6th Annual Conference of the Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance (NILG): 'Comparative Law and Governance'

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Opening: 18 September at 10:30. Closing: 19 September at 17:00, followed by drinks.
Location: Het Kasteel, Melkweg 1, Groningen.
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In 2014, the University of Groningen will be 400 years old! The NILG would like to celebrate this occasion by inviting you to the 6^th Annual Conference.

Laws are to a great extent still national. However, the vast majority of problems and issues in contemporary society are not specifically national. The individual countries could and should learn more from each other. The best practices, the best laws, and the modes of governance that best contribute to the solution of a certain societal problem, could and should better circulate across the world. This need for mutual learning calls for comparative law and governance.

Comparative law is important for all legal scholars, not only for the most internationally active. It enables nationally oriented researchers to reflect on whether a good solution adopted by another country could help improve national law.

Comparative law and governance is more than the mere sum of comparative law and comparative governance. The contemporary age of governance suggests a new understanding of comparative law, which overcomes the traditional boundaries between legal disciplines and focuses more on the solution of societal problems than on black letter law.

This conference will explore this new, governance-based understanding of comparative law from both a theoretical-methodological and a practical, application-oriented viewpoint. Application examples will touch upon (and cross over) different fields of legal research, including private, public, criminal, commercial, EU and international law.

Last but not least, this conference offers a good occasion to inaugurate a new academic journal hosted by the NILG and devoted to comparative law and governance: the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance (EJCL). This journal, like its predecessor the Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, publishes both comparative studies concerning European countries and comparative studies with a broader geographical focus. It also continues to publish contributions that are double blind peer reviewed according to international standards.

However, the European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance differs from its predecessor, as it is not only an open-access electronic journal, but a classic journal with paper issues (which are of course also available in the form of online subscription). Its publisher, Brill, is rooted in The Netherlands but is at the same time one of the biggest international publishers. Likewise, the NILG is rooted in The Netherlands but also hosts research themes and projects with an international dimension, and aims to be acknowledged as an internationally renowned leading research institute on law and governance.

Opening speeches
Prof. Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi (University of Groningen) and Prof. Sjef van Erp (University of Maastricht), Comparative Law in the Age of Governance
Prof. Michael Bohlander (University of Durham), Sisters in Law: Islamic and Secular Legal Thinking

Parallel sessions
(1)    Comparative Liability Law and Societal Governance. Chairs: Prof. Gert Brüggemeier (University of Bremen) and Dr. Patrick O’Callaghan (University College Cork)
(2)    Expropriation Law and Governance. Chairs: Prof. Leon Verstappen (University of Groningen) and Prof. Jacques Sluysmans (Radboud University Nijmegen)
(3)    Comparative Criminal Law and Societal Governance. Chairs: Prof. Michael Bohlander (University of Durham) and Prof. Dawn Rothe (Old Dominion University, Virginia)

Additional information about the speakers and abstracts will be made available in July 2014 on the NILG website: www.nilg.nl . The registration form can also be found on the website.