Symposium "Beyond the State – Rethinking Private Law"

MPI for Private Law, Hamburg, 12.07.2007 - 13.07.2007

In cooperation with the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Duke Law School and the Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, the Max Planck Institute is hosting a symposium titled “Beyond the State – Rethinking Private Law” from the 12th-13th July 2007. It seems that everyone is talking about the challenges which the Europeanization and globalization pose for the law. Yet there is remarkably little conceptual clarity about exactly what these challenges consist of. Some scholars limit themselves to advocating a more prominent role for traditional international disciplines like comparative law and private international law. They seem to assume that national law itself remains unaffected. Others claim the existence, or the necessity, of supranational or global law beyond the state. Typical projects and ideas are the new law merchant; European and global restatements (Principles); and the new natural law. Often however, traditional concepts, modes of argument, and methods are simply transposed from traditional thought without reflection as to how far they are linked specifically to the state. In short, although the altered role of the state lies at the roots of such considerations, the connection between the state and our conception of the law is regularly neglected. Typically, globalization debates deal with questions of regulation and deregulation. Such debates usually fail to address the more fundamental question of how our thinking about law in general is shaped by, dependent on, and focused on the state. This question is especially pertinent in the area of “classical” private law, where the issue is not only the legitimacy and validity of regulatory rules, but also that of legal arguments. Do these arguments themselves derive their legitimacy from the authority of the state? To what extent is our private law discourse related to the state, whether knowingly or unknowingly? To what extent can the state be replaced, or even dispensed with, for private law thinking? What are the consequences of the state’s disappearance for systematizing the law, and for the “science” of private law? All these questions concern legal theory, legal history, and comparative law alike. They can be answered only by combining insights from these disciplines. This is what this conference “Beyond the State – Rethinking Private Law” intends to achieve. It will bring together established academics as well as younger scholars from the United States and Germany who will present these topics to a greater audience and discuss it amongst themselves. Presentations concerning these questions will be given by Jürgen Basedow (MPI Hamburg), Hanoch Dagan (Tel-Aviv), Charles Donahue (Harvard), James Gordley (Berkeley), Hans-Peter Haferkamp (Köln), Christian Joerges (Bremen/EUI), Anneliese Riles (Cornell University), Florian Rödl (Bremen), Christiane Wendehorst (Göttingen) and Peer Zumbansen (Osgoode). After each presentation there will be the an opportunity to discuss the topics. A general layout of the questions to be adressed by this symposium can be found in two essays by Nils Jansen and Ralf Michaels titled "Private Law Beyond the State? Europeanization, Globalization, Privatisation" (PDF) published in the American Journal of Comparativ Law 54 [2006], 845-892 and "Private Law and the State - Comparative Perceptions and Historical Observations" (PDF) published in Rabels Zeitschrift für Ausländisches und Internationales Privatrecht 71 [2007], 345-397. The one and a half day long conference will be documented in a conference volume to be published jointly by the American Journal of Comparative Law and Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht.

Date of publication: 21.06.2007

Language

English

• Last update: 30 Jun. 2011
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