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June 2014
Prof. Samuel R. SIMON – Conflict of Laws and Core American Constitutional Values: The Collision of Freedom of the Press and a Criminal Defendants Fundamental Constitutional Rights
This lecture by a distinguished practicing attorney and professor of law addresses the issues that arise in the United States when the constitutional right of a free press collides with a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair trial, to a fair and impartial jury, and to due process of law. In the American criminal justice system, an accused criminal defendant is innocent until proven guilty at trial. To this end, he enjoys a panoply of unalienable constitutional rights that the courts jealously guard at each stage of the proceedings. Equally, every American school child knows that freedom of the press -- the constitutional freedom to publish without let or hindrance -- is protected by the courts to the utmost…
Find out more »May 2014
Prof. Lin – Central-local Relationship in China and its Future
Central-local relationship is an important constitutional issue which every nation, whether big or small, needs to deal with. It is usually prescribed for by the constitution of the nation. The formation of the central-local relationship in a specic nation often has its historical reasons. In nations adopting a federal system, such as the United States of America, Australia and India, local governments, especially state or provincial governments, are the basis for the establishment of federal government, which is the central government. In nations adopting a unitary system, such as the United Kingdom (“the UK”) and China, the purpose to set up local governments is to administer the state aairs more eciently. In many nations, either federal or unitary, all local…
Find out more »Prof. Dozhdev – Development of Property Rights in the Russian Federation: European Legal Tradition and Post-Soviet Transition
The system of property rights in the current Russian legal framework as well as in the proposed Draft Amendments to the Civil Code (which will be adopted in 2014) are analyzed from a comparative law perspective. The lecture will focus on both the conceptual framework of property rights in the Russian legal system as well as on practical issues in regard to judicial protection, acquisition and limitation of ownership and other real rights. In addition, the social and economic implications of the concept of property will be discussed. In a systematic analysis, property rights according to the Continental European tradition are contrasted with concepts and notions of Common Law. In this context, the problems of eventual legal transplantation are thoroughly…
Find out more »April 2014
Prof. Heinsohn – Introduction to the Theory of Ownership-based Economics with a View on the current Global Crisis
Gunnar HEINSOHN, Professor emeritus of the University Bremen, is a historian, sociologist and economist, who elaborated — together with Otto STEIGER — a specic theory of modern economics, namely the theory of ownership-based economics. This theory deals with a symptomatic lacune of mainstream economics — this being the absence of any theoretical explanation of money and interest in mainstream economics — and focuses on legal institutions such as rights in rem (ownership) and contracts (credit agreements) to explain the origins of money and modern business cycles. The key elements of mainstream economics, such as the pretense of universalism and the assumption of a homo oeconomicus and his self-interest driven rationality, are amongst those building blocks of contemporary economics which are…
Find out more »January 2014
Prof. Scott Brewer – Universality of Logic and Globalisation of Legal Analysis
Laws of nation states and laws of logic: The law of every existing legal system is local to time, place, and country. That proposition is central to Legal Positivist legal theories that are so familiar to jurists (professors and students) at this august institution who are so robustly aware of Hans Kelsen's seminal jurisprudence. That proposition is also acknowledged by any plausible "natural law" theory of law. Logic has been well and powerfully characterized, in the work of great philosophical logicians as diverse and influential as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Gottlob Frege, as the discipline that articulates universal "laws of thought," local to neither time nor place nor country nor person. In this presentation I shall describe a method of…
Find out more »October 2013
Dr. Fan Yang – Mediation and its Impact on Legal Systems in Asia-Pacific
Mediation plays an ever more important role in the resolution of disputes around the world. While attention to mediation continues to grow both within and outside of the Asia-Pacific region, scholarship and research on the impact of mediation on legal systems and legal cultures remains sparse. Before a meaningful comparison of the role that mediation plays in different legal systems can be advanced, some fundamental questions need to be answered. Although Asian cultures traditionally favour harmony and reconciliation over litigation and adjudication, this broad generalization requires careful analysis of regional diversity and its underlying reasons, as will be demonstrated by the study presented in this lecture. Differences in understanding are likely to be at their greatest when parties from different…
Find out more »June 2013
Prof. Hugues Fulchiron – La reconnaissance au service de la libre circulation des personnes et de leur statut familial dans l’espace européen
De plus de pays ouvrent le mariage aux personnes de même sexe. Face l’ampleur des problèmes posés et aux oppositions radicales qui séparent désormais les Etats européens, praticiens et chercheurs ont été amenés à repenser une partie des mécanismes du droit international privé et à imaginer des solutions nouvelles, inspirées notamment de la théorie de la reconnaissance. Même si la Cour EDH des droits de l’homme (arrêt Schalk et Kopf c. Autriche) et la CJUE font preuve d’une grande prudence, pourrait s’affirmer peu à peu un véritable principe de libre circulation des mariages homosexuels (et au delà des situations familiales) valablement créés à l’étranger, dans le prolongement des arrêts Wagner c. Luxembourg et Négrépontis-Giannisise c. Grèce de la Cour EDH…
Find out more »May 2013
Philippe Lortie – The 2007 Hague Child Support Convention – Opportunities for Domestic Reforms
Further to providing a picture of the international recovery of child support before the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention and presenting an overview of the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention, Mr. Lortie will highlight the practical challenges in this area of the law such as the increasing number of divorces and the resulting number of child support cases, the budget crises experienced by many States and the role of States in providing welfare, social security payments in lieu of the child support that should normally be provided by the parents. Against this background, Mr. Lortie will present opportunities for domestic law reforms in relation to the recovery of child support with respect to matters such as: effective access to procedures…
Find out more »Tagung – Rechtsvergleichung als juristische Auslegungsmethode
Die interdisziplinäre Tagung befasst sich mit der Bedeutung der Komparatistik in ihrer Funktion als Auslegungsmethode des Rechts. Die Palette der hier angesprochenen Fachbereiche umfasst Kollisionsrecht, Zivilrecht, Verfahrensrecht, Strafrecht, Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht sowie Völker- und Europarecht. Dabei werden nicht nur methodische Überlegungen zur Rechtsvergleichung aus Sicht der einzelnen Disziplinen angestellt, sondern es wird auch die konkrete Judikatur österreichischer und europäischer Höchstgerichte darauf hin untersucht, ob und unter welchen Bedingungen Rechtsvergleichung als Methode der juristischen Interpretation und damit auch in der Rechtspraxis Anwendung findet. Die Tagung strebt wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse darüber an, ob juristische Disziplinen und Höchstgerichte die rechtsvergleichende Methode unterschiedlich anwenden und auf welche Ursachen dies zurückgeführt werden kann. Insbesondere wird dabei auf folgende Fragestellungen eingegangen: Lassen sich in Lehre und Praxis…
Find out more »March 2013
Prof. Ulrich Magnus – CISG und Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht – Partner oder Gegner?
Zum Ende 2011 hatte die EU-Kommission mit dem Entwurf einer Verordnung zu einem Gemeinsamen Europäischen Kaufrecht (GEKR oder CESL) überrascht. Dieser Entwurf soll das materielle Recht für internationale Käufe regeln, dabei aber nicht nur Verbraucherkäufe, sondern auch grenzüberschreitende Käufe zwischen bestimmten Unternehmen erfassen. Nun besteht für transnationale Kaufgeschäfte zwischen Kaufleuten aber seit langem das wohleingeführte und weltweit erfolgreiche Wiener UN-Kaufrecht (CISG). Dieses Nebeneinander gibt dringenden Anlass, sich eingehend mit dem Verhältnis der beiden Instrumente zueinander zu beschäftigen. Macht das Europäische Kaufrecht neben dem CISG Sinn? Wie weit überschneiden sich beide Regelungen? Genügt der optionale Charakter des GEKR/CESL für ein spannungsfreies Nebeneinander? Neben einem Überblick über die wesentlichen Grundzüge des neuen Entwurfs sind Antworten auf diese Fragen zu geben.
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