Legal Culture

This article deals with the history of Italian legal culture between 19th and 20th centuries. The objective is not studying the different aspects of Italian doctrine but to try to understand what "Italian style" (according to John Merryman) has been. In particular, the author uses the category of "eclectic canon" as special key to afford the "vocation" of Italian jurist.

In the Brazilian First Republic (1889-1930), regarding the question of the tactics of constructing and defining Brazilian law, jurists searched for countries that would be civilizational ideals, with citation of authors, legislations and institutions of a given language or country. In this article it was pointed out that the selection of legal doctrines, legislations and institutions originating from certain legal cultures and the motivation to choose them also indicated the preference for certain civilizational ideals. In the republican period analyzed in this article, there was a predominance of jurists who had a predilection for the Anglo-American tradition, as imagined, not without resistance from those who had a predilection for the Franco-Portuguese and, in a smaller dimension, from those who had a predilection for the Germanic tradition. The preference for these traditions, as it is shown, also found a connection with reality, with the solution of concrete problems, and it was not only the fruit of legal idealism, of a mere abstract discussion.

"Making accountable the guilty ones" - Restorative justice in Brazil and the brazilian legal culture

ABSTRACT: Restorative justice, as a new form of conflict management, is a developing reality in Brazil, presenting itself through different views and restorative practices. Considering the various ways in which responsibility can be conceived due to the cultural context and the relationships between these different conceptions of responsibility and practices of conflict management in the public space, this paper discusses possible implications of the Brazilian legal culture for restorative justice in Brazil . We conducted a literature review of the ideas of David Garland on the relationship between culture and punishment, Roberto Kant de Lima of the Brazilian legal culture and characterized restorative justice from some of the main authors of the subject of restorative values and principles. Using Garland's ideas about the relationship between culture and punishment, restorative justice is understood as part of a broader cultural framework, incorporating concepts, values and perspectives specific to this context. Given the characterization of the legal culture of common law countries made by Kant de Lima, we found that restorative justice is related to that, conveying certain ideas about society, individuals and how to hold them accountable that contrasts with the Brazilian legal culture as characterized by that author. Considering the emphasis placed by the restorative justice in an active conception of responsibility and the successive "blaming" produced in the Brazilian legal culture, it is concluded that restorative justice in a context marked by hierarchical characteristics such as Brazil, may represent a “blaming” mechanism of those identified as the offender/criminal, while allowing other individuals to be outside of this "responsibility". This paper summarizes discussions of the research produced during the specialization in Criminal Science at PUCRS, which resulted in the monograph "Will it end in samba? Reflections on possible implications of the Brazilian legal culture for restorative justice in Brazil. "

Keywords: restorative justice – Brazilian legal culture – conflict management – responsibility – blaming

RESUMO: A justiça restaurativa, como nova forma de administração dos conflitos, é uma realidade em desenvolvimento no Brasil, apresentando-se através de diferentes concepções e práticas restaurativas. Considerando os diversos modos como a responsabilidade pode ser concebida conforme o contexto cultural e as relações entre essas diferentes concepções de responsabilidade e as práticas relacionadas à administração de conflitos no espaço público, este trabalho discute possíveis implicações da cultura jurídica brasileira para a justiça restaurativa no Brasil. Realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica das ideias de David Garland sobre as relações entre cultura e punição, de Roberto Kant de Lima sobre a cultura jurídica brasileira e caracteriza-se a justiça restaurativa a partir de alguns dos principais autores do tema sobre valores e princípios restaurativos. A partir das ideias de Garland acerca da relação entre punição e cultura, a justiça restaurativa se insere em um arranjo cultural mais amplo, incorporando conceitos, valores e visões de mundo específicos deste contexto. Diante da caracterização da cultura jurídica de países do common law efetuada por Kant de Lima, identificamos que a justiça restaurativa relaciona-se com ela, veiculando determinadas concepções sobre a sociedade, os indivíduos e a forma de responsabilizá-los, contrastando-se com a cultura jurídica brasileira caracterizada por aquele autor. Considerando a ênfase colocada pela justiça restaurativa em uma concepção ativa de responsabilidade e as “culpabilizações sucessivas” produzidas na cultura jurídica brasileira, conclui-se que a justiça restaurativa, em um contexto marcado por características hierárquicas como o Brasil, pode representar um mecanismo de culpabilização desse sujeito identificado como infrator/criminoso, enquanto permite-se a outros sujeitos seguirem à margem dessa “responsabilização” pretendida. Este trabalho sintetiza discussões da pesquisa produzida durante a especialização em Ciências Penais da PUCRS, que resultou na monografia “Será que acaba em samba? Reflexões sobre possíveis implicações da cultura jurídica brasileira para a justiça restaurativa no Brasil”.

Palavras-chave: justiça restaurativa – cultura jurídica brasileira – administração de conflitos - responsabilidade – culpabilização"

Cet article analyse la façon dont les promoteurs de la discipline "anthropologie juridique", ont, dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, fait du rejet de l'ethnocentrisme juridique la pierre angulaire de leur fondation disciplinaire. En substituant une nouvelle discipline ("l'anthropologie juridique") à l'ancienne "ethnologie juridique", ils ont déployé des efforts considérables afin d'analyser les droits extra-occidentaux sans recourir aux catégories occidentales (et en particulier romaines) du droit.

Français : https://web.lexisnexis.fr/fb/Supplement_JCPG_01.2021/80/
English : https://web.lexisnexis.fr/fb/Supplement_JCPG_01.2021/86/
Deutsch : https://web.lexisnexis.fr/fb/Supplement_JCPG_01.2021/90

Les limites des remèdes textuels et jurisprudentiels à la dégradation de la qualité du droit conduisent à prôner un changement d’ordre culturel. Il convient alors de modifier non seulement les pratiques, en identifiant et généralisant les bonnes pratiques, mais également les représentations, les mentalités. La qualité du droit doit devenir une éthique partagée par les citoyens et les pouvoirs publics afin de faire de cette question une priorité. L’amélioration de la qualité du droit gagnerait notamment au développement d’une véritable politique juridique.
English translation by Robert Fletcher : The limits of legislative and jurisprudential solutions to the deteriorating quality of the law are such that we must advocate for cultural change. We must alter not only practices, by identifying best practices and rolling them out across the board, but also perceptions, representations and mindsets. If the quality of the law is to become a priority, then citizens and public authorities must all recognise its importance. In particular, the quality of the law would benefit from the development of a real legal policy.
Deutsche übersetzung von Alexander Konzelmann : Die Grenzen der textlichen und rechtswissenschaftlichen Mittel gegen die Verschlechterung der Qualität des Rechts veranlassen uns, für eine Änderung der Rechtskultur im Rahmen der Normsetzung einzutreten. Es ist notwendig, nicht nur die Praktiken zu ändern, indem „best practice“-Beispiele identifiziert und verallgemeinert werden, sondern auch Zuständigkeiten und geistige Haltungen. Die Qualität des Rechts muss zu einer gemeinsamen Handlungsmaxime werden, die von Bürgern und Behörden geteilt wird, um diesem Thema zu Priorität zu verhelfen. Die Verbesserung der Qualität des Rechts würde vor allem von der Entwicklung einer echten Rechtspolitik profitieren.

Ce travail touche une des stratégies utilisées par les esclaves, hommes et femmes, et leurs familles, lorsqu'ils demandaient auprès de la justice leur liberté ou leur vente : l'honneur. Les usages de l'honneur signalent d'une part la façon dont la population esclave re-signifia ...

Divided into three parts, this book examines the relationship between law and culture from various perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. Part I outlines the framework for further considerations and includes new, innovative conceptualizations of two ideas that are essential to the topic of law and culture: legal culture and customary law. Both of these reappear later in the more empirically oriented chapters of Parts II and III. Part II includes chapters on the relationships between law, customs, and culture, drawing heavily on the tradition and achievements of the anthropology of law and touching on important problems of multiculturalism, legal pluralism, and cultural defense. It focuses on the more intangible meaning of culture, while Part III addresses its more material, tangible aspects and the issue of cultural production, as well as its intersection with law.

RESUMEN Este trabajo se dirige a recrear y ponderar el peso que las experiencias forenses previas de los diputados al Congreso de Tucumán (1816-1820) tuvieron en su actuación legislativa y constituyente, en tanto que denso trasfondo intelectual y vivencial. Con esta preocupación como objetivo, se indaga sobre cómo se trató la administración de justicia en los debates suscitados con motivo de las discusiones en torno del Estatuto Provisorio de 1816, del Reglamento de 1817, y de la Constitución de 1819; en el papel del congreso evacuando consultas de índole judicial; y en la presencia de ambigüedades en la actitud de la Asamblea hacia la administración de justicia. Se concluye en que cabe adscribir las concepciones judiciales del Congreso a una línea argumental conservadora. ABSTRACT This work aims to recreate and ponder the weight that previous forensic experiences of the deputies to the Congress of Tucumán (1816-1820) had in their legislative and constituent action, as a dense intellectual and experiential background. With this aim in mind, the question arises as to how the administration of justice was treated in the debates arising from the discussions on the Provisional Statute of 1816, the 1817 Regulations, and the Constitution of 1819; In the role of the congress by evacuating judicial consultations; And in the presence of ambiguities in the attitude of the Assembly towards the administration of justice. It is concluded that it is possible to ascribe the judicial conceptions of the Congress to a conservative line of argument.

The article explores the development of the notion “legal culture” in European legal science,
as well as its relation to the legal socialisation of the individual. The article stresses
the importance of civic society in the formation of legal culture and the so-called “culture
of trust” in a democratic country. The differences of legal culture are explained using the
latest works of M. Kurkchiyan, Z. Kühn, B. Rothstein etc., as well as relevant survey results,
especially focusing on the problems of perception of law, level of general trust in political
and legal system in post-soviet Eastern-European countries.

《唐律疏议》中，有一类特殊的犯罪主体：尊长。他们因其身份在而为子孙的行为承担罪责，可称为“尊长身份犯”。这些规定和国家赋予他们的尊长特权构成一种“对称性”的义务，两者构成一个整体，建构起了宗法国家对社会的控制结构，即国家通过尊长控制家族、进而建立起以家族为社会基本单位的权力控制结构，进一步地，这种控制结构并没有为个体设立法律上的独立人格。不过，同样存家长权力的古罗马却没有因为宗法控制而在法律上否认个体的法律人格，相反它强化了个体脱离家族的独立。通过比较分析这两种制度不同的社会背景，将有助于更全面地理解唐律“尊长身份犯”的立法原理；进一步地，在揭示法律责任主体中的人格设定和与之相对应的社会控制结构之间制度关联的基础上，^^^^^

In this note we propose through a guide, to investigate and explain the judicial Argentinean culture in the fi rst half of the 20th century, a list of some twenty patterns shared by most of the jurist of that time. Furthermore, the mentioned system is applied to an actual case, the war auditor Carlos Risso Dominguez.

Il presente volume raccoglie gli atti del Convegno Lontano vicino. Metropoli e colonie nella costruzione dello Stato nazionale italiano, organizzato all'interno delle attività del Dottorato in Diritto Pubblico e del Dottorato in Studi Politici della Sapienza Università di Roma, ed è stato pubblicato nell'ambito di una ricerca in materia finanziata con i fondi di Ateneo 2013.

In a changing international commercial dispute resolution landscape, the combined use of mediation and arbitration has emerged as a dispute resolution approach offering parties a number of benefits. These include resolving parties’ disputes cost-effectively and quickly and obtaining a binding and internationally enforceable decision. However, to date there has been little agreement on several aspects of the combined use of processes. The academic debate is ongoing about acceptable ways of combining mediation and arbitration. At the same time, there is little evidence to suggest that practitioners actually use a combination of mediation and arbitration.This article analyses the results of a recent empirical study of the current use of mediation in combination with arbitration in international commercial dispute resolution. The results reveal that the combined approach is used to a relatively low extent, which contrasts with widespread recognition of the benefits that it seems to offer. In vast majority of cases, the mediation and arbitration stages are conducted by different neutrals, while the mediation stage usually involves the use of caucuses. Surprisingly, as appears from the study, the absence of a unified enforcement mechanism for international mediated settlement agreements does not present any obstacle to recording the outcome of the combined use of processes in a mediated settlement agreement rather than in an arbitral award.

The thesis analyzes the treason of Grand Duke of Lithuanian as a political crime. It reconstructs the history of treason in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) from 13th till the middle of 16th century and reveals the daily and exceptional phenomena of legal culture with regard to this crime.
Analyzing how the concept of treason developed in GDL the local (used in the GDL) terminology associated with treason is discussed. In order to capture the circumstances in which the crime of treason emerged, the thesis presents an analysis of the phenomenon of deserting the country, as well as internal and external factors that led to the emergence crime of treason. The legal definition of the concept of treason is studied in two ways. First, analysis of the concept up to the First Statute of Lithuania (FSL) is presented. Second, the sources of norms for treason defined by the FSL are revealed. The second part of the thesis presents the daily and exceptional phenomena of the crime of treason: accusations of treason as a mechanism for political control, court proceedings for those on trial for treason, the ritual of execution and the process of exculpation and rehabilitation.

El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir si la conocida distinción entre normas jurídicas regulativas y constitutivas presupone una tesis ontológica descriptiva según la cual en los ordenamientos jurídicos existen normas regulativas y normas constitutivas. La cuestión es relevante porque, si bien se trata de una distinción teórica en el sentido obvio de que ha sido introducida y perfeccionada por teóricos del derecho y es usada por ellos con fines explicativos, de ello no se sigue que sea una mera estipulación. Luego de mostrar que la diferencia ontológica presupuesta en esta distinción ha sido esbozada, aunque no tematizada por Hart, Ross y Alchourrón y Bulygin y de descartar la plausibilidad de tematizarla exclusivamente como un problema de interpretación de textos normativos, argumentaré que la cultura jurídica de los especialistas del derecho es la pieza que permite explicitar la conexión que existe entre las prácticas interpretativas en el derecho, la existencia de normas regulativas y constitutivas y el discurso de los teóricos del derecho. El objetivo propuesto forma parte de uno más amplio: discutir una vez más, pero desde un nuevo ángulo, el papel que, en el conocimiento del derecho, toca a la teoría del derecho.
The aim of this work is to discuss whether the well-known distinction between regulative and constitutive legal norms presupposes a descriptive ontological thesis according to which there are regulative and constitutive norms in legal systems. The matter is relevant because, although it’s a theoretical distinction in the obvious sense that it has been introduced and refined by legal theorists and is used by them for explanatory purposes, it does not follow that it’s a mere stipulation. After showing that the ontological difference presupposed in this distinction has been outlined, although not thematized by Hart, Ross and Alchourrón & Bulygin, and discarding the plausibility of thematizing it exclusively as a problem of interpretation of normative texts, I will argue that the legal culture of legal specialists is the piece that makes possible to explicit the connection that exists between interpretive practices in law, the existence of regulative and constitutive norms and the discourse of legal theorists. The proposed objective is part of a broader one: to discuss once again, but from a new angle, the role that in the knowledge of law, plays the theory of law.

A perspective on the nature of the Roman legal order in the provinces and the status of local laws and practices under Roman rule. These questions are explored through a series of case studies from Roman Egypt, including the well-known petition of Dionysia (P. Oxy. II 237).

Parution du numéro 39/40 de la revue de la SOCIETE POUR L'HISTOIRE DES FACULTES DE DROIT ET DE LA CULTURE JURIDIQUE

Sommaire : https://univ-droit.fr/recherche/portail-de-la-recherche/revue-d-histoire-des-facultes-de-droit-de-la-culture-juridique

“Juristas Universales” es una obra fruto del esfuerzo de más de medio millar de especialistas procedentes de universidades de los cinco continentes. Partiendo de Roma, verdadera cuna del Derecho, recoge en cuatro volúmenes una historia biográfica de la ciencia jurídica desde mediados del siglo II a.C. hasta el final del segundo milenio. Se trata, sin lugar a dudas, de uno de los más ambiciosos proyectos editoriales jurídicos a nivel mundial y el más relevante jamás realizado en lengua española.
La obra comprende más de 1.000 biografías de juristas pertenecientes a la “familia romana” del Derecho en su sentido más amplio, dado que, además del Derecho continental europeo, incorpora los semblantes de prestigiosos juristas de Derecho angloamericano, escocés, canadiense, iberoamericano y de parte de los Derechos del este asiático, así como del Derecho sudafricano. El motivo impulsor de centrarse en los sistemas jurídicos que tienen como base común el Derecho romano se encuentra en que el gran reto de la ciencia del Derecho en Occidente es la integración de los dos sistemas jurídicos de mayor calado y protagonismo mundial, considerados tópicamente, pero con escaso fundamento histórico, irreconciliables: el Derecho continental europeo y el Derecho angloamericano.
“Juristas Universales” pretende contribuir a superar esta barrera artificial, pero real, entre dos sistemas jurídicos efectivamente distintos, pero no incompatibles, ofreciendo al lector una visión integrada a partir del Derecho romano y de la tradición del Derecho común medieval. En definitiva, de dos sistemas jurídicos que el mundo globalizado que nos ha tocado vivir pide que se armonicen. Coordinada por Rafael Domingo, catedrático de la Universidad de Navarra, “Juristas Universales” está dividida en cuatro volúmenes, con extensas introducciones a cada época con un total de más de 3.700 páginas y 500 ilustraciones. Cierran la obra unos cuidados índices (onomástico, de juristas biografiados y de autores) que facilitan el manejo de esta enciclopedia de juristas, llamada a ser la obra de referencia en el mundo de habla hispana.

In a changing international commercial dispute resolution landscape, the combined use of mediation and arbitration has emerged as a dispute resolution approach offering parties a number of benefits. These include resolving parties’ disputes cost-effectively and quickly and obtaining a
binding and internationally enforceable decision. However, to date there has been little agreement on several aspects of the combined use of processes. The academic debate is ongoing about acceptable ways of combining mediation and arbitration. At the same time, there is little evidence to suggest that practitioners actually use a combination of mediation and arbitration.This article analyses the results of a recent empirical study of the current use of mediation in combination
with arbitration in international commercial dispute resolution. The results reveal that the combined approach is used to a relatively low extent, which contrasts with widespread recognition of the benefits that it seems to offer. In vast majority of cases, the mediation and arbitration stages are conducted by different neutrals, while the mediation stage usually involves the use of caucuses. Surprisingly, as appears from the study, the absence of a unified enforcement mechanism for international mediated settlement agreements does not present any obstacle to recording the outcome of the combined use of processes in a mediated settlement agreement rather than in an arbitral award.

Mauro Grondona
Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza, Università di Genova (Italia)
mauro.grondona@unige.it

Grondona, M. (2021). Premesse per una discussione sul rapporto tra continuità e discontinuità nel diritto civile. A partire dalla lezione di Tullio Ascarelli. Specula Iuris, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.30682/specula0102f

Abstract (Italiano)
Lo scritto si prefigge di riflettere, a partire da un contributo di carattere teorico e metodologico di Tullio Ascarelli del 1953, su alcuni aspetti del rapporto tra continuità e discontinuità nel diritto civile italiano.
Sullo sfondo, vi è l’avvertita, diffusa e generalizzata esigenza di un rinnovamento metodologico, di fronte al massiccio ricorso, da parte della giurisprudenza italiana, a un’argomentazione fondata in larga misura sui principi generali e sulle clausole generali.
Tuttavia, proprio la lezione metodologica di Ascarelli mostra come l’apertura ermeneutica dell’interprete non rappresenti un attentato contro la certezza del diritto e la prevedibilità delle decisioni (e quindi delle trasformazioni
dell’ordinamento giuridico in via interpretativa), perché questa apertura ermeneutica non è mai lasciata a sé stessa, ma è oggetto di controlli, tanto di carattere ordinamentale, quanto di carattere sociale.
Ciò, naturalmente (nella prospettiva di Ascarelli e in quella della più attenta giusermeneutica contemporanea), a condizione che il rapporto tra continuità e discontinuità giuridica venga collocato in una dimensione autenticamente
storica, che guarda al giurista-interprete quale soggetto chiamato a valutare
normativamente la realtà, così dando vita a nuove regole giuridiche, in un continuo processo di costante adattamento dell’ordinamento giuridico all’ordine sociale.

Abstract (English)
Starting from a Tullio Ascarelli theoretical and methodological essay published in 1953, this paper proposes a thoughtful discussion on some aspects of the relationship between continuity and discontinuity in Italian civil law.
In the background, there is the perceived need for a methodological renewal in the face of Italian case law massive recourse to an argumentation largely based on general principles and general clauses.
However, Ascarelli’s methodological lesson shows how the interpreter hermeneutic openness does not represent an attack against the certainty of law and the predictability of decisions (therefore of the transformations of the legal system by way of interpretation), because this hermeneutic openness is never left to itself, but is subject to controls of legal and social nature.
Hence, of course – in Ascarelli’s perspective and in that of the most attentive contemporary legal hermeneutics –, provided that the relationship between legal continuity and discontinuity is placed in an authentically historical dimension, which looks to the jurist-interpreter as the subject called upon to assess reality normatively, thus giving rise to new legal rules, in a continuous process of constant adaptation of the legal system to the social order.

Madama Butterfly is one of the most famous operas by Puccini. Set in Japan in 1904, it depicts the tragic love story between B.F. Pinkerton, an officer in the US Navy, and Cio-cio-san (also called Madama Butterfly), a young Japanese girl from Nagasaki.
The libretto is quite interesting from a jurist’s perspective as it mentions a number of legal issues. The pivotal point in the opera is the marriage between the officer and the young Japanese lady. Questions arise about the law applicable to the marriage itself, that applicable to the matrimonial life and, more importantly, whether Pinkerton was allowed to unilaterally divorce by abandoning the conjugal house, an option in his view permitted by Japanese law (but of course not allowed under the law of the USA). In the opera, the validity of this option is taken for granted, but a legal, technical analysis leads to a different conclusion.

『蝶々夫人』（Madama Butterfly、 マダマ・バタフライ）はプッチーニが作曲したオペラの中、一番有名なの一つ。1904年の日本を舞台に、アメリカ海軍士官ピンカートンと蝶々さんという長崎出身の女性との恋愛の悲劇を描く。
あらすじの焦点はアメリカ海軍士官と日本の女性の結婚である為、リブレットを法律の面で分析すると非常に興味深い。
結婚自体はどちらの国の法律に基づくのか、がストリーの問題点だと言える。特にピンカートンが一方的に求める離婚が法律的に認められているか、というのも考えるべきである。当時の日本律では普通に許されていた夫の一方的な意志での離婚が実はアメリカ合衆国では考えられない習慣であった。オペラでは日本の考えの通り、ピンカートンの行為が当然なこととして許可されるが、当時の法律を詳しく踏まえながら分析すると違う結論にたどり着くのである。

L'époque est à la culture juridique. L'expression fut longtemps, en France, la marque quasi exclusive de l'« Association Henri Capitant pour la culture juridique française ». Le précieux Dictionnaire de la culture juridique (2003) n'était pas parvenu à imposer la notion. On assiste toutefois depuis peu à une efflorescence de publications, de manifestations ou des formations centrées sur la culture juridique. La réforme du CRFPA en 2016 introduisant un Grand oral portant sur la « culture juridique » n'est pas pour peu dans le succès actuel de cette notion. elle invite à inventer des bonnes pratiques d'enseignement, à élaborer mieux et collectivement des savoirs et des savoirfaire robustes capables de résister aux assauts contemporains contre nos droits.

This article demonstrates the overlooked contribution of the ancient Near East to the development of constitutional law. The legal corpus of Deuteronomy provides a utopian model for the organization of the state, one that enshrines separation of powers and their systematic subordination to a public legal text—the “Torah”—that delineates their jurisdiction while also ensuring their autonomy. This legislation establishes an independent judiciary while bringing even the monarch under the full authority of the law. Deuteronomy’s implicit model for a political constitution is unprecedented in legal history. Two of its cornerstones are fundamental to the modern idea of constitutional government: (1) the clear division of political powers into separate spheres of authority; and (2) the subordination of each branch to the authority of the law. This legislation was so utopian in its own time that it seems never to have been implemented; instead, idealism rapidly yielded to political pragmatism. Nonetheless, Deuteronomy’s draft constitution provides an important corrective to standard accounts of constitutional legal history.

Keywords:
Constitutional theory; rule of law; separation of powers; Deut 16:18-18:22; Laws of public officials; Law of the king; independence of the judiciary; Deut 17:14-20; Ämtergesetze; Verfassungstheorie; Torah monarchy; Sophocles Antigone law; Herodotus Demaratus; Greek kingship; Mishnah King; mishnah Aboth 1:1; American constitution; Josephus πολιτεία [politeia]; origin of judicial system; Hammurabi; founding myth; independent judiciary.

Professional knowledge is produced and transmitted in the context of state and societal relationships. Academic knowledge, including the study of law, is no exception and should be explicated as an articulation, construction and de-construction of embedded social rifts around fundamental issues, like nationality, ethnicity, religion and social class. It is an avenue through which ideologies may be generated and challenged. Scholars have ordinarily addressed differences between hegemonic knowledge that serves the ruling elite and prevailing national ideologies, and counter-hegemonic knowledge that is supposed to challenge it. This article goes deeper by focusing on the lenses through which legal experts and legal academics perceive their profession and how the attributes they assign to it affect the knowledge they construct and articulate in the constitutive context of state-society relationships.

En diciembre del 2000, la Casa Blanca es tomada por un segmento de la élite nortreamericana.  Resultará, a la postre, que sólo transitoriamente podrá ejercer la hegemonía al interior del bloque en la estructural real de poder en la sociedad estadounidense. 
La élite que arriba a la cúspide de la estructura formal de poder de los USA, es una fundamentalmente ligada al negocio de las armas, el petróleo y la energía eléctrica.  Durante el siguiente bienio, siguiendo directrices de grupo y saldando compromisos previos, el titular del ejecutivo federal estadounidense aplicará medidas de dominación política y manipulación ideológica que, en el fondo, tienen el propósito real de suprimir cualquier obstáculo serio a la expansión, interna y a escala mundial, de su proyecto económico de fracción de clase. 
En el plano ideológico interno, los estrategas de esta élite se empeñan en lograr que la sociedad noramericana y mundial haga suya una cultura de resignación, individual y grupal, a una alevosa y premeditada ilegalidad de Estado.  Persiguen que esta cultura antijurídica funcione como el medio para lograr que queden impunes los delitos que se piensan cometer, formalmente desde la Presidencia, pero realmente desde las corporaciones.  Planifican cuidadosamente todo, a efecto de lograr que tenga arraigo social la cultura antijurídica de la ilegalidad  estatal selectiva, y por ende, para inmovilizar a la ciudadanía, al poder legislativo y al poder judicial;  para no tener nada que temer ante posigles sanciones;  para dar un autogolpe de Estado, en síntesis, que en la práctica implica la desaparición de los otros dos poderes.
Surge, sin embargo, una inssopechada resistencia.  Exponentes de una oposición ciudadanizada estadounidense, se yerguen como diques contra la marejada bushista.  Oponen una resistencia tal, que impiden que la cultura de la ilegalidad sea, confofme estaba previsto, el fundamento del justificante de las “glorias” del bushiato.    A dscribir e interpretar cómo se da esta lucha ciudadanizada, particulamrnete en el nivel de lo jurídico, es que se orienta el presente trabajo.

'Lucid and engrossing, Unraveling Abolition spotlights the enslaved people who spearheaded Colombia’s antislavery legal culture alongside jurists and politicians. This sweeping account brims with insights for historians of republicanism and its limits in the revolutionary Americas.' Caitlin Fitz, Northwestern University

'This book rightly centers the agency of Afro-Colombians for understanding the legal history of slavery and for promoting new ideas of human freedom. Pérez Morales uncovers a rich tradition of enslaved people appropriating the law, and even inventing new legal claims, to push for emancipation, both under Spanish colonialism and in the new independent Colombian republic. A major contribution.' James E. Sanders, author of The Vanguard of the Atlantic World: Creating Modernity, Nation, and Democracy in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

This paper aims to capture the intellectual effervescence trying to answer the delicate need to build a Romanian legal identity in the modern Romanian nation-state. Consequently, I'm addressing the concept of legal identity in terms of subjective / internal [legal] identity, i.e. how the Romanian intellectual elite of the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century understood the Romanian legal identity. Accordingly, I'm interested neither in assessing the objective content of it nor in capturing a general subjective understanding of it, including the perspectives belonging to all social actors in Romania. At the same time, having an overall approach of the Romanian elite's subjective perception about the Romanian national identity, I'm not interested in drawing an exhaustive picture of the diverse intellectual approaches to the problem of legal identity in Romania. In this paper I'm interested only in the Romanian intellectual elite's ideas about how to build a national legal identity while undertaking legal modernization through legal transplants. Moreover, from this pool of ideas I shall focus especially on those intellectual strategies aiming to confer the transplanted law a Romanian identity through a special adaptation by recreation. Résumé Cet article vise à capturer l'effervescence intellectuelle qui a essayé de répondre au besoin délicat de bâtir une identité juridique roumaine dans l'Etat roumain moderne. Par conséquent, je traiterai le concept d'identité juridique du point de vue de l'identité subjective/interne i.e. comment l'élite intellectuelle roumaine du XIXème siècle et du début du XXème siècle avait compris l'identité juridique roumaine. Je ne suis pas intéressé d'en évaluer le contenu objectif et non plus de capturer une compréhension subjective générale, y compris les perspectives de tous les acteurs sociaux en Roumanie. En même temps, dans une approche globale de la perception de l'élite roumaine sur l'identité nationale, je ne suis pas intéressé de donner une image exhaustive des diverses approches intellectuelles du problème de l'identité juridique en Roumanie. Dans cet article, je suis seulement intéressé des idées de l'élite intellectuelle roumaine sur la manière dans laquelle une identité juridique pourrait être construite, simultanément avec une modernisation juridique par des transplants juridiques. En outre, je vais souligner surtout les stratégies intellectuelles ayant pour but de conférer au droit transplanté une identité roumaine par une adaptation spéciale par re-création.

Please use the following link to read/download the article (open access):
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/law-and-history-review/article/requerimiento-in-the-old-world-making-demands-and-keeping-records-in-the-legal-culture-of-late-medieval-castile/7982E332915E9A260A4B26B7AF704103

This article analyses the place of the legal procedure known as requerimiento (requirement) in the social life of late medieval Castile. Drawing on archival sources from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it examines how Castilians deployed the requerimiento and what meanings and functions this procedure assumed, particularly in processes of conflict-management. While much has been written about the requerimiento as a ritual of conquest in Spanish America, the place of this procedure in the legal culture of late medieval Castile has received little scholarly attention. By examining how the requerimiento operated within the world of civic disputes in Castilian villages and towns, this study brings to light a rather unknown background for the more familiar requerimiento, the colonial ritual of the sixteenth century.

"This article studies the historical origin, legal training, career patterns, professional identity and ethics, judicial philosophy, and scale of professionalization of thousands of legal specialists in late imperial China from about 1651 to 1911. It is the first serious, extensive study in English of these early modern Chinese jurists and legal professionals who were the de facto judges in probably most of the 1650 Chinese local governments/courts for more than two centuries. For the first time, it uses archival sources to offer an estimate of about 3,000 such trained legal specialists working in local Chinese governments in any given year from roughly 1711 to 1911, which means an estimated total of 30,000 for that period as a whole, assuming an average tenure of 20 years of full employment for them. This study calls for a rethinking of much of the received wisdom on late imperial Chinese legal tradition, judicial administration, and law and society, as well as their legacy on modern China's drive for the rule of law.


Date posted: October 29, 2011
Suggested Citation:
Chen, Li, Legal Specialists and Judicial Administration in Late Imperial China, 1651-1911 (October 1, 2011). Late Imperial China, Vol. 33, No. 2, June 2012. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1949983";
More Info: Late Imperial China, Vol. 33, No. 1, June 2012, 1-54.
Research Interests:
Legal History, Legal Profession, Comparative Legal History, Late Imperial-Modern China, Doing Business in China, Chinese Studies, China studies, China Law, Comparative Law, Comparative History, Asian Studies, East Asian Studies, Asian History, Legal History of Late Imperial China, China, Chinese and East Asian Legal History, Law and Society, Chinese Law and Society, American Society for Legal History, and American Legal and Constitutional History

This essay, after determining the characteristics constituting a codification, sets out the historical conditions for the creation of national codifications in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It then deals with a number of myths and misconceptions associated with codifications. The Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law has now firmly placed the issue of codification on the European legal agenda. The essay therefore attempts to assess its chances of success against the background of the historical experiences; thus, it considers the arguments that have, in the past, been advanced in favour of codifications of private law and also looks at other factors that have contributed to their success. All in all, the auspices for a European Code of Contract Law, let alone a Civil Code, are far from ideal.

Analysen des Rechts lassen sich grundsätzlich danach unterscheiden, ob sie Recht primär als Macht- und Herrschaftsinstrument deuten, seine innerjuridische Eigenlogik in den Vordergrund rücken oder Recht als einen kulturellen Tatbestand in den Blick nehmen. Der Beitrag unterzieht die Schriften Pierre Bourdieus und Michel Foucaults zum Recht einer vergleichenden Untersuchung und zeigt einige zentrale Konvergenzen beider Perspektiven auf. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Bourdieu und Foucault die Anerkennung eigenlogischer Qualitäten des Rechts mit einer herrschaftssoziologischen Perspektive zusammenführen; obwohl jedoch beide Autoren eigentlich Ansatzpunkte zur Analyse der kulturellen Dimension von Recht liefern, blenden sie diese weitgehend aus, womit wichtige Potenziale für eine kulturvergleichende Rechtsanalyse verschenkt werden. Der Beitrag schließt mit einigen Hinweisen darauf, wie die beiden verhandelten Ansätze eine solche Analyse anleiten können.

Analyses of law can basically be distinguished according to whether they primarily refer to law as an instrument of power and domination, place an emphasis on its autonomous juridical inner-logic or conceive it as a cultural fact. The article comparatively examines Pierre Bourdieu’s and Michel Foucault’s writings on the law and identifies several crucial convergences between both perspectives. It shows that both authors combine attention to the inner logic of law with a power-theoretical approach. However, although both Bourdieu and Foucault provide fruitful starting points for a cultural analysis of the law, they largely ignore its cultural dimension, thereby giving away significant potential for a comparative analysis of legal cultures. The paper concludes with some hints on how the two approaches can guide such an analysis.