This conference represents the final stage of the “European Doctorate in history, sociology, anthropology and philosophy of legal cultures in Europe”, a multilingual PhD programme financed by the European Commission and conceived to deepen the links between law and social sciences. The topic of the meeting, “Undoing law, framing contexts. Normativity across the disciplines”, aims to encourage a reflection on the concepts of law and context, bringing together scholars with different academic backgrounds but with a common interest in law. Many feel that a line has to be drawn between what is law and what it is not, between the text of law and its con-text. It is precisely this activity of distinguishing between the legal and the non-legal that we would like to examine more closely.

UNDOING LAW, FRAMING CONTEXTS. NORMATIVITY ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES

MARIE CURIE ACTIONS PROGRAMME EUROPEAN LEGAL CULTURES

This conference represents the final stage of the “European Doctorate in history, sociology, anthropology and philosophy of legal cultures in Europe”, a multilingual PhD programme financed by the European Commission and conceived to deepen the links between law and social sciences, in order to cross the boundaries that separate the different fields of study as well as the different countries. 

The topic of the meeting, “Undoing law, framing contexts. Normativity across the disciplines”, aims to encourage a reflection on the concepts of law and context, bringing together scholars with different academic backgrounds but with a common interest in law. 

Many feel that a line has to be drawn between what is law and what it is not, between the text of law and its con-text. It is precisely this activity of distinguishing between the legal and the non-legal that we would like to examine more closely. 

To that purpose, the conference will propose a two-fold strategy. It will first welcome specific “case studies”, presented with the following questions in mind: How does the notion of context come into play as an analytical tool? On the second hand, other contributions will approach the subject matter in more general terms, addressing questions such as: How can historians, philosophers and sociologists 

challenge representations of the law as pertaining to a purely formalistic normativity, devoid of any history, on the one hand, and depictions of the law as a pure course of events, indifferent to formal legal norms, on the other? 

Hopefully, but not necessarily, these two manners of approaching the question of law and its contexts will intersect at some point at the conference. By combining contributions from international scholars ranging from historians, philosophers, and lawyers to sociologists, it is our intention to offer an all-too-rare opportunity to catch a transversal glimpse of the law.  

Address: Huis Van Bethlehem, Auditorium Wolfspoort - Schapenstraat 34, Leuven, Belgium 

Wednesday, March 3d 

19.30-20:30 - ICE-BREAKING 

Reception in the Leuven Town Hall (welcome by Mr Louis Tobback, Mayor and Minister of State) 

Thursday, March 4th 

09.30-10:30 ACADEMIC OPENING AND INTRODUCTION

• Prof. Paolo Napoli - EHESS-Paris, France 
• Prof. Rainer Kiesow - MPIER-Frankfurt a.M., Germany 

10:30-13:00 - MORNING SESSION

10.30-11:30 - Legal Indicators: Prospects and Perils. Prof. Kevin Davis, New York University - School of Law, USA 

Chair - Eliardo Teles

11:30-12:00 - BREAK 

12:00-13:00 - The Context of the Law on Roads. Examples of the 'Normative Syndrome'. Prof. Andres Botero, Universidad de Medellín, Colombia 

Chair - Pablo Avilés Flores

13:00-14:30 - LUNCH TIME

14:30-17:30 - AFTERNOON SESSION

14.30-15.30 - The Culture of Noncompliance in Latin America. Prof. Mauricio Garcia-Villegas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotà

Chair - Carolina Vergel

15.30-16:00 - BREAK

16:00-17:00 - Human Rights and the Moral Imagination in Contemporary Latin America. Prof. Mark Goodale, George Mason University, USA

Chair - Rodrigo Míguez 

20.30-23.00 - CONFERENCE DINNER (Faculty Club) 

Friday, March 5th

09:30-12:00 - MORNING SESSION

09.30-10.30 - A Pathway for a Post-Statalist Theory of Sources of Law: Pre-Statalist Recollections Revisited. Prof. Antonio Hespanha, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal 

Chair - Stefania Gialdroni

10.30-11:00 - BREAK

11:00-12:00 - Constitutional Transfer – Introducing the IKEA Theory. Prof. Günther Frankenberg, J.W. Goethe Universität-Frankfurt a.M., Germany 

Chair - Hent Kalmo 

12:00-14:00: Bus to railway station / take away lunch 

14.05-14.37: Train to Bruxelles Schuman (Reservation Group ticket) 

15.00-18.00: VISIT TO EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS, BRUXELLES

18.30-20.00: Spare time in Bruxelles 

20.00-22.30: Dinner in Bruxelles 

Saturday, March 6th 

09:00-13:15 - MORNING SESSION

09.30-10:30 - Intorno all'eccezione: privilegio, decreto, grazia nel linguaggio giuridico e politico italiano. Secoli XII-XV. Prof. Massimo Vallerani, Università di Torino, Italy

Chair - Magda Schusterova

10:30-11:30 - Il diritto fuori del diritto: letteratura, miti, immagini. Prof. Aldo Mazzacane, Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy

Chair - Silvia Falconieri 

11:30-12:00 - BREAK 

12:00-13:00 - The Statute of Pisa, Authenticae, and Roman Jurists in the Early Twelfth Century: The Context is Everything. Prof. Kenneth Pennington, Catholic University of America, USA 

Chair - Michele Spanò 

13.00-14.30 - LUNCH TIME

14:30-19:15 - AFTERNOON SESSION 

14.30-15.30 - The Law and History of the Undoing of Law. Dr. Anton Schütz, Birkbeck College, School of Law-London, UK

Chair - Stefanie Günthner 

15:30-16.30 - La possibilité de normativités fortes. Prof. Jean Clam, CNRS-Paris, France / CMB-Berlin, Germany 

Chair - Pierre Thévenin

16.30-17.00 - BREAK

17:00-18:00 - Ce droit si gênant: droits réels et ius in corpus. Prof. Marta Madero, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento Buenos Aires, Argentina 

Chair - Sebastian Provvidente 

18:00-18:30 - CONCLUSIONS 

Prof. Emanuele Conte, Università Roma Tre, Italy