Comparative Law News

A (Hasty) Cry for Help

I've taught Jurisprudence (Legal Philosophy) for many years now. Within the limitations of a twelve-week seminar format, I've always attempted to place the subject in comparative perspective, ie both across time and space. 

Indeed, insofar as possible this has been a sort of anthropology and social history of legal-normative thought as well. Anyone who knows me will know that I want to convey the 'hybridity' or complexity of normativity, past and present. This includes Western 'law' and 'legality', concepts that precede the state, but that can be distinguished from other forms of normativity. 

(But that's an argument for another time and place ...)

Each year for my class, I've used John Kelly's Short History of Legal Theory (1992). The book is imperfect, whiggish and Euro-centric, but I've found nothing better--at least not in English--for encouraging in-class discussions of 'law' in history. A more socio-legal history of normativity would be useful, but ...

A second book is then required for contemporary legal philosophy in the five or six weeks left in the semester. Each year, I've tried a different text, each with its own drawbacks. Only Roger Cotterrell's Politics of Jurisprudence: A Critical Introduction to Legal Philosophy has been used more than once. Many others are too limited in their focus or too long to be practical. Few teaching texts treat 'legal-normative pluralism' seriously, none make it central to the text.

In my class, these texts are supplemented by an article or two by William Twining, ie 'General jurisprudence' and perhaps 'Normative and legal pluralism: a global perspective'. Twining's General jurisprudence: understanding law from a global perspective (2009) is excellent, but it isn't a teaching text. The same is true of Paul Schiff Berman's Global legal pluralism: a jurisprudence of law beyond borders (2012). More importantly, Berman's book is a (prescriptive) normative jurisprudence rather than a (descriptive) jurisprudence of normativities. I'm not naive, but my approach presents hybridity as unavoidable, whether or not it is desirable. 

It might be too late for this semester, but I wonder if anyone has suggestions for a text in English that might better meet these requirements? I'm aware that I may just have to write such a book myself, ie either a monograph or a teaching text (a casebook-style compilation) that starts from the fact of hybrid normativities, places them in historical and comparative context, all the while reflecting on the canon. But, like you, I'm busy.

Let me know your thoughts.

-SPD

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The Institute of Art and Law is an educational organisation giving knowledge and perspective on the law relating to cultural heritage a concept which includes art, antiquities, archives, archaeology, architecture, monuments, treasure and much, much more.  IAL's educational remit is fulfilled through publishing and courses. It convenes distance learning and intensive courses (both public and in-house) on art and museums law, as well as seminars, study groups and conferences in the United Kingdom and abroad. It also publishes monographs and commentaries on all aspects of the law relating to cultural heritage, in addition to a quarterly periodical, Art Antiquity and Law, now in its eighteenth year.
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Catharine MacKinnon Receives AALS Section on Women in Legal Education Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime http://t.co/YD12Erxpku
— Feminist Law Profs (@FeministLawPrfs) January 16, 2014

Our weekly law & religion news roundup: Around the Web This Week http://t.co/Dm8Ironnln via @CLRForum #lawandreligion
— Ctr Law & Religion (@CtrLawReligion) January 17, 2014

What: Book presentation and debate
Where: Rome, Biblioteca del Senato della Repubblica "Giovanni Spadolini", Sala degli atti parlamentari, piazza della Minerva, 38
When: 16 January 2014, 4:00 pm


for more informations: http://www.senato.it/3421?evento=200


Here some pictures of the event:

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Workshop on Postnational constitutionalism and global governance http://t.co/yDXsOr0PpK @JudicialPhil @JurisDiversitas
— gianluigi palombella (@gianpalomb) January 15, 2014

Posted "The Law's Two Sides and Their Benefits.Domestic/International" http://t.co/zY8yVa3jjd Law under a non-domination p @JurisDiversitas
— gianluigi palombella (@gianpalomb) January 15, 2014

“Interesting, stimulating, challenging” Join us as a research assistant. We’re recruiting law graduates now: http://t.co/G22EHD9h1K
— Law Commission (@Law_Commission) January 15, 2014

Using Foreign Law in Interpreting the U.S. Constitution #comparativelaw http://t.co/31SIyZwbPi
— Andrea Ortolani (@ortospace) January 15, 2014

Jean Monnet PhD Researcher Series Seminar, Jan 29 at 16h30: Profs Karstedt & Schiek on ‘European Legal Studies & Sociological Approaches’.
— EU Law U.Leeds (@CELLS_Leeds) January 15, 2014

Comparative issues involving financial remedy proceedings on divorce in France and EnglandComparative issues… http://t.co/SwO1pXpaeO
— FBLS/AJFB (@fblsajfb) January 15, 2014

What: Totalitarianism, Law and the idea of Europe, Workshop on history of totalitarianism, nationalism and legal traditions, Call for papersWhere: University of Helsinki, FinlandWhen: 15-17 May 2014
Deadline: 15 February 2014


The purpose of the project "Reinventing the Foundations of European Legal Culture 1934-1964" (foundlaw.org) is to trace the genealogy of the idea of a common European legal past, its creation, influence and implications of the theory as an ideological project. As the project's first major event, they are organizing a workshop in Helsinki on the history of totalitarianism, nationalism and legal tradition(s). They therefore invite papers that explore the complex relationship between history and law from a variety of perspectives to advance our understanding of how legal traditions are created. Confirmed keynote speakers are Wolfgang Ernst (Zürich), Peter Fritzsche (Illinois), Nancy Partner (McGill), and Bo Stråth (Helsinki).Potential themes include but are not limited to:- Totalitarian ideologies and individual identities- History and narratives- Nationalism and law- The discovery of Europe as a theme- Continuity and discontinuity of the European (legal) tradition.
The conference is organized by the Foundlaw project, funded by the European Research Council.Please submit your abstract (300 words) as a (word/pdf) file to Heta Björklund at foundlaw@gmail.com, including your name, academic affiliation and address in your email.The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 15, 2014. They will inform of the selections by the end of February.There is no registration fee. The organizers are unfortunately unable to aid in the travel arrangements or accommodation of participants.

ARTICLE: Belavusau on Historical Revisionism in Comparative LawUladzislau Belavusau's "Historical Revisionism in Comparative Perspective: Law, Politics, and Surrogate Mourning" in Social and Political Philosophy eJournal,Vol. 7, No. 6: Jan 13, 2014, is now available on SSRN.

Recently the law on the Armenian genocide denial in France with a subsequent decision of the Conseil Constitutionnel (February 2012) shed fresh light on the controversial issue of historical revisionism. It disposed the issue in a wider perspective than a recurrent legal discussion on Holocaust denial. Furthermore, in drawing their bill, the authors of the French law invoked the EU Council Framework Decision 2008/913. This article demonstrates the chilling effects of that EU instrument for the freedom of speech in Europe. To these ends, it first explores the “European” model of legal engagement with historiography that is radically different from its counterpart in the USA. It further places this model in a fertile yet under-theorized comparative realm of three Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The CEE is a primary arena of the Holocaust, a region particularly sensitive to interpretations of World War II, and a battlefield of two totalitarian regimes. In normative terms, this comparative study of semantic and pragmatic differences between historical revisionism and hate speech, of victimhood and mens rea in the crime of Holocaust denial, as well as of the appropriation of selected episodes of World War II, concludes that the criminalization of historical revisionism constitutes a substantial impairment to the freedom of (academic) expression for the sake of politics of memory (Geschichtspolitik).

17 July (evening) to 19 July 2014Faculty of Law and Political Science –Aix-Marseille University - Aix-en-Provence, France

COMPARATIVE LAW AND …
Inherently interdisciplinary, the conference’s primary focus will be comparative law’s links to a wide variety of other disciplines and themes (e.g., anthropology, economics, feminism, history, the humanities, legal education, legal philosophy, literature, politics …). Proposals may be theoretical analyses or case studies on the past or present, North or South, East or West …
Proposals may be in either English or in French. Any proposal on comparative law will be considered. Panel proposals are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law. 
Proposals of circa 250 words (or 1000 words for panel proposals) should be submitted to Olivier Moréteau at moreteau@lsu.edu by 28 February 2014. Please attach a short biography or resume.
Registration fees are €200 (€125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2014). Membership information and information on fee payment is available on the Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.ie/).  
Note that registration fees don’t cover travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€50).

If want to see who's coming or let others know that you're attending, a Facebook Event Page has also been created at https://www.facebook.com/events/1393753610880875/.