Work On! Annual comparative law workshop

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora that do not necessarily include publication)

Papers on comparative law once again are being sought for presentation at the Annual Comparative Law Workshop, to be held March 1 and 2, 2013, at the University of Illinois College of Law in Urbana-Champaign.
Organized this year by IntLawGrrls contributor Jacqueline Ross and our colleagues Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton) and Máximo Langer (UCLA), the workshop, cosponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law, presents an opportunity for comparative law scholars to engage in sustained and substantive discussion, by comparative law scholars, of up to 7 scholarly projects.

Details here.
Deadline for paper submissions, to be sent to Jacqueline Ross at jeross1@illinois.edu, is January 5, 2013.

Work On! Comparative works in progress

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora that do not necessarily include publication)

Papers on comparative law once again are being sought for presentation at the 7th Annual Comparative Law Workshop, to be held February 10 to 12, 2012, at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Organized by IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Jacqueline Ross and our colleagues Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton) and James Q. Whitman (Yale), the workshop, cosponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law, presents an opportunity for comparative law scholars to engage in sustained and substantive discussion, by up to 20 comparative law scholars, of a number of scholarly projects.
Deadline for electronic submissions, to be sent to Professor Scheppele at kimlane@princeton.edu, is December 1, 2011.

Read Mary Wollstonecraft

Read Mary Wollstonecraft.
That advice was at the core of the keynote speech that Amartya Sen delivered yesterday to open the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, under way through Saturday in Washington, D.C. (Prior posts available here.)
In his address on the history and nature of human rights, Sen, a Harvard professor and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics, Sen referred frequently to Wollstonecraft (right). (image credit)
As we've posted, Wollstonecraft, an IntLawGrrls foremother, was born in 1759 in London. She was a noted theorist and intellectual during her short life -- she died in 1797 giving birth to Mary Shelley, future author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft often is categorized as a feminist, but Sen described her more generally, as

'the most neglected thinker of the Enlightenment period.'

Wollstonecraft's works included A Vindication of the Rights of Women, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, occaisioned by his Reflections on the Revolution in France, and and various travelogues. Insights within these works, Sen said, include:
► Demonstration that rights were not dependent on legislation, but rather could serve as a precedent inspiration for legislating human rights; and
► Emphasis on the importance of rights within the family.
Sen further noted the "very strong normative claim" about rights made by another Englishwoman about whom we've posted: suffragist Christabel Pankhurst (below right). In 1911, nearly 2 decades before British legislation would accord women the vote, Pankhurst said:

'We are here to claim our rights as women. Not only to be free, but also to fight for freedom.'

As the discussant at yesterday's lecture, our colleague and Princeton Professor Kim Lane Scheppele, said, this emphasis on the capabilities of individuals to open doors to opportunities is central to Sen's thinking -- thinking that, in her view, could benefit from greater engagement with the significance of law in effecting human rights.

Work On! Comparative works in progress

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora that do not necessarily include publication)

Papers on comparative law once again are being sought for presentation at the annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop, to be held February 11 and 12, 2010, at Yale Law School (logo below left) in New Haven, Connecticut.
Organized by IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Jacqueline Ross and our colleagues Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton) and James Q. Whitman (Yale), the workshop, cosponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law, presents an opportunity for comparative law scholars to engage in sustained and substantive discussion, by up to 20 comparative law scholars, of up to 6 scholarly projects.
Deadline for electronic submissions, to be sent to Professor Whitman at james.whitman@yale.edu, is next Monday, November 1, 2010.

Princeton law fellowships

The Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University, whose Director is our colleague Kim Lane Scheppele, is seeking applications from outstanding faculty, independent scholars, lawyers, and judges for up to 6 residential LAPA Fellowships to be awarded for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Past Fellows include many international or comparative law scholars, including a number of IntLawGrrls' guests/alumnae: Jeannine Bell (prior posts), Mary L. Dudziak (prior posts), Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (prior posts), and Diane Orentlicher (prior posts).
Successful candidates for the 2011-2012 awards will conduct substantial research on topics broadly related to legal studies. Among the Fellows will be 4 general Fellows, 1 Microsoft/LAPA Fellow specializing in intellectual property or the legal regulation of the economy, and 1 Mellon/LAPA Fellow specializing in law and the humanities.
Applicants must have a doctorate, J.D., or equivalent postgraduate degree.
Details and the online application form are available here. Deadline is 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, November 8, 2010.

Work On! Comparative law workshop

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora for scholarship-presentation-without-publication) Papers on comparative law once again are being sought for presentation at the annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop, to be held May 20-22, 2010, at the University of Illinois College of Law, Urbana-Champaign (logo below left).

Organized by IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Jacqueline Ross and our colleagues Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton) and James Q. Whitman (Yale), the workshop, cosponsored by the American Society of Comparative Law, presents an opportunity for comparative law scholars to engage in sustained and substantive discussion, by up to 20 comparative law scholars, of up to 6 scholarly projects.

Deadline for electronic submissions, to be sent to Professor Ross at jeross1@illinois.edu, is March 1, 2010. Details here.

International law @ AALS

Should International Law Professors Attend AALS?
That's the question posed in an Opinio Juris post last week. It continued:

I scan the program for the meager portions of international law that are served each year. This year is no different, and it is safe to say that one morning at the ASIL annual meeting is more fruitful for the international scholar than four days at AALS.*

Notwithstanding that note of pessimism, in the post our colleague Roger Alford proceeded to give some positive answers to his own question. On these latter he and I are in much agreement. Attending the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools last week at the San Diego Marriott (above right) offered a[n over]view -- in a literal as well as a figurative sense -- of the entire legal academy. That can be of use to all us international lawyers in this era of [over]specialization. And a look beyond labels, to the actual content of the program, showed there was much on offer.
Case in point:
I was lucky enough to attend a superb panel cosponsored by the Section on Constitutional Law and the Section on Africa. Entitled "Socio-Economic Rights: Comparative Perspectives and Criticisms," it featured a spirited discussion by Penelope Andrews (Valparaiso) (prior post), Richard A. Epstein (Chicago), Mark S. Kende (Drake), and Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton), moderated by Miguel Schor (Suffolk). The exchange revealed that the once-deep division of opinion on such rights may be lessening -- that there may be a convergence to some middle ground, even as some judges in some national systems begin to implement modest enforcement of those rights. The overall effect of this development remains unclear. The discussion suggested, as Kende put it most provocatively:

Socioeconomic rights cases have not changed macroeconomic policies in the countries that have them. This debate might not much matter.

Neither of the sponsoring sections has the word "international" in its name. Nonetheless, as this précis makes evident, the panel offered much of interest for many an international lawyer. (Aside: The panel that the Section on Africa sponsored last year was equally pertinent and interesting.) Same too with a session at the same time on California's Proposition 8, a matter of great interest to IntLawGrrls (prior posts may be found here) and others concerned about human rights at home.
To talk only about programming, however, is to overlook AALS's key role in professional development. For many of us, presenting at an AALS meeting marked an early foray into public speaking about our scholarship. For many of us, AALS has offered an opportunity to network, to build a professional profile that extends beyond our home institution, to develop leadership skills applicable not only to AALS but to all our professional endeavors. Those offerings are important for internationalists no less than other law professors.
And so it gives great pleasure to announce, in sequential posts below, IntLawGrrls' contributions to last week's meeting and the new leadership of the AALS Section of International Law, for which yours truly has the honor to serve as Chair in 2009-2010.

Heartfelt kudos to all!

* This passage indicates there may be another source for Roger's discomfort. Might it be that the question to ponder is not whether a particular 4-day conference affords enough benefit to international law professors, but rather whether, in many instances in our 24/7 Century, there's enough benefit in conferences that span 4 days, or more (to which transcontinentals must add a day or 2 for travel)?

Work On! Comparative law workshop

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora for scholarship-presentation-without-publication) Papers on comparative law are being sought for presentation at the annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop, to be held February 6 and 7, 2009, at Princeton University (logo below left) in New Jersey.
Organized by our colleagues Mathias Reimann, Jacqueline Ross, and Kim Lane Scheppele, the workshop presents an opportunity for comparative law scholars to engage in sustained and substantive discussion, by up to 20 comparative law scholars, of up to 6 scholarly projects. Cosponsors are the American Society of Comparative Law, University of Michigan Law School, University of Illinois College of Law, and Princeton’s Program in Law and Public Affairs.
Deadline for electronic submissions, to be sent to Professor Scheppele at kimlane@princeton.edu: next Wednesday, December 31, 2008. Details respecting requirements for submission and the workshop itself may be found by clicking on "Programs" here.

Work On! Comparative Law Works in Progress

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora for scholarship-presentation-without-publication) Banding together for this year's 3d annual Comparative Law Works in Progress Workshop, to be held May 14-16, 2008, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, are the American Society of Comparative Law, University of Michigan Law School, University of Illinois College of Law, and Princeton University's Program for Law and Public Affairs.
This is a great opportunity, among the few events at which comparative law scholars in the United States may study and discuss in depth their ongoing scholarship. Up to 6 papers will be selected for discussion, before small groups of scholars, over the 2 days of this year's workshop.
Time's short to submit; deadline's February 15, 2008. Send draft articles, book chapters, book reviews, etc. -- works that are ready for extended discussion but have not yet appeared in print -- electronically to the organizers, our colleagues Kim Lane Scheppele, kimlane@princeton.edu, Mathias Reimann, purzel@umich.edu, and Jacqueline Ross, jeross1@law.uiuc.edu.