Comparative Law News

What: Conference "Regimi giuridici delle transizioni" Where: Università degli Studi di Catania, Dipartimento Seminario Giuridico, Villa Cerami, Aula Magna When: 11 March 2013, 9:00 am
SPEAKERS: 
Jacopo Torrisi (Univ. Catania)  Il Tribunale Speciale per la Difesa dello Stato
Camilla Poesio (Univ. Ca' Foscari Venezia) Misura di prevenzione? Misura di sicurezza? Misura alternativa all’azione giudiziaria? Il confino fascista e la questione della pericolosità
Lutz Klinkhammer (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom - Istituto Storico Germanico di Roma) I tribunali speciali nella Germania nazista
Jörg Luther (Univ. Piemonte Orientale “A. Avogadro”) Le piccole costituzioni italiane tra il 1943 e il 1948
Alessia Di Stefano (Univ. Catania) Gli esiti dei provvedimenti della Repubblica Sociale Italiana nella nuova Repubblica Italiana
Cecilia Nubola (Istituto Storico Italo Germanico, Trento) Giustizia di transizione: il caso dei provvedimenti di grazia nei confronti dei “collaborazionisti” (1945-1955)
Michela Ponzani (Univ. Firenze) Giustizia di transizione e processi di ricostruzione identitaria nazionale, nel passaggio dalla Monarchia alla Repubblica
Roundtable with:  Paolo Cappellini (Univ. Firenze) and Giuseppe Speciale (Univ. Catania)

The new issue of the Journal of Constitutional History (Giornale di Storia Costituzionale), 24.2 (2012) is now available. This issue is devoted to: "The Commonwealth of Australia: Themes and Traditions in Australian Constitutional Law and History".  
CONTENTS: Introduction: The Commonwealth of Australia / Introduzione. Il Commonwealth australiano, 5 Augusto Zimmermann
Foundations ‘Una società di società’: Why Australia is a Federation / ‘Una società di società’: perché l’Australia è una federazione, 23 Nicholas Aroney
Why Australia Does Not Have, and Does Not Need, a National Bill of Rights / Perché l’Australia non ha, e non ha bisogno di avere, un Bill of Rights nazionale, 35 James Allan
Directions The External Affairs Power in Australia and in Germany: Different Solutions, Similar Outcome? / Il potere degli Affari esteri in Australia e in Germania: diverse soluzioni, analogo risultato?, 49 Jürgen Bröhmer
Engineers: The Case that Changed Australian Constitutional History / Engineers: il caso che cambiò la storia costituzionale australiana, 65 Michelle Evans
The Power of the Purse: An Examination of Fiscal Federalism in Australia / Il potere della borsa: un esame del federalismo fiscale in Australia, 81 Lorraine Finlay
The Australian Constitution and Expressive Reform / La Costituzione Australiana e la qualità espressiva della riforma, 95 Eric Ghosh
Interpreting the Australian Constitution: Express Provisions and Unexpressed General Principles / Interpretare la Costituzione Australiana: provvedimenti espressi e principi generali inespressi, 117 Jeffrey Goldsworthy
The Validity of Henry VIII Clauses in Australian Federal Legislation / La validità delle Clausole di Enrico VIII nella legislazione federale australiana, 133 Gabriël A. Moens, John Trone
Australian State Courts and Chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution – Interpretation and Re-Interpretation and the Creation of Australian Constitutional “Orthodoxy” / I Tribunali di Stato australiani e il Capitolo III della Costituzione del Commonwealth – Interpretazione e re-interpretazione e la creazione della “Ortodossia” costituzionale australiana, 145 Sarah Murray
Authors / Autori, 159
Abstracts, 161

At the occasion of the International Francqui Chair held by Prof. H. Pihlajamäki (Helsinki), Ghent University organizes an international colloquium on the theme "Laymen as Judges in European Courts".

Prof. dr. Paul Van Cauwenberghe (rector, Ghent University) will hand over the University's medal on the first day of the event.

A complete list of speakers, as well as the time schedule, is available on the Ghent Legal History Institute's website. Prior registration with Mrs. Karin Pensaert is compulsory (Karin.Pensaert@UGent.be)

The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme offers postdoctoral fellowships to researchers in the social and human sciences for periods of nine months as part of its “Fernand Braudel-IFER” (International Fellowships for Experienced Researchers) programme. This programme is supported by the European Union (Action Marie Curie – COFUND – 7th PCRD). 

This programme is also supported by the FMSH, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Direction des relations européennes et internationales et de la coopération), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Köln, Germany), Princeton University (USA), The Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), the Ecole Centrale Paris, the Institut de recherche stratégique de l’Ecole militaire - ministère de la Défense (IRSEM), the Bruno Kessler foundation (Trento, Italy), the Labex Dynamite, Hastec, IEC, IPOPS, Med, OBVIL, OT-med, Resmed, Tepsis and TransferS. The programme is also carried out in collaboration with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). 
 
The Fernand Braudel-IFER programme breaks down into two sections 1.  The Fernand Braudel-IFER incoming programme is designed for residencies in France (for researchers who belong to a foreign research centre). This programme targets applicants from all countries. From March 2013 onwards, candidates must apply to specific fellowships, offered by several Research institutions and “Laboratories of excellence” (Labex), partners of the programme. For details on these institutions and the fellowships offered, see Call March 2013 and Short presentation of the partners. 
2.  The Fernand Braudel-IFER outgoing programme is designed for research stays in another European country (for researchers who belong to a French research centre). This programme targets researchers residing in France who would like to benefit from a research stay in another European country (EU Member State or associate). Since 2010, the Clemens Heller fellowships (Outgoing to Germany) have been integrated, while keeping their own identity, in the new programme “Fernand Braudel-IFER”. The Clemens Heller fellowships are not designed to fit in a specific research frame. Applicants design their own research project and choose themselves their host laboratory in Germany. From March 2013 onwards, applicants willing to go to another European country (besides Germany) apply only to targeted fellowships offered by institutions and research centers combinations (Labex).
For details on the institutions and fellowships offered, see Call March 2013.   Call for applications :   The Fernand Braudel-IFER programme offers postdoctoral fellowships to researchers in the social and human sciences (SHS) who wish to have an international research experience.

• The Fernand Braudel-IFER incoming programme is intended for foreign researchers who wish to benefit from a research stay in France.
• The Fernand Braudel-IFER outgoing programme is intended for researchers residing in France, whoo whish to benefit from a research stay in another European country (EU member states or affiliates). Candidates who wish to make a research stay in Germany should apply to the Fernand Braudel-IFER outgoing/Clemens Heller subprogramme.

These research stays are designed to enable researchers to:

• Carry out a research project in a host laboratory
• Integrate scientific networks in France and other European countries
• Build lasting partnerships between their home institution and the host institution

Applicable scientific disciplines
All social and human sciences are eligible. An interdisciplinary approach to research topics is encouraged. 
Duration of the fellowship
9 months. Fellowship holders must start their research stay maximum 6 months after the obtention of the grant.
Amount of the fellowship
The amount of the monthly stipend for room & board and living expenses is €2,000 (euros).
The cost of medical insurance is covered for the researchers hosted in France.
Travel expenses (return travel fare) between the researcher’s country of residence and France or between France and the host country will be covered, subject to prior approval.
Calendar:
Two calls for applications per year (deadlines for applications are 31 March and 30 September). Applications  should be submitted exclusively online, through the online application form available on top of this page.

Copernicus Center Press has published Jerzy Stelmach, Bartosz Brożek, Mateusz Hohol (eds), The many faces of normativity (2012). It is:

A collection of essays dealing with the issue of normativity from various academic and scientific perspectives. The Reader will learn how phenomena such as norms, morality and rule-following are described and explained in philosophy, biology, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience. In addition, a discussion of the naturalistic fallacy from the philosophical and ethical perspectives will be included.
The Table of Contents includes:

 Part One: Foundations of Normativity

Robert Audi
The Nature of Normativity and the Project of Naturalizing the Normative

Jan Woleński
Some Analogies Between Normative and Epistemic Discourse

Jaap Hage
The Deontic Furniture of the World. An Analysis of the Basic Concepts that Embody Normativity

Anna Brożek
The Naturalistic Fallacy From the Methodological Point of View

Jerzy Stelmach
The Naturalistic and Antinaturalistic Fallacies in Normative Discourse

Part Two: Key Debates

Bartosz Brożek
The Normativity of Meaning

Aeddan Shaw
The Perspectivist Account of the Normativity of Meaning Debate
Mateusz Hohol
The Normativity of Mathematics. A Neurocognitive Approach
  Marcin Gorazda
Normativity According to Hayek

Marta Soniewicka
A Command Without a Commander – From the Paradigm of Normativity to the Paradigm of Responsibility

Part Three: Normativity and Natural Sciences

Edward Nęcka
Normativity: A Psychological Perspective

Marcin Siwek, Rafał Jaeschke, Dominika Dudek, Natalia Czyżowska
Moral Development, Normativity and Mental Disorders

Bartłomiej Kucharzyk
Is There a Normative Module? Some Remarks on the Wason Selection Task Experiments in the Field of Normative Reasoning

Wojciech Załuski
From Tit for Tat and Tribalism to the Golden Rule. Remarks on the Development of Moral Ideas

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The London School of Economics and Political Science offers Postdoctoral Fellows (up to five positions) on a Programme of Research on Inequality and Poverty in India. 
Fixed term for up to three years and to ideally commence in October 2013. 
Salary is not less than £32,469 pa inclusive (pro rata if part time)


The LSE Anthropology Department is pleased to invite applications to the above posts to be funded by the ESRC and the EU ERC. The positions offer an exciting opportunity to join an international research team working on inequality and poverty led by Dr Alpa Shah in collaboration with Dr Jens Lerche (SOAS), Dr Clarinda Still (Oxford), Professor Jonathan Parry (LSE) and Professor Barbara Harriss-White (Oxford). Successful candidates will benefit from engagement with a number of international experts as well as a number of in-house experts such as Mukulika Banerjee, Laura Bear, Stuart Corbridge and Deborah James. The aim is to develop perspectives of political economy within the discipline of anthropology by ethnographically investigating the persistence of poverty amongst adivasis and dalits in the belly of the Indian economic boom.



Background


Too often the way in which we theorise rural social transformation draws disproportionately on the agrarian transition as experienced in Western Europe. By focusing on the case of the poorest sections of society in contemporary India (eg adivasis and dalits), we seek to develop a comparative framework for the study of poverty that focuses on the interrelationship between economic and other aspects of the production of inequality (such as caste, ethnicity and religion). We will explain the processes through which poverty and processes of socio-economic marginalisation persist in India, and why and how they affect some groups more than others. Within the discipline of anthropology we seek to reinvigorate the significance of understanding the transformation in social relations and interactions between people which affect the ways in which they reproduce themselves, exploit and use each other; these are processes which create both poverty and welfare. The overall aim is for our ethnographically informed studies to contribute to a comparative project exploring changing patterns of inequality and poverty.


Details


Fellows will join a collaborative research training and writing programme with international expert advisors including Professor Jan Breman, Professor Ravi Srivastava, Professor K P Kannan, Professor Patricia Jeffery, Dr Isabelle Guérin, Dr Matthew McCartney and Dr Bengt Karlsson. They will join one of the leading Departments of Anthropology in the world, contribute to its distinguished and cutting-edge Friday morning weekly Research Seminar. In the first phase of the Fellowship, Fellows will actively participate in and contribute to a weekly research training programme based at the LSE. In the second phase of the Fellowship, they will spend at least 12 months undertaking a substantive piece of new field-research. In the final phase of the Fellowship, Fellows will participate in a weekly writing programme based at the LSE. Some aspects of the research will be developed collaboratively and conducted across the field sites of each Fellow for the programme to be comparative as a whole. However, it is fully expected that Fellows will develop their own independent research trajectories over the course of the Fellowship within the frame of the overall research programme. Candidates should ideally seek to work in rural central and eastern India (including Bihar, Eastern UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and northern Andhra Pradesh) but applications for all parts of the country will be considered. In exceptional circumstances, candidates seeking to work reduced hours will be considered. Over the course of the Fellowship, successful candidates are expected to finalise their prior work for publication, begin to develop the new research undertaken into a monograph and single authored articles, as well as work on a series of collaborative articles with members of the team, and contribute to an impact plan.


Requirements


Before commencing post, Fellows must have submitted a PhD. The PhD should be in Social
Anthropology or in a related discipline which has required them to undertake extensive long-term ethnographic field research in India. They should be able to work well in a team.


Applications Procedure


To apply for this post please go to www.lse.ac.uk/JobsatLSE and click on ‘Vacancies’ .


Candidates will be asked to submit the following:


1) A Covering letter
2) A CV
3) Two supporting documents:


· A sample of written work of chapter or article length
· A research statement of no more than four pages. This should include:
o 1-2 page summary of PhD thesis
o A short summary of 2 pages on how they might contribute to the overall comparative Programme. More than one possible direction may be proposed, at the discretion of the candidate. This document will form a basis for discussion if the applicant is shortlisted. It is anticipated that each individual study will to some extent be modified to optimize the coherence of the project as a whole.


4) Names of three academic references


Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Alpa Shah: a.m.shah@lse.ac.uk


Applications should be received by 4 April 2013.

Filling the Gaps: The Study of Judicial Creativity and Equity in Mixed Jurisdictions and Beyond
Catania, Italy - May 27-28, 2013

NOTE THAT THE CALL FOR ABSTRACTS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2013 (SEE BELOW)


The Protection Project at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), in cooperation with the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists (WSMJJ), and the Tulane University Law School Eason Weinmann Center for Comparative Law, invite the submission of papers for an international conference on "Filling the Gaps: The Study of Judicial Creativity and Equity in Mixed Jurisdictions and Beyond" scheduled take place in Catania, Italy on May 27-28, 2013: Our host for this conference is the Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e sociali of the University of Catania.
The conference explores the sources, methods and approaches used by the courts in mixed jurisdictions when they face a lacuna in the law, ie when they arrive at a case of first impression without a legal rule.
The following questions are meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive.

• What differences exist in the approaches to gap-filling in mixed, civilian and common law systems?
• What differences in technique exist within the mixed jurisdictions themselves, eg between codified systems and uncodified systems?
• To what extent is the borrowing of common law solutions taken to be "equity" or gap-filling? Is this considered a legitimate form of equity?
• To what extent is "equity" understood as a civilian concept? Is it fully divorced from the "Equity" of the common law?
• How are gaps defined, revealed or recognized? Is their existence a precondition of equitable activity? Is there a taxonomy of gaps?
• Is there an established procedure, a Directory Provision, a hierarchy of sources to be consulted, or is the process of gap-filling left entirely to the discretion of the judge?
• To what extent is this form of judicial activity synonymous with the production of seminal and leading cases?
• Which substantive fields of the law are particularly fertile for gap-filling?

Papers that explore gap-filling in either single or multiple fields of private or public law are welcome.


We invite you to submit a 1-2 page abstract of your paper by email to the selection committee c/o Ms. Anna Koppel, Director of Research and Development, The Protection Project (akoppel1@jhu.edu) no later than March 8, 2013.


Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by March 15, 2015, and invited to present their papers at the conference. The expenses of conference speakers will be covered by the organizers.


Conference proceedings will be jointly published by The Protection Project, the World Society of Mixed Jurisdictions Jurists, and the Eason Weinmann Center for Comparative Law.

The latest German Law Journal includes: 

• The Development of German Corporate Law to 1990: An Historical Reappraisal - PDF - Peter Muchlinski
• Innovative Governance in EU Regional and Monetary Policy-Making - PDF - Ingeborg Tömmel & Amy Verdun
• The Law Before It is law: Franz Kafka and the (Im)possibility of the Law’s Self-Reflection - PDF - Gunther Teubner

Chris Cunneen's 'Colonial Processes, Indigenous Peoples, and Criminal Justice Systems' has been published on SSRN:

This chapter considers the interaction between colonial processes, Indigenous peoples and criminal justice systems. The commonalities in the experiences of Indigenous peoples in white settler societies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US) provide the focus for an exploration of the implications of the colonial process for understanding Indigenous contact with western criminal justice systems across a number of domains. A fundamental point derived from this exploration is that the politics and outcomes of colonization are not simply of historical interest. Rather, the contemporary relationship between Indigenous people and crime, punishment, and justice is structured by these longer term relationships.

We received the following sad news recently from the Commission for Legal Pluralism: 

Franz von Benda-Beckmann died unexpectedly in Amsterdam on 7 January 2013. His death is a great loss to those of us in the legal anthropology community.

He was one of the most influential international scholars in the field of legal anthropology and was an early member and long-time supporter of the Commission on Legal Pluralism. During his prolific career, he produced 29 edited books and volumes, and more than 266 articles, reviews, commentaries and invited lectures. Many of these were coauthored with his wife, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, also a prolific scholar. He wrote and co-edited several books on issues of property rights, social (in)security, and legal pluralism in developing countries and on legal anthropological theory. Recent influential volumes include: with Keebet von Benda-Beckmann and Julia Eckert “Rules of Law and Laws of Ruling” (Ashgate 2009); with Keebet von Benda-Beckmann and Anne Griffiths “Spatializing Law” (Ashgate 2009); with Keebet von Benda-Beckmann and Anne Griffiths “The Power of Law in a Transnational World” (Berghahn 2009); with Keebet von Benda-Beckmann and Melanie G. Wiber “Changing Properties of Property” (Berghahn 2006); with Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, “Social Security between Past and Future: Ambonese Networks of Care and Support” (LIT Verlag 2007). He was a wonderful mentor and the thesis supervisor of many leading scholars in legal anthropology, particularly in the expanding field of legal pluralism. 

Career 

Franz was born in 1941 and educated in the Gynmasium in Kiel.  After leaving school he studied law in Munich, Lausanne, and Kiel. After obtaining his first law degree at the High Court in Schleswig (1967), he went to Malawi for eleven months of field research on legal pluralism. In 1970, he obtained his PhD in law with his dissertation Rechtspluralismus in Malawi: Geschichtliche Entwicklung und heutige Problematik (Legal Pluralism in Malawi: Historical development and contemporary problems) at the University of Kiel. Between 1968 and 1972, he did practical legal training (Referendardienst) and obtained his second law degree at the High Court of Hamburg in 1972. In October 1972, he moved to Zurich together with his wife, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, born Droogleever Fortuijn. He worked as an assistant at the Seminar for Social Anthropology of the University of Zurich. In 1974 and 1975, Keebet and he carried out sixteen months field research in West Sumatra, Indonesia, among the Minangkabau. His research focused on legal pluralism and property and inheritance. On the basis of this research, he obtained his Habilitation in Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich in 1979.

In late 1977 he moved to the Netherlands where he first worked at the University of Leiden, heading a small research institute dealing with law in the former Dutch colonies. In 1981, he was appointed professor for law and rural development in developing countries. In 1985 and 1986, Keebet and he carried out research in the Moluccas on rural social security and resource rights issues under conditions of legal pluralism. In the 1990s, they carried out legal anthropological research training courses for researchers working on water rights and management in India and Nepal, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. They also managed a larger research project on legal complexity, ecological sustainability and social (in)security in Indonesia.

In 2000, Keebet and he moved to Halle to establish and head the project group Legal Pluralism at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology together. In 2002 he was appointed Honorary Professor for Ethnology at the University of Leipzig and in 2004, Honorary Professor for Legal Pluralism at the University of Halle.

He served on many key advisory bodies. These included: the Advisory Council of the Social Science Research Council for the Tropics (1981-1988); the Dutch Steering Group of the Cultural Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia (1985-1992); IUAES Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism (1981-2013); Executive Body of the Commission (1995-2013); Chairman of the Dutch-Belgian Association for the Social-Scientific Study of Law (1987-1999); the General Board of the Royal Institute for Anthropology and Linguistics, Leiden (1980s-1990s). He also served as associate editor for the Journal of Legal Pluralism, and on the Advisory Board for Law, Social Justice and Global Development (electronic law journal, Warwick University); Journal of REaD (Resources, Energy, and Development), New Delhi; the Australian Journal of Asian Law; the International Journal of Law in Context; Consulting editor of FOCAAL, European Journal of Social Anthropology.

Together with Keebet, Franz was part of the group that established the Commission on Legal Pluralism. They have remained involved in various capacities up to the present day. Franz’ ideas, suggestions and energy will be missed sorely in the Commission, whereas to many individual members his loss is that of a good friend.

The Journal of Legal Pluralism has become the official publication of the Commission for Legal Pluralism. Indeed, from this year it'll be published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis.  Commission members will receive the journal in electronic form as part of their Commission membership fee, with the added option of purchasing print copies. The first issue is expected next month.

Les inscriptions pour l'Université d'été 2013 du droit continental sont ouvertes!


Si vous voulez approfondir vos connaissances en droit continental dans un cadre prestigieux et profiter d'un été parisien, n'hésitez pas à vous inscrire via notre site internet www.fondation-droitcontinental.org 

Partagez l'Université d'été autour de vous!

--

Applications for the Summer University 2013 on continental law are open!

If you want to deepen your knowledge in continental law in a prestigious place and enjoy you summer in Paris, you can apply on our website www.fondation-droitcontinental.org 

Share the Summer University around you to your friends and colleagues!

Copernicus Center Press has just published Bartosz Brożek, Rule-Following: From Imitation to the Normative Mind:
The book attempts to decipher the practice of rule-following with the use of the tools offered both by contemporary philosophy and neuroscience. The Author claims – in the Wittgensteinian spirit – that rule-following cannot be thought of in terms of individual mental states only: in order to explain what rules are, one needs to consider rule-following to be a communal practice. This stance is backed by some evolutionary scenarios and neuroscientific theories. The monograph culminates in an explication of rule-following in language, morality and mathematics.
 

A draft of my 'Entangled up in Red, White, and Blue: Spanish West Florida and the American Territory of Orleans, 1803-1810' is available here and will soon be available here.  


The piece has been accepted for Thomas Duve (ed.), Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches to Legal History, Global Perspective on Legal History vol. 1, Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Open Access Publication, 2013.

The abstract reads:


This article is a preliminary case study of legal and normative entanglement in Spanish West Florida—which stretched across the Gulf Coast of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—between 1803-1810. Between the time of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the annexation of Westernmost part of West Florida by the United States (1810), the laws and norms of the Territory criss-crossed in various ways those of Spain and the United States. Indeed, the territory was, in turn, French, British, and Spanish before being annexed, in part, by the Americans. For the period under study here, and decades before, its settlers were largely Anglophone, while its laws were a variant of the Spanish colonial ius commune. West Florida had an especially close relationship with the area that would become the new American Territory of Orleans (1805), especially the city of New Orleans. Carved out of the vast Louisiana Territory purchased from France, the Territory of Orleans had its own complex history. Its population was still largely Francophone. In its first decade, its laws were already a gumbo of continental and Anglo-American ingredients. Together, the two territories sat at the precipice of the modern nation-state, of nationalism and popular sovereignty, of legal positivism and legal formalism. In both territories, the diffusion—direct and indirect, formal and informal, ongoing and sporadic—of the various laws and norms of natives and newcomers created intricate legal and normative hybrids.   

I'd welcome your thoughts and corrections.

A draft of my 'Entangled up in Red, White, and Blue: Spanish West Florida and the American Territory of Orleans, 1803-1810' is available here and will soon be available here.  


The piece has been accepted for Thomas Duve (ed.), Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches to Legal History, Global Perspective on Legal History vol. 1, Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Open Access Publication, 2013.

The abstract reads:

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
This article is a preliminary case study of legal and normative entanglement in Spanish West Florida—which stretched across the Gulf Coast of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—between 1803-1810. Between the time of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the annexation of Westernmost part of West Florida by the United States (1810), the laws and norms of the Territory criss-crossed in various ways those of Spain and the United States. Indeed, the territory was, in turn, French, British, and Spanish before being annexed, in part, by the Americans. For the period under study here, and decades before, its settlers were largely Anglophone, while its laws were a variant of the Spanish colonial ius commune. West Florida had an especially close relationship with the area that would become the new American Territory of Orleans (1805), especially the city of New Orleans. Carved out of the vast Louisiana Territory purchased from France, the Territory of Orleans had its own complex history. Its population was still largely Francophone. In its first decade, its laws were already a gumbo of continental and Anglo-American ingredients. Together, the two territories sat at the precipice of the modern nation-state, of nationalism and popular sovereignty, of legal positivism and legal formalism. In both territories, the diffusion—direct and indirect, formal and informal, ongoing and sporadic—of the various laws and norms of natives and newcomers created intricate legal and normative hybrids. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}   

I'd welcome your thoughts and corrections.

(image: de "Mammelokker", 18th century sculpture on the West side of the Ghent Belfry, relating the legend of a woman feeding her father in captivity in spite of an interdiction to smuggle food into the prison building; for more information click here)
The registration for this year's European Forum of Young Legal Historians ("(Wo)men in legal history"), which takes place in the Flemish capitals Ghent (Belgium) and Lille (France), is now open. This unique bicephal conference takes the participants by bus across the historically disputed Franco-Belgian border, in the footsteps of the armies of Philip IV the Fair, Louis XIV, Louis XV, the French Revolutionary Convention or Napoleon. This time, the organizers have done their utmost best to avoid any bloodshed, pillage or destruction, have eliminated toll posts on the Leie and Scheldt rivers and were dispensed from the obligation to conclude a treaty of contribution. The cities of Ghent and Lille, at the crossroads of Europe, have a remarkably rich historical past: the birthplaces of two statesmen of global reputation, Charles de Gaulle and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the foundation of the Nobel Prize-winning Institut de droit international, the conclusion of the Treaty of Ghent (1814) between Britain and the United States, and much more. The organizers warmly invite you to discover "Medieval Manhattan", the renowned Palais des Beaux-Arts, the Counts of Flanders' Castle in Ghent, Vauban's magistral citadel in Lille, or local gastronomy. 
As the sun never sets on the Empire of legal history, the organizers are delighted to welcome a diverse and impressive crowd of young academics. The conference's programme can be found here: 66 speakers from 20 different countries will address the male/female gender roles throughout all fields of legal history. 37 of them are women, 29 men. On 15 May 2013, prof. dr. Alain Wijffels (UCLouvain/Leiden/CNRS Dijon) will be the keynote speaker.
Registration on the UGent website (link). Passive attendants have until 19 April 2013 to register, speakers until 22 March 2013 (= one month from today on). Participants pay € 100, speakers € 80.

Cambridge University Press has published John Bell and David Ibbetson (eds), Comparative Studies in the Development of the Law of Torts in Europe:
This three-volume set contains the results of the second and final stage of an AHRC-funded project which aims to examine the nature of legal development in Western Europe since 1850, focusing on liability for fault. 
By bringing together experts with different disciplinary backgrounds – comparative lawyers and legal historians, all with an understanding of modern tort law in their own systems – and getting them to work collaboratively, the books produce a more nuanced comparative legal history and one which is theoretically better informed. 
Also available, the six-volume set containing the results of the first stage of this project.
Very highly recommended. SPD

Cambridge University Press has published John Bell and David Ibbetson (eds), Comparative Studies in the Development of the Law of Torts in Europe: This three-volume set contains the results of the second and final stage of an AHRC-funded project which aims to examine the nature of legal development in Western Europe since 1850, focusing on liability for fault. 
By bringing together experts with different disciplinary backgrounds – comparative lawyers and legal historians, all with an understanding of modern tort law in their own systems – and getting them to work collaboratively, the books produce a more nuanced comparative legal history and one which is theoretically better informed. 
Also available, the six-volume set containing the results of the first stage of this project.
Very highly recommended. SPD

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 Research in Law and Law & Society New and Key Titles 2013 Subjects and Series include:

• Comparative Law and Legal Systems
• Constitutional Law
• European Law
• Routledge Research in European Union Law
• International Law
• Routledge Research in International Law

What: 250th Anniversary of Dei delitti e delle pene (Livorno, 1764), International Conference 
Where: Paris: École Normale Supérieure - Paris Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (EA 4385, Laboratoire d’Études Romanes) Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 (CIRCE, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Culture des Échanges, EA 3979 LECEMO) 
When: 4-6 December 2014
Submission deadline: 15 November 2013
Beccaria’s cultures
CALL FOR PAPERS The aim of the conference is to look into the various “cultures” that nurtured Beccaria’s thought, and into the various “cultures” he tried to transform, enrich or question. We’ve deliberately chosen the term “culture” for its scope and indeterminacy, as we hope to encourage open and many-sided reflections on the intellectual disciplines and on the fields of knowledge that stimulated Beccaria’s intellectual development, on the languages that structured his worldview, on the cultural and ideological traditions that shaped his ideas. We would also like to open a debate on the way Beccaria’s work, from Of Crimes and Punishments to his actions as a state official, bears witness to the ways disciplinary boundaries and areas of knowledge were constantly redefined, to the ways languages and traditions were questioned, and culture deeply renewed. The intellectual venture of the Caffè, which began in 1764, may also be food for thought and debate. Nevertheless, we would like to define more specifically culture as any set of references, readings, problems, styles, methods, which tend to appear as a coherent and significant whole, as a shared area of debate and questioning. In that sense, an author can have numerous and shifting cultures, which sometimes overlap, according to the ways he defines the intellectual output that precedes or surrounds him. We could then look into at least three related questions, which do not exclude other approaches or reflections:  1. Can we get a precise overview of Beccaria’s education and readings and do they form a coherent whole? What was, according to him, the role in his intellectual development of legal culture, philosophical culture, economic culture and literary culture? Did he give a central role, in his education, to Italian culture, French culture, English culture or ancient culture? How can we assess the importance and the influence on his intellectual development of mathematical culture, medical culture or theological culture? All this also raises more specific questions: what were, for Beccaria, the roles of Protestant culture, the culture of natural rights, baroque culture, materialist or “radical” culture, republican culture? These are only general examples and the list isn’t closed. In the end, our goal is to examine the coherence, the order (as a hierarchy or as an architecture), the (harmonious or tense) relationships between the different “cultures” that, according to Beccaria, determined the intellectual landscape of the time. 2. How and why did Beccaria, intentionally or not, change the dividing lines and balances of power between these various cultures? How and why did his style and references, his vocabulary or lexicon act on the various conceptions of knowledge, of its objects, methods and boundaries, as well as on the order of precedence between intellectual disciplines? For him, what was the most appropriate “culture” for the exercise of power? After Of Crimes and Punishments, did he pursue or did he alter his project? Were his later works and his role as a state official animated by the same tension (or intention)? 3. The early reception of Beccaria’s work, which closely followed the first edition of Crimes and Punishments, opens a third area of study. Franco Venturi’s work on the first translation into French and Gianni Francioni’s work on Pietro Verri’s “revision” successfully demonstrated the increasing changes in the generic contours of Beccaria’s text, as it went from hand to hand. First conceived as a satire or as a moral and philosophical pamphlet, it was gradually turned into a short treatise on criminal law. Later interpreters followed suit, appropriating the text to use it as a tool for their own problems and projects. Not only did they read and understand it in different ways, they also redefined it in different ways by associating it to a variety of “cultures”. We suggest to arbitrarily place the terminus ad quem of the “early reception” round the Congress of Vienna. How was Beccaria’s work read and understood, from the late Enlightenment to the revolutions that mark the end of the century? In which ways, according to the interests and to the cultures of its interpreters, was it received and conceived? The conference will welcome specialists in history, law, literature and philosophy, who will jointly examine the conflicts between different cultures – and not only between diverging ideas – as well as the stylistic and disciplinary redefinitions witnessed in Beccaria’s work and its early reception.
Abstracts in English, French or Italian (300-400 words) should be submitted, together with a short CV, to Philippe Audegean (philippe.audegean@univ-paris3.fr), Christian Del Vento (christian.del-vento@univ-paris3.fr), Pierre Musitelli (pierre.musitelli@ens.fr) and Xavier Tabet (xavier.tabet@wanadoo.fr) before 15 November 2013.