2016 Annual Conference:
Unity and/or Diversity
May 30 to June 1, 2016
Louisiana State University Law Center, USA
Theme: Comparative legal studies have long been perceived as an
engine pulling legal traditions and systems towards
convergence, harmonization, and unification. Today, legal pluralism
pushes towards the recognition of human and social diversity.
Does this mean that we have to choose between unity and
diversity, Jus unum or juris diversitas? To what extent do pluralistic
societies embrace or reject harmonization and uniformity,
or simply ignore them? Do we unify or add layers, increasing the
complexity of legal orders? Does history reflect a move from
diversity to unity or an ongoing conflict between the two? What
makes unity successful or sustainable? This is an invitation to
discuss, in an interdisciplinary way, the development of laws and
social norms, in the dialectical tension between the ontological
unity of human beings and mankind and the plurality of individual
aspirations and social arrangements.
Submissions: Panel proposals are strongly
encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral students and
scholars from outside the discipline of law. While parallel sessions
of three twenty-minute presentations will be used, we
encourage more original session structures.
Proposals should be in English or in French. Proposals of
circa 250 words (or 1000 words for panel proposals) should
be submitted to Professor Salvatore Mancuso at
JDLSU2016@gmail.com by January 31, 2016
with a short biography listing major or relevant publications.
Make this a single Word document with minimal formatting,
so that proposal and biography can be copied easily into
the conference program.
Registration fees: €200 or €125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up
for 2016. Membership and fee payment information is available on
the Juris Diversitas Blog (http://jurisdiversitas.blogspot.com/).
Note that fees don’t cover travel, accommodation, or the
conference dinner (€50).
