Presentation
The Panthéon-Assas University “Law and Humanities” research centre is pleased to announce its first international conference to be held in Paris (France) on June 15-17, 2017. As an interdisciplinary group working on the connections between law and politics, economics, and literature, we are seeking papers exploring the dark sides of the law from a wide range of perspectives in the United Kingdom, the United States and Commonwealth countries.
Darkness and obscurity, in the literal and figurative senses, are very much present in the law and legal language.
One of the main roles of the courts is to clarify obscure legal issues in order to improve access to law and justice. For example, inBurwell v. Hobby Lobby 573 U. S. (2014) or Director of Public Prosecutions v Dziurzynski [2002] EWHC 1380 (Admin), the judges asked the parties to “enlighten” them.
Legal language has been criticised for the intricacies of its jargon, starting with the Pleading in English Act 1362 rejecting the use of “Law French” in common law courts, to the extensive use of legalese that has been recently limited by the Plain Language Movement. Legalese has been removed to some extent, but some dark areas remain, due to almost irreducible procedural formalism.
The increased liberalisation of the legal market is giving rise to issues of translation, not only from one language to another but also from one common law jurisdiction to another.
In the political world, darkness may characterise the relationship between the various branches of government or between the government and the private/public sectors and/or the people. For example, in the UK, the voluntary sector has long been intertwined with the government, thus endangering its independence.
Darkness is present in the literary and visual representations of the law and the legal world. Ever since the English Renaissance, drama and other literary genres have challenged the dark aspects of law and justice, mocking the legal professions or exposing unfair court procedures or decisions. For the past sixty years, cinema and TV series have explored the darkest aspects of the law. The dynamic relationship between darkness and light, opacity and transparency, may also be embodied in the architecture of courts.
Since the 19th century, judges have resorted to psychological analyses. Nowadays expert psychiatrists are summoned to court in order to explain the dark workings of the mind, particularly in criminal law.
For this interdisciplinary conference, we welcome proposals or contributions from scholars and academics as well as PhD students addressing any issues on darkness in relation to the law in common law countries. Papers may examine the interdisciplinary relationship between law and any of the fields mentioned above, but also others such as economics, sociology etc.
The language of the conference will be mainly English, but papers may be given in French.
Conference organised by Géraldine Gadbin-George, Yvonne-Marie Rogez, Armelle Sabatier, Claire Wrobel
With the assistance of/sous les auspices de CERSA ''Law & Humanities'' (Panthéon-Assas University) Institut Universitaire de France VALE EA 4085 (Paris-Sorbonne University)
Program
Thursday, June 15th
8h30 : Welcoming of participants and registration
The Old Fantastical Law of Dark Corners
9h00 : Plenary session : Keynote speaker Paul Raffield, Professor at the School of Law, Warwick University
10h00 : Break
Morning session 1 : Transgressing the Law in Literature
Chair : Armelle Sabatier, Panthéon-Assas University
10h10: The Dark Sides of the Law in Measure for Measure
Danièle Frison, Paris-Nanterre University
Escape Clauses: Evasions in Benito Cereno's Deposition and Loopholes in the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
Michel Imbert, Denis-Diderot University
11h05 : Break
Morning session 2 : Victorian Fictions of the Law
Chair : Armelle Sabatier, Panthéon-Assas University
11h20 : Dark Sides of the Law in Wilkie Collins's The Law and the Lady (1875)
Françoise Dupeyron Lafay, UPEC University
Do-Nothingism or Darkness: Victorian Fiction, the Law, and the Challenge of the Governor Eyre Prosecution of 1866
David R. Sorensen (Philadelphia University)
12h15 : Lunch break
Afternoon session 1: Law, Corporations and Consumers
Chair : Anne Brunon-Ernst, Panthéon-Assas University
14h00 : The Common Law and Consumer Prejudice
Christopher K. Odinet, Baton Rouge University
The Dark Side of Common Law: How Courts in the UK and USA began to Recognise Corporations as Criminals Under the Law
Reem Radhi, Durham University
Shadows of Uncertainty in United States Intellectual Property Law
Mizuki Hashiguchi (Attorney at law, New York
15h15 : Break
Afternoon session 2 : Law and Society
Chair : Geraldine Gadbin-George, Panthéon-Assas University
15h30: Shades of Privacy : Mass Electronic Surveillance and the US Constitution
Jacob Maillet, Paris-Descartes University
The Dark Side of Consent in EU Privacy Law
Anne Brunon-Ernst, Panthéon-Assas University
16h30 : Break
Afternoon session 3 : Criminal Trials and Fiction
Chair : Claire Wrobel, Panthéon-Assas University
16h45 : A Senseless Act of Children, Wandering Around in the Dark : Legal Culture and Social Science in a Semi-Fictional Rendition of the Leopold and Loeb Trial
Raluca Andreescu, Bucarest University
Blacktown, Whitetown: Emmett Till, James Baldwin, and American Justice
Meredith M. Malburne-Wade, North Carolina University
Through a Glass Darkly : Reflections on the Dark Sides of the Law in Northern Ireland Through the Prism of the Irish Crime Novel
François Sablayrolles, Panthéon-Assas University
18h00 : End
Friday, June 16th
From Courthouses to Prisons : Spaces of Legal Imagination, Despair, and Rights
9h00 : Plenary session : Keynote speaker Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School
10h00 : Break
Morning session 1 : Law and Society
Chair : Dino Meloni, Panthéon-Assas University
10h10 : Adoption Without Consent: Too Dark to Be True ?
Alicia-Dorothy Mornington & Alexandrine Guyard-Nedelec, Panthéon-Sorbonne University
Prevention as Bad as Cure ? The Dark Sides of a New Form of 'Preventive Law
Alexis Chommeloux, François-Rabelais University
11h05 : Break
Morning session 2 : Law and Society
Chair : Yvonne-Marie Rogez, Panthéon-Assas University
11h20 : Jury Instructions in Common Law Criminal Procedure. Are Jurors Left in the Dark ?
Marion Charret-Del Bove, Jean-Moulin University
The Most Reviled of All Professionals ? Negative Public Perceptions and Representations of Contemporary American Lawyers
Shaeda Isani (Grenoble-Alpes University
12h15 : Lunch break
Afternoon session 1 : Law and Access to Justice
Chair : Alexis Chommeloux, François-Rabelais University
14h00 : The Necessity for Adjudicative Darkness
Zalman Rothschild, New York University
The Negative Relationship Between Access to Justice and High Legal Costs in English Common Law: Reluctant Introduction of Aarhus Convention Claim into the UK as an Example of Common Law Approach of Non Intervention
Gang Luo, Panthéon-Sorbonne University
The Dark Sides of UK courts : Towards the Robotisation of Justice ?
Géraldine Gadbin-George, Panthéon-Assas University
15h15 : Break
Afternoon session 2 : On the Fringes of US Law
Chair : Marion Charret-Del Bove, Jean-Moulin University
15h30 : Shopping Carts, Property Rights and the Fourth Amendment: Dealing with Homelessness in Contemporary North-America
Yvonne-Marie Rogez, Panthéon-Assas University
Into Their Own Hands : Self-Defense, Defiance and Deviances of the Law in the American West
Pierre Lagayette, Paris-Sorbonne University
The Dark Side of American Institutions: House of Cards as Washington's Gothic
Claire Wrobel, Panthéon-Assas University
16h45 : Break
Afternoon session 3 : Law and Linguistics
Chair : Armelle Sabatier, Panthéon-Assas University
17h00 : Property in the Common Law: Conceptual Obscurity and Contestability
Matt Lady, Strasbourg University & Adelaide University
Nuanced or Obscure ? The Impact of Court Specialization on the Vocabulary of Patent Doctrine
Daniel Cahoy and Lynda Oswald, Pennsylvania University & Michigan University
18h00 : End
Saturday, June 17th
Morning session 1 : Law and Linguistics
Chair : Delphine Cingal, Panthéon-Assas University
10h00 : Why Lawyers Should Stop Believing that the Active Voice is Better than the Passive—According to One Lawyer (and Frustrated Linguist)
Christopher Whitehead (Mc Gill University
Amicus Brief : What is Beyond the 'Friend'? A Cognitive Linguist Approach to the Role of Amicus Brief Within the US Judiciary System
François Labatut, Sorbonne-Nouvelle University
10h55 : Break
Morning session 2 : (In)justice and Literature
Chair : Juliette Ringeisen-Biardeaud, University Panthéon-Assas
11h10 : The Opium Trade and the Dark Side of the Law in Amitav Ghosh's The Ibis Trilogy
Suhasini Vincent, Panthéon-Assas University
A Certain Justice, the Dark Side of the Law, the Dark Side of the Soul
Delphine Cingal, Panthéon-Assas University
12h05 : End of the conference
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Organisé par le CERSA, avec le soutien de l'Institut Universitaire de France et VALE EA 4085
