continuing importance of the state and public powers in modern Europe. In an era of globalization, when the importance of international law and institutions frequently lead to the claim that the state either no longer exists or no longer matters, the truth is in fact more complex. We now live in an era where the balance is shifting away from the struggle to build states based on democratic values, towards fundamental values existing above and beyond the borders of nations and states, under the watchful gaze of judges bound by the rule of law.

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: The law of superheroes

An intriguing and entertaining look at how America’s legal system would work using the world of comic books.

The dynamic duo behind the popular website LawAndTheMultiverse.com breaks down even the most advanced legal concepts for every self-proclaimed nerd.

James Daily and Ryan Davidson—attorneys by day and comic enthusiasts all of the time—have clearly found their vocation, exploring the hypothetical legal ramifications of comic book tropes, characters, and powers down to the most deliciously trivial detail.

The Law of Superheroes asks and answers crucial speculative questions about everything from constitutional law and criminal procedure to taxation, intellectual property, and torts, including:

• Could Superman sue if someone exposed his true identity as Clark Kent?
• Are members of the Legion of Doom vulnerable to prosecution under RICO?
• Do the heirs of a superhero who comes back from the dead get to keep their inherited property after their loved one is resurrected?
• Does it constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” to sentence an immortal like Apocalypse to life in prison without the possibility of parole?

Engaging, accessible, and teaching readers about the law through fun hypotheticals, The Law of Superheroes is a must-have for legal experts, comic nerds, and anyone who will ever be called upon to practice law in the comic multiverse.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 25 YEARS AFTER THE TRANSFORMATION - LAW AND LEGAL CULTURE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE BETWEEN CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY

Deadline: 31 December 2014
Quarter of a century ago, attheturn of 1989 and 1990, Central and Eastern Europe - then known as the ‘Soviet bloc’ - experienced an unprecedented socio-economic and political transformation. The hitherto existing system, known as ‘Actually Existing Socialism’, crumbled, and countries of the region started a transition towards a capitalist market economy and a political democracy.
The aim of the conference is to focus on the socio-legal aspects of the transformation. Whilst some areas, such as lustration and transitional justice, have been already thoroughly researched, others such as the impact of transformation upon private law, procedural law or general administrative law still remain to be analysed in more detail. In particular, an aspect which is generally neglected in contemporary scholarship are so-called ‘legal survivals’ of the socialist period, that is those legal institutions which have not been removed after transformation but still remain in place. Furthermore, some scholars argue that there is a strong continuity in legal culture, such as attitudes of judges and scholars to legal interpretation or generally held views on the place of law in society. Our aim is to invite a broad outlook upon the socio-legal aspects of transformation, including the role of law in the transformation of social conciousness, the construction of collective identities and the framing of social dialogue.

The conference will take place at the Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic), on 16-17.4.2015. 
Click here for the full text of this call.

CALLS FOR PAPERS - BACK-TO-BACK CONFERENCES: Juris Diversitas (2-4 June 2015) and Irish Society of Comparative Law (5-6 June 2015)

NOTE: CALLS FOR PAPERS

The Juris Diversitas and Irish Society of Comparative Law annual conferences will be hosted back-to-back at the School of Law of the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland.

The theme of the former is ‘The State and/of Comparative Law’; the theme of the latter is ‘Comparative Law: From Antiquity to Modernity’.

See the links here and here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The State and/of Comparative Law - Juris Diversitas Conference (2-4 June 2015 - Limerick, Ireland)

CALL FOR PAPERS

JURIS DIVERSITAS

ANNUAL CONFERENCE  

2-4 June 2015

School of Law, University of Limerick

Limerick, Ireland

THE STATE AND/OF COMPARATIVE LAW

While any proposal on comparative law (broadly conceived) will be considered, the conference’s primary theme is the relationship between social and legal norms and social and legal institutions. In memory of Roderick A Macdonald (1948-2014) and H Patrick Glenn (1940-2014), both former members of our Advisory Council, particular attention will be given to the diverse themes of their scholarship: for example, ‘common laws’, ‘constitutive polyjurality’, ‘critical legal pluralism’, ‘everyday law’, and ‘legal cosmopolitanism’.

As with our past conferences, proposals on a wide variety of topics will be accepted: comparative jurisprudence and legislation, legal philosophy, legal education, law reform, etc. Presentations may be theoretical analyses or case studies on the past or present, North or South, East or West ….

Panel proposals and interdisciplinary presentations are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law. While parallel sessions of three twenty-minute presentations will be used, we welcome more original session structures.

Proposals should be in English or French. Proposals of c250 words (or 1000 words for panel proposals) should be submitted to Olivier Moréteau at moreteau@lsu.edu by 15 January 2015, with a short biography or resume (c250 words). Please send Word documents only, with minimal formatting.

Registration fees are €200 (€125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2015). Membership and fee payment information is available on the Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/). Note that fees don’t cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€50).

BOOK: Duve (ed) on Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches

I'm delighted to announce the publication of Thomas Duve (ed), Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches. 

The book is the first on a new series--Global Perspectives on Legal History 1--from the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History. It's free online here and available in Print on Demand. 

And for those interested, it includes my 'Entangled up in Red, White, and Blue: Spanish West Florida and the American Territory of Orleans, 1803–1810':

Legal History presents a broad panorama of historical processes that trigger theoretical reflections on legal transfers and legal transplants and on the problem of the reception and assimilation laws and other modes of normativity. In this volume, legal historians across the globe reflect on their analytical traditions and present case studies in order to discuss how entangled histories of law can be understood, analyzed and written.

In the first section of this volume, ‘Traditions of Transnational Legal History’, the authors revisit specific achievements and shortcomings of legal historical research against the backdrop of postcolonial and global studies. Reflections on our own disciplinary traditions that reveal the path-dependencies include critical accounts on the tradition of ‘European Legal History’,‘Codification history’, the emergence of ‘Hindu Law’, and the methodological aspects of Comparative Law.

The four articles in the second section, ‘Empires and Law’, showcase entangled legal histories forged in imperial spaces, for instance, through treaties concluded in the spheres of influence of ancient Roman Empire, which in this instance is analyzed as a process of ‘narrative transculturation’. Analogously, transnational institutions adjudicating merchant-disputes in the Early Modern Spanish Empire and normative frameworks constructed in a multilingual space shortly after its decline are analyzed as ‘diffusion and hybridization’. And finally, the spotlight is cast on the so-called ‘craftsmen of transfer’ and the bureaucrats that took practical comparative law as the basis to design the German colonial law.

In the third section, ‘Analyzing transnational law and legal scholarship in 19th and early 20th century’, seven case studies offer theoretical reflections about entangled legal histories. The discussions range from civil law codifications in Latin America as ‘reception’ or ‘normative transfers’, entangled histories of constitutionalism as ‘translations’ and ‘legal transfer’, formation of transnational legal orders in 19th century International Law and the International Law on state bankruptcies to the impact of transnational legal scholarship on criminology. All articles engage in methodological reflections and discussions about their concrete application in legal historical research.

JURIS DIVERSITAS BOOK SERIES UPDATE: Farran, Gallen, Hendry, and Rautenbach (eds), The Diffusion of Law is added to 2015 Titles

Juris Diversitas is proud to have a book series with Ashgate Publishing (we're also a Publishing Partner): 

Rooted in comparative law, the Juris Diversitas Series focuses on the interdisciplinary study of legal and normative mixtures and movements. Our interest is in comparison broadly conceived, extending beyond law narrowly understood to related fields. Titles might be geographical or temporal comparisons. They could focus on theory and methodology, substantive law, or legal cultures. They could investigate official or unofficial ‘legalities’, past and present and around the world. And, to effectively cross spatial, temporal, and normative boundaries, inter- and multi-disciplinary research is particularly welcome. 

The series currently includes:

• Seán Patrick Donlan and Lukas Heckerdon-Ursheler (eds), Concepts of Law: Comparative, Jurisprudential, and Social Science Perspectives 

• Sue Farran, Esin Örücü, and Seán Patrick Donlan (eds), A Study of Mixed Legal Systems: Endangered, Entrenched, or Blend

Launches of these titles will be announced soon.

Among other titles, the following are due in 2015:

• Vernon Palmer, Mohamed Y Mattar, and Anna Koppel (eds), Mixed Legal Systems, East and West
• Shauna van Praagh and Helge Deldek (eds), Stateless Law: Evolving Boundaries of a Discipline
• Daniela Berti, Anthony Good, and Gilles Tarabout (eds), Of Doubt and Proof: Ritual and Legal Practices of Judgment
• Sue Farran, James Gallen, Jennifer Hendry, and Christa Rautenbach (eds), The Diffusion of Law: The Movement of Laws and Norms around the World

While we anticipate publishing future collections (original, conference-based, Festschriften, etc), we're also very interested in publishing monographs and student texts. 

Note that selected volumes are also provided free with membership.

ARTICLE: Methodological pluralism and legal comparison

A new interesting article From social and political philosophy eJournal.

Methodological Pluralism and Legal Comparison

Roberto Scarciglia 

University of Trieste
May 1, 2014

in R. Scarciglia and W. Menski (eds.)m Islamic Symbols in European Courts, Cedam-Kluwer, 2014, pp.21-34. 
Abstract:      

The aim of this paper is to show how the methodological tools used in much more comparative analyses are not suitable to study complex phenomena as the diversity and legal implications of religious factors on the decision of the courts.

Click here for more details.

WANTED: Youngish Society would like to meet Complementary Societies and Individuals.

WANTED

Youngish society would like to meet complementary societies and individuals. Both trysts and marriage(s) considered. Long distance relationships acceptable, but willing to relocate. Fun and travel anticipated. 

Must accept bald men. Size irrelevant.

Juris Diversitas

PS Sense of humour essential.

BOOK: Rohe on Islamic Law in Past and Present

Mathias Rohe, Islamic Law in Past and Present, tr. Gwendolin Goldbloom:

Islamic Law in Past and Present, written by the lawyer and Islamicist Mathias Rohe, is the first comprehensive study for decades on Islamic law, legal theory, reform mechanisms and the application of Islamic law in Islamic countries and the Muslim diaspora. It provides information based on an abundance of Oriental and Western sources regarding family and inheritance law, contract and economic law, penal law, constitutional, administrative and international law. The present situation and ‘law in action’ are highlighted particularly. This includes examples collected during field studies on the application of Islamic law in India, Canada and Germany.