Website of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law (ISA)

Our next annual meeting will be a joint meeting with the Law and Society
Association.

The 2007 Joint Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association and the
Research Committee on Sociology of Law (International Sociological
Association) will be held at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany from
Wednesday, July 25 - Saturday, July 28. This is the 4th Joint Meeting. The
last was held in Budapest in 2001. Before that, we met together in Amsterdam
and Glasgow.

Berlin 2007 will be a major event and I urge all of you to attend. This
international conference is co-sponsored by the Socio-Legal Studies Association (UK), the Japanese Association of Sociology of Law, the Vereinigung für Rechtssoziologie, and the Sociology of Law Section of the German Sociological Association.

Theme [back to contents]

The theme of the meeting,

Law and Society in the 21st Century:
Transformations, Resistances, Futures

is intended to encourage debate on
the transformations that are redefining law and society in the new century.
This period of rapid change and transformation has been marked by resistance
as well as adaptation. In order to imagine the future, we invite you to
consider these transformations and spaces of resistance.

Papers on all valid socio-legal topics will be accepted. You may organize
panels and roundtables and submit them as such, or just submit a proposal
for an individual paper and you will be assigned to a panel. There is a
preference for full panels.

All the information related to the conference, the sub-themes, the
organization, the way to submit papers/session proposals for the conference,
and information about Berlin are available on the LSA website.

Anne Boigeol
President of the RCSL

Practical Details and Useful Links [back to contents]

Preliminary Programme:
http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/lsa/lsa07/ (Click on "Search the Preliminary Programme")

Registration:
https://wx13.registeredsite.com/user88791/sec/reg07d.asp
(Reduced fees applicable only until April 30, 2007 !)

For a general introduction:
http://www.lawandsociety.org/ann_mtg/am07/berlin_2007.htm

See also the website of the Local Coordinators of the Berlin Meeting
http://www.lsa-berlin.org/
This site includes a section where papers may be up- and downloaded http://www.lsa-berlin.org/conference-papers/register-at-this-website (registration required).
Already uploaded papers are available on
http://www.lsa-berlin.org/conference-papers/all-papers

Detailed call for participation:
http://www.lawandsociety.org/ann_mtg/am07/call.htm (deadline for submission expired on January 12, 2007; for late appplications, contact the organizers)

Call for Papers of Working Groups

Comparative Legal Culture

The co-chairs of the Working Group on Comparative Legal Culture invite

papers on conceptual and empirical research on legal cultures in different

countries. We are interested in exploring the potential of the concept for a

better understanding of social phenomena such as crime, dispute resolution,

corruption, processes of legal transplant and international regulation, as

well as examining the specifics of the locally constructed meanings, roles

and images of law. We expect that this will include discussion of the

methodological problems of interdisciplinary work linking the sociology of

law, legal anthropology, social psychology, comparative law, and related

fields.

Those who are interested and would like to present their research should get

in touch with either chairperson of the WG: David Nelken

(sen4144@iperbole.bologna.it) or Marina Kurkchiyan

(marina.kurkchiyan@csls.ox.ac.uk) not later than December 15. We would help

to co-ordinate the proposed papers by suggesting panels and themes. After

this process, the speakers would have to register the panel at the LSA

Berlin website to finalise the arrangements.

Chairs: David Nelken and Marina Kurkchiyan

Gender

The Working Group has organised six sessions – five paper sessions and a roundtable – as part of the Berlin law and society conference in July 2007. The theme chosen for discussion at the Berlin meeting is 'Feminism and the production of knowledge'. The paper sessions are on:
1.    Feminism, Law and Families (Weds 25 July, 10.15)
2.    Feminism, Politics and Policy (Weds 25 July, 12.30)
3.    Feminism and the Production of Legal Knowledge (Thurs 26 July, 10.15)
4.    The Epistemology of Consent in Rape Law (Thurs 26 July 12.30), and
6.    Transgender and Feminist Perspectives on Degendering Law (Sat 28 July, 2.30)

The Roundtable (Sat 28 July, 12.30) is titled 'Diversifying Gender? Comparative Feminist Legal Scholarship', and is a collaboration between the Working Group, the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at Humboldt University, and Womedlaw, a organisation of women from the Euro-Mediterranean countries concerned with issues of equality and diversity in the academic world. It will discuss potential differences between feminist legal discourses on different continents, asking questions such as: how are issues of law, gender and diversity reflected in different legal, cultural, institutional and political contexts? Which issues are on the cutting edge of feminist legal scholarship, and why? Which theoretical frameworks are discussed, used, or considered inappropriate? Where are the faultlines between mainstream and dissent? Which goals do we pursue in research? How do we influence legal theories and practices? What does feminist scholarship have to say in relation to paradigmatic cases such as religious pluralism, domestic violence and constructions of marriage? The Berlin meeting offers a rare opportunity to discuss such topics in a truly international setting.

The Working Group will also hold a Business Meeting at the Berlin conference, on Friday 27 July, 1.30 pm. Discussion will include plans for dates, locations and themes of future Working Group meetings.

You are warmly invited to attend the WG sessions at Berlin. If you would like to be added to the Working Group's mailing list, please contact the chair:

Professor Rosemary Hunter
Kent Law School - University of Kent
R.C.Hunter@kent.ac.uk

Urban Problems

The themes we are proposing for the discussion in the Berlin meeting are the following.

The role of the Judiciary in urban conflicts.
Narratives of property (cultural analysis of property relations)
The use of expropriation in urbanization processes

We hope that this “minimalistic” agenda gives room to many preoccupations, but we also welcome any proposals of new themes to start the discussion.

Antonio Azuela Edesio Fernandes

Social and Legal Systems

Due the number of interrogatives stemming from current state of constitutional instability at World-system level and the rising socio-legal uncertainty about prospective evolutionary trends, it is my intention to suggest at the forthcoming 2007 Berlin meeting, jointly organized by ISA-RCSL and Law & Society Association together with English, Japanese and German socio-legal Associations, to up-to-date once again the WG general scientific programme and devote study and research on a new general theme: “Theorizing Socio-Legal Futures”.

As a matter of fact, it is apparent that a disquieting state of cultural, psychological, normative and institutional indeterminacy undermines currently enforced patterns of any social and legal system. What has to be done ? My proposal to the participants of the Berlin WG session will be to focus on such a general theme from now, by sorting out what we know and do, here and now, in order to enlighten ‘plausible’ (i.e. grounded on rational discoursed and scientific confrontations) and socially ‘adequate’ (based on basic social needs and claims) workable solutions.

For this reason, as chair of the ISA-CSL WG “Social Systems and Legal System” I will ‘pre-constitute’ an introductory arena for discussion by organizing a session on “TRESPASSING POSITIONAL LANDSCAPES: VIEWS OF SOCIO-LEGAL FUTURES” within the framework of the forthcoming 2007 Berlin Meeting. (Vittorio Olgiatti)

Law and Popular Culture

One of the first things the group hopes to do is organise a stream or sessions at the LSA/RCSL meeting in Berlin in July 2007, and to follow this up with a workshop in Onati in 2008. We have already had some interest here but if anyone is interested in either putting together a themed panel, or submitting a paper, please contact Guy Osborn at G.Osborn@wmin.ac.uk. Guy will be happy to discuss possible contributions or field queries.

Details on the Graduate Student Activities for Berlin

Website of the RCSL - ISA

http://rcsl.iscte.pt

This page last updated 29 June 2007

Webmaster pierre.guibentif@iscte.pt

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