22 February 2013

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Donlan on Spanish West Florida and the American Territory of Orleans, 1803-1810

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.

21 February 2013

BOOKS: Bell and Ibbetson on 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

BOOKS: The Routledge Catalogue

Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
Routledge's new Research in Law and Law & Society online catalogue is now available. 

Click on the links below to view the latest titles in your area of interest.

 Research in Law and Law & Society

New and Key Titles 2013

Subjects and Series include:

20 February 2013

BOOK: Arbitration in China: A Legal and Cultural Analysis



In the context of harmonisation of arbitration law and practice worldwide, to what extent do local legal traditions still influence local arbitration practices, especially at a time when non-Western countries are playing an increasingly important role in international commercial and financial markets? How are the new economic powers reacting to the trend towards harmonisation? China provides a good case study, with its historic tradition of non-confrontational means of dispute resolution now confronting current trends in transnational arbitration. Is China showing signs of adapting to the current trend of transnational arbitration? On the other hand, will Chinese legal culture influence the practice of arbitration in the rest of the world? 

To address these challenging questions it is necessary to examine the development of arbitration in the context of China's changing cultural and legal structures. Written for international business people, lawyers, academics and students, this book gives the reader a unique insight into arbitration practice in China, based on a combination of theoretical analysis and practical insights. It explains contemporary arbitration in China from an interdisciplinary perspective and with a comparative approach, setting Chinese arbitration in its wider social context to aid understanding of its history, contemporary practice, the legal obstacles to modern arbitration, and possible future trends.

In 2011 the thesis on which this book was based was named 'Best Thesis in International Studies' by the Swiss Network for International Studies.

“What distinguishes this work from other books on international arbitration is its interdisciplinary perspective and comparative approach...this book makes a remarkable contribution to the understanding of arbitration in China and transnational arbitration in general. Academics, scholars and students of international arbitration, comparative studies and globalisation may all find this book stimulating. It also provides useful guidance for practitioners involved or interested in arbitration in China.”
From the Foreword by Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler


Kun Fan is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Yenching Institute, Harvard University. She received her PhD (summa cum laude) from Geneva University. She is a former Deputy Counsel of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and now practises as a Senior Consultant for Arbitration Asia. She is called to the New York Bar, is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is an Accredited Mediator and Domain Names Panelist of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Beyond Responsibility to Protect

Beyond Responsibility to Protect: 
Towards Responsible Use of International Law?

University of Hull Law School

McCoubrey Centre for International Law4- 5 July 2013, Hull, UK

Keynote Speaker: Professor Andre Nollkaemper, Professor of International Law, University of Amsterdam

The McCoubrey Centre for International Law is hosting a two-day conference for research students and early career scholars. The theme of the conference is "Beyond Responsibility to Protect: Towards Responsible Use of International Law?"

OVERVIEW: The key idea is that international law increasingly requires states not only to abstain from breaking the law, but also to pro-actively protect common interests or values of the international community. Seen from this perspective, sovereignty is not merely about rights, but also (perhaps, primarily) about duties; in particular, that States have a responsibility to take steps to prevent breaches of international law, especially the commission of heinous crimes.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Law, Culture, Critique

2013 Osgoode Forum - Law, Culture, Critique

May 10-12, 2013 


Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada Conference
Website: http://glsa.osgoode.yorku.ca

Shelley wrote that 'poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world'. We want to engage with the deeper aspect of Shelley's claim, which is that law is culturally pervasive; as Gramsci noted, every person is an intellectual and a 'legislator.' Legal scholars can learn from this wider ambit of law where these 'legislators' practise art, activism and critical analysis. Thus the two main themes of this conference are the intersections between law and culture and the role of critique in legal scholarship. The ubiquity of law is captured in cultural manifestations, whether it is narratology, rhetoric or aesthetics. It is the ideological function of the law which is reflected by cultural practices; law has been used to suppress, shape and create culture in all its forms - such as art, music, literature and media. We are inspired by 'law and literature' scholars who have pioneered its study by questioning how law and text inform one another. We would like to extend their emphasis on law's role in shaping knowledge to other intersections of law and culture - from intellectual property rights and artistic expression to environmental law and indigenous knowledge to the privatization of space and graffiti art.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Migration Policies and Legal Transplants in the Mediterranean Area Research Project




The Project is funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and aims to reconstruct - from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective - the migration policies and transplantation of legal models and subjects in the Mediterranean Area from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

In this work, the legal and historical approach of the universities of Lecce (Eliana Augusti), Ferrara (Michele Pifferi) and Napoli (Fulvio Maria Palombino) will be complimented and enriched by surveys on Africa (with a post-colonial approach) of the University of Pavia (Antoniomaria Morone).

The foreign partners of the Project are: the University of Limerick (Seán Patrick Donlan), the University of Malta (David E. Zammit) and the Équipe Poitevine de Recherce et d'Encadrement Doctoral en Sciences Criminelles (EPRED) of Poitiers.

MEMBERSHIP: More Payment Options

We've added another payment option for membership. In addition to PayPal and Cheques and Bank Drafts, we've also made Bank Transfers possible. 

For information on membership, see here.

The Payment Options now include:

19 February 2013

BOOK: The Maltese Legal System

Book_Launh-_The_Malta_Legal_System

JOURNAL: Ultima Ratio, a Principle at Risk

Ultima Ratio, a principle at risk. European PerspectivesVol 3, No 1 (2013) of the Oñati Socio-Legal Series is available.

Its theme is:

Ultima Ratio, a principle at risk. European Perspectives

Issue edited by Joxerramon Bengoetxea (University of the Basque Country), Heike Jung (Saarland University) and Kimmo Nuotio (University of Helsinki)

Papers resulting from the workshop Ultima Ratio. Is the General Principle at Risk in our European Context? held in Oñati on 2nd - 4th February 2012.

JURIS DIVERSITAS: Membership

JOIN US!
We need your help.

Ordinary Membership is €50 for the calendar year. 

A Discounted Membership, for young scholars under the age of thirty or for scholars in developing nations, is €25.

In addition to being able to vote in elections, both memberships include discounts on conference fees. 

We also hope to offer all members discounts on volumes in the new Ashgate Juris Diversitas Series

Each year, ordinary members will receive a selected volume from the Series for free. 

For additional information, see here.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Anna Lindh Foundation

Members of the National Networks of the  are invited to apply to the Medium Term Call for Project Proposals 2013.

The call aims to support projects that promote the mobilisation and empowerment of civil society for inclusion and citizenship in line with the ALF 4D Strategy. This strategy conceives intercultural dialogue as a civil society mobilisation factor, aimed at valuing diversity, promoting the participation of the society in building open and plural democracies, and fostering inclusive and sustainable human development.

The call is open to applicants who are accepted members of one of the ALF Networks in the 42 EuroMed countries prior to the 15th January 2013. The deadline for applying is the 15th April 2013. 

For more information download the guidelines at: http://www.annalindhgrants.org/guidelines.


Les membres des réseaux nationaux de la Fondation Anna Lindh sont invités à postuler à l'Appel à Propositions de Projets de Moyen Terme 2013.

L’appel vise à soutenir des idées de projets permettant de promouvoir la mobilisation et le renforcement de la société civile pour l’inclusion et la citoyenneté, conformément à la Stratégie des 4D de la FAL. Cette stratégie conçoit le dialogue interculturel comme un facteur de mobilisation de la société civile, visant à valoriser la diversité, à promouvoir la participation de la société dans la construction de démocraties ouvertes et plurielles, et à encourager un développement humain inclusif et durable.

L'appel est ouvert aux candidats qui ont été acceptés comme membres de l'un des réseaux de la FAL dans les 42 pays euro-méditerranéens avant le 15 Janvier 2013. La date limite pour postuler est le 15 Avril 2013.

Pour plus d'informations téléchargez les lignes directrices à l’adresse suivante: http://www.annalindhgrants.org/fr/lignes-directrices

Anna Lindh Foundation
P.O. Box 732 El Mansheia, Alexandria, Al Iskandarlyah, 21111, Egypt
Website: www.euromedalex.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/annalindhfoundation
Twitter: www.twitter.com/annalindh

CALL FOR PAPERS: International Congress on Gender Violence: intersectionalities

International Congress on Gender Violence: intersectionalities  (IISJ Onati, July 10-12, 2013) 
 
The congress will be hosted by the International Institute for Sociology of Law, which is located in Oñati, Spain. Sessions will be held in both English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation provided for the final keynote speaker session. 
 
This congress is aimed at examining the main conceptual frameworks for thinking about gender violence. We invite participants to consider how useful the concept of gender violence is for tackling violence against women. We also particularly encourage papers that will examine the intersections of gender violence with other determinants of inequalities. Papers are invited from researchers working in the area of gender violence, as well as policy makers, practitioners and activists. We feel that this interdisciplinary framework may help to produce new conceptualisations of gender violence.
 
It is proposed to have sessions on:
    • New theoretical models of gender violence: questioning the primacy of gender inequality
    • The persistence of gender violence as a gendered phenomenon
    • The intersection of gender, race and ethnicity
    • Giving voice of marginalised women: disabled women’s experiences of violence
    • Debunking stereotypes of battered women: intersections of gender and class
    • Sexuality and violence
Abstracts should be submitted online before March 4th, 2013.  For further information, visit the IISJ website: www.iisj.net.

PANELS/LECTURE: Pakistan, South Asia, and Judicial Activism

Our colleague at PluriLegal just circulated the following message about two interesting events:

The first concerns two panel discussions at the King's India Institute. The discussions are on (i) Secularism in Pakistan and (ii)Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia. For details, see here
 
In addition, a lecture entitled 'Confessions of a Judicial Activist' will be given by Justice Albie Sachs in early March. The event is organised by the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London. For details, see here.

SCHOLARSHIP: Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law

The University of Aberdeen homepagePhD studentship in Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law

The Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) is offering an inter-disciplinary 3-year PhD studentship to start in September 2013. The studentship will include full UK/Europe fees (overseas students will pay the difference of £7100) and partial maintenance. The holder will reside in Aberdeen during the 3 years (except for research trips). We welcome applicants from anthropology, business, cultural and literary studies, history, legal theory and socio-legal studies, philosophy, politics, religious studies, sociology and theology.

Founded in 2009, CISRUL aims to produce conversation across the social sciences and humanities on key concepts of the modern polity. Citizenship, civil society and rule of law are three such key concepts, all three of some pedigree but enjoying a new lease of life, prescribed by bodies such as IMF and United Nations, championed by social movements, and debated in the media and in academic research, although we are also interested in related notions such as democracy, human rights, multiculturalism and pluralism.

Note that applicants must hold or be close to completing a postgraduate Masters degree in a relevant field.

The deadline for full consideration of applications is Friday, 8 March 2013, although we may consider late applications.

Please view www.abdn.ac.uk/cisrul for further details. For enquiries, please contact Tracey Connon (t.connon@abdn.ac.uk) in the first instance.

Applicants may also consider applying for a Comparative Statecraft and Constitutional Thought studentship. See http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cass/graduate/funding/research/02/

    Trevor Stack
Director, Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law University of Aberdeen Aberdeen, UK
Email: t.connon@abdn.ac.uk


Visit the website at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cisrul

17 February 2013

BOOK: Kim on Law and Custom in Korea


A few days ago, the Legal History Blog noted that:

Cambridge University Press recently published Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History, by Marie Seong-Hak Kim (St. Cloud State University). A description from the Press:

This book sets forth the evolution of Korea's law and legal system from the Chosǒn dynasty through the colonial and postcolonial modern periods. This is the first book in English that comprehensively studies Korean legal history in comparison with European legal history, with particular emphasis on customary law. Korea's passage to Romano-German civil law under Japanese rule marked a drastic departure from its indigenous legal tradition. The transplantation of modern civil law in Korea was facilitated by Japanese colonial jurists who themselves created a Korean customary law; this constructed customary law served as an intermediary regime between tradition and the demands of modern law. The transformation of Korean law by the brisk forces of Westernization points to new interpretations of colonial history and it presents an intriguing case for investigating the spread of law on the global level. In-depth discussions of French customary law and Japanese legal history in this book provide a solid conceptual framework suitable for comparing European and East Asian legal traditions.

And a few blurbs:
"At first look, the title of the book gives readers an expectation of continuity in theme evolving in Korean customary law from premodern times to the present. It is, however, a saga in which Kim tells us of how the civil law tradition in France and Germany was transplanted to Japan and only a few decades later to its colony Korea, as Japanese rulers and judges saw that it fit the needs of efficient colonial management and Western jurisprudence's requirements of customary law. Kim's book provides us with sad but rich stories to explore from Korean civil law history." –Dai-Kwon Choi (Seoul National University)

"For too long, East Asia in general and Korea in particular has been treated as a backwater in comparative legal studies. Marie Kim's monumental contribution helps correct this state of affairs. With nuance and rigor, she uses the lens of custom to situate modern Korean law in a comparative context. A major advance not only for our understanding of modern Korea but also of colonial and postcolonial legality more broadly." – Tom Ginsburg (University of Chicago Law School)
Read on here.

Professor Kim is a member of the International Editorial Board of the ESCLH's Comparative Legal History.

ARTICLE: Van Bemmelen van Gent on Legal Education


Ernst Van Bemmelen van Gent’s ‘Legal Education: A New Paradigm’ is on SSRN:

In the past, between the years 1800 and 1950, legal education was a local, generalist, apprentice-based, non-corporate, and highly academic self-explanatory affair. Most of the legal professionals regarded themselves as involved in ex-post private law and criminal litigation/trials. Legal theory and the curriculum, correspondingly, could focus mainly on local private and criminal law contained in approximately 10.000 pages. 

At the start of the 21st century a number of things have changed. Around 100 specialized areas of legal theory and practice have emerged, along with millions of pages of new material. The sources of these new rules are increasingly international and regional, especially in Europe. The legal profession has also industrialized. The sole practitioner is outnumbered by legal professionals that are mass producing legal services and legislative instruments, as well as adjudicative products. Client demand has changed the emphasis to be more focused on ex ante: preventing disputes. Employers are expecting more than ever that graduates are well on their way through this increased volume of material, plus well versed in critical thinking, advocacy and research techniques. Moreover, in the countries where legal education is subsidized, universities are expected to educate more pupils for less money, plus accepting lower entry qualifications favoring historically less privileged groups. This process includes attempts, again especially in Europe, to harmonize the higher education degree structure across states. 

Law school traditions have not responded to these developments yet. The curriculum and teaching techniques have remained largely the same as in the 1800 to 1950 era. 

The time is ready to change legal education drastically. To guide and justify that change, a modern, 21st century paradigm is required, addressing what the legal profession entails, what issues the legal profession deals with and what legal competences are required, to solve legal problems cheaply, efficiently and in a client friendly manner. Such a new paradigm should also provide the necessary assessment criteria evaluating, which law graduates may be permitted access to legal practices, including the various professional bodies admission procedures but also corporate hiring practices for junior and senior positions. 

This article provides such paradigm. It describes and defines the legal profession along four types of legal practices that exist all over the world. It identifies the “top 55 legal issues” that are most fundamental to any legal practice. It selects 50 areas of law that are necessary for instruction in law schools. More importantly, it argues which 6 legal skills/competencies should be the guiding tool for curriculum and assessment design, as well as the criteria for recruitment, life-long learning and career development in the legal profession. Furthermore, the new paradigm for legal education integrates the global ambitions (UN, OECD, G20) in the fields of sustainable development and rule of law into the daily reality of the legal profession, legal education and legal research.