The 7th Annual International Berg Conference

Overlapping jurisdictions: a transformative moment?
A joint research workshop convened by the law schools at Goethe Universität, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv University  
7th Annual Berg Institute International Conference

 

21 January 2016, 9:00 
 

 

 

            The conventional story of how modernity altered juridical decision-making systems on a global scale is one in which the modern nation-state emerged as the key arbiter of legal disputes.  But the modern nation-state's monopoly on the resolution of legal conflicts may be less extensive than initially presumed.  The rapid globalization, digitization, and marketization of recent decades have altered legal systems at local, national, and transnational levels.  Institutions other than state-courts are increasingly resolving national and transnational conflicts.  In this space of overlapping jurisdictions, procedural law is undergoing broad transformations; the privatization of arbitration is providing more alternatives to state-based institutions; and criminal law is experiencing a parallel shift to the private resolution of conflicts.  These changes trigger a wide range of questions about the relationship between state institutions and the resolution of legal conflicts.  How do juridical systems of decision making change? Are we in the midst of an epochal transformation of our legal systems? Is what used to be a state-centered system of justice now making place for other forms of conflict regulation?  If so, is law being modified substantively as a result of these changes?  What explains the expansion of overlapping jurisdictions?  How should legal professionals respond to these changes?

 

            We propose to explore these questions by comparing historical and modern manifestations of overlapping legal jurisdictions.  Legal history offers multiple examples of overlapping jurisdictions, of courts and arbitration forums operating with parallel authority to state institutions.  In some cases, these alternative forums for juridical decision-making opened up possibilities.  For example, there is a rich history of rabbinic courts providing claimants with opportunities to resolve their conflicts outside the state's direct authority.  Similarly, the Catholic Church played a major role in dispute resolution in early modern Europe.  In other cases, alternative forums represented complicated power dynamics.  For example, the Ottoman capitulary system exempted Europeans from local laws and allowed Europeans to be governed by European laws within the Ottoman empire.  Complicated and diverse historical examples of overlapping jurisdictions offer an intellectual space within which to consider contemporary overlapping jurisdictions.

For more information, please contact the Berg Institute: berg@post.tau.ac.il.

Invitation

Tel Aviv University makes every effort to respect copyright. If you own copyright to the content contained
here and / or the use of such content is in your opinion infringing, Contact us as soon as possible >>