AALS Annual Meeting Today: European Law Section Panel on "Current Developments in Rights Protection in the European Union"

Just a reminder for all network members attending the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco: The European Law Section's panel on Current Developments in Rights Protection in the European Union: Anti-Discrimination Measures, The Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the Refugee Crisis, will be held today at 8:30 am PST in Continental Parlor 7 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Below is the panel description and the list of speakers.

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Novel legislation adopted by the E.U. Council of Ministers in 2000 prohibits discrimination based on race or ethnic origin in all fields regulated by E.U. law, and prohibits discrimination in employment based on religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Panelists will discuss efforts to curb discrimination of the Roma people under E.U. rules and the European Convention on Human Rights, and Court judgments concerning compulsory retirement of university professors, judges, and prosecutors. Another panelist will discuss the efforts to maintain human rights protection while coping with the on-going refugee crisis. A guest European professor will discuss the impact of the U.K. referendum on withdrawal from the E.U. on the U.K. rules on residence of migrant nationals of other E.U. nations.  Papers from the program will be published in Fordham International Law Journal.  

Speakers:

Frank Emmert, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Roger J. Goebel, Fordham University School of Law
Dr. Laurence Gormley, University of Groningen Faculty of Law
Katerina Linos, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Julie C. Suk, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Reminder: "Human Rights at the Margins: The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective" (Saturday, Jan. 9, 8:30 am, AALS Annual Meeting, New York City)

Just a reminder to all network members attending the AALS Annual Meeting this week in New York: the European Law Section of the AALS will host a panel on "Human Rights at the Margins: The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective," which will take place on Saturday, January 9, 2016, from 8:30-10:15 am (room location in the conference program).  More details on the panel are below.  

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Human Rights at the Margins:

The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective

Saturday, January 9, 2016, 8:30-10:15 am

Moderated by Section Chair Daniela Caruso (BU), the panel will include Iris Goldner Lang (Zagreb), Daniel Halberstam (Michigan), Steve Peers (Essex), and Gráinne de Búrca (NYU) (discussant).

The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean has been rightly identified as the most serious legal and political challenge currently facing Europe. The crisis calls into question the legal architecture of the Euorpean Union and tests the limits of policy coordination among the Member States. It calls as well for a reassessment of human rights and classical immigration law as frames for handling structural predicaments in the Global South. The purpose of this panel, co-sponsored by the AALS Sections on International Human Rights and International Law, is to engage US and EU legal scholars in a discussion of ongoing legal responses to the Mediterranean crisis and similar emergencies, with the goal of identifying limitations and possibilities in federal, supranational, or international entities called to the rescue of the lost at sea.

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In addition, there will be a section business meeting following the panel, as well as a section lunch at 12:30 pm (RSVP by Tuesday, January 5, to Daniela Caruso, who can provide further details).  On the agenda of the business meeting will be the appointment of new Executive Committee members, the selection of a topic for next year’s program, and a discussion of blog-based initiatives.  The section lunch will follow the panel on "Comparative Perspectives on Privacy Law," co-organized by the Section on Comparative Law and the Section on Defamation and Privacy Law, which section members may also wish to attend.  

Annual Newsletter of the European Law Section of the AALS

We are pleased forward the annual newsletter of the European Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).  Most importantly, it includes information about the section's program on "Human Rights at the Margins: The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective," which will take place on Saturday, January 9, 2016, at the AALS Annual Meeting in New York.  More details on the full annual meeting can be found here.  A full breakout posting on the section program at the annual meeting will follow soon.

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2016 AALS Annual Meeting: European Law Section program announced

Network member Daniela Caruso (BU) has announced the program for the AALS European Law Section at the 2016 AALS Annual Meeting in New York City (January 6-10, 2016).  The European Law Section program will take place on January 9, 2016, and will feature network members Gráinne de Búrca (NYU), Daniela Caruso (BU), and Daniel Halberstam (Michigan), as well as Steve Peers (Essex).  The program is summarized below.

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Program Title: Human Rights at the Margins: The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective

Date: Saturday January 9, 2016

Time: 8:30am-10:15am

Program Summary: The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean has been rightly identified as the most serious legal and political challenge currently facing Europe. The crisis calls into question the legal architecture of the European Union and tests the limits of policy coordination among the member states. It calls as well for a reassessment of human rights and classical immigration law as frames for handling structural predicaments in the Global South. The purpose of this panel, co-sponsored by the AALS Sections on International Human Rights and International Law, is to engage US and EU legal scholars in a discussion of ongoing legal responses to the Mediterranean crisis and similar emergencies, with the goal of pointing at limitations and possibilities in federal, supranational or international entities called to the rescue of the lost at sea. 

Panelists: Steve Peers, Essex University School of Law (UK); Daniel Halberstam, University of Michigan; Gráinne de Búrca, New York University (Discussant); Daniela Caruso, Boston University (Chair).

Save the Date: AALS European Law Section 2016 Annual Meeting (Washington DC, January 9, 2016)

Chair of the AALS European Law Section and network member Daniela Caruso (Boston University) has written to confirm the details for the European Law Section panel at the AALS 2016 Annual Meeting in New York City.  

The panel will meet on January 9, 2016, at 8:30am.  The topic will be "Human Rights at the Margins: The Refugee Crisis and Other Emergencies in a Transatlantic Perspective."  Network member Daniel Halberstam (Michigan) and Steve Peers (Essex) are confirmed as speakers; network member Gráinne de Búrca (NYU) will serve as discussant; and Daniela will chair.

Section News: The Newsletter of the European Law Section of AALS (Fall 2014)

Through the great work of network member Erin Delaney (Northwestern), the European Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) has published its annual newsletter (see below).  The newsletter includes plenty of information of interest to section members, including notices of the Section's sponsored and co-sponsored panels at this year's AALS Annual Meeting in Washington (January 2-5, 2015) -- the first on US-EU trade relations (notably TTIP) and the second on transatlantic economic law and governance more generally.  In addition, there is a notice of a panel at this year's EUSA Conference in Boston (March 5-7, 2015) on the challenges of teaching EU law in US law schools, which will feature several Section members. Check it out, if you haven't seen it previously.

Registration Open: Workshop on Transnational Perspectives on Equality Law, Washington, DC (June 22-24, 2014)

The AALS Workshop on Transnational Perspectives on Equality Law is scheduled for June 22-24, 2014 in Washington, DC. Network member Julie C. Suk, (Cardozo School of Law) is part of the Planning Committee and will moderate two Plenary Sessions. Moreover, network member David Oppenheimer (Berkeley Law) will be one of the panelists. The Planning Committee's description of the workshop is below along with instructions for registration. Online registration can be found here.

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Association of American Law Schools

Workshop on Transnational Perspectives on Equality Law

June 22-24, 2014, Washington, DC (The Renaissance Mayflower Hotel)

Antidiscrimination law is an American invention that has spread all around the world.  During the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, antidiscrimination law promised radical social transformations towards equality for women and minorities in the workplace, in politics, and in education.  But recent developments in Equal Protection and Title VII doctrine have paralyzed this trajectory.  Meanwhile, the last decade has seen the unprecedented globalization of antidiscrimination law, as well as its expansion and alternative development outside the United States, catalyzed largely by the European Union's two directives in 2000, on race equality and on equal treatment in employment.  Over the last few years, a new body of equality law and policy experimentation has emerged not only in the EU and in European countries, but also in South Africa, Canada, Latin America, and Asia. There is a range of public policies adopted to mitigate the disadvantages of vulnerable groups such as racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, women, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor, constituting an "equality law" that goes beyond norms prohibiting discrimination.

At the same time, antidiscrimination law in the United States seems to be changing. U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the last several years (Ricci v. DeStefano, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, Wal-Mart v. Dukes, and Shelby County v. Holder) have signaled the end of antidiscrimination law as envisioned by the civil rights movement in the United States.  In response, there is growing scholarly interest in finding new approaches to the persistent problem of structural inequality.  Comparative reflection is a productive tool, particularly when energy and optimism surrounds the trajectory of antidiscrimination law and equality policy outside of the United States.  Now that there is over a decade's worth of new antidiscrimination activity in the EU countries following the 2000 equality directives, the time is ripe for scholarly reflection and evaluation of these developments. From an intellectual, practical, and strategic perspective, antidiscrimination scholars in the United States can no longer ignore developments in antidiscrimination law in other countries.

While a growing number of American legal scholars are lamenting the limits of antidiscrimination law, the recent growth of this body of law outside of the United States has largely gone unnoticed. The central purpose of this mid-year meeting is to widen the comparative lens on U.S. equality law - its failures, its achievements, and its potential - across a variety of subject areas.  The meeting will provide a unique and much-needed opportunity to bring together scholars from various fields - constitutional law, employment discrimination law, comparative law, comparative constitutional law, election law, education law - to deepen and enrich the scholarship and teaching of equality.   The meeting will also provide a unique opportunity for U.S. scholars to interact with a wide, varied, and stimulating group of antidiscrimination scholars working around the world.

Additionally, law schools are increasingly making their curricula more transnational and comparative. This conference will assist teachers in integrating comparative perspectives to illuminate constitutional law, employment discrimination law, employment law, and other traditional subjects.

This Workshop will explore a number of critical questions including what is at stake in looking comparatively when doing equality law; how affirmative action is understood in other legal systems; understanding disparate impact, accommodation, and positive rights.  There will be discussions of religion, profiling, and equality and social movements.  Transnational perspectives on equality law will be a greater component of antidiscrimination scholarship going forward. This meeting should not be missed.

“An Inherently Public-Private Partnership”: Introductory Reflections on Financial Sector Regulation in the US and EU since the Advent of the Crisis

As we’ve noted previously, at this year’s AALS Annual Meeting the Section on European Law will join with the Section on Financial Institutions & Consumer Financial Services in co-sponsoring a joint program entitled “Taking Stock of Post-Crisis Reforms: Local, Global, and Comparative Perspectives on Financial Sector Regulation.”  The program will take place on Friday, January 3 at 10:30 am at the New York Hilton Midtown.  In what I hope will be an enticement for section members to attend, below are some introductory remarks with which I plan to open the discussion. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

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Together with the chair of the Section on Financial Institutions & Consumer Financial Services, Saule Omarova (UNC School of Law), let me welcome you to this morning’s panel, “Taking Stock of Post-Crisis Reforms: Local, Global, and Comparative Perspectives on Financial Sector Regulation.”  I am Peter Lindseth (UConn School of Law), chair of the Section on European Law.  It is our pleasure to co-sponsor this morning’s joint program with the Financial Institutions Section.

The aim of this panel, as the title suggests, is to “take stock” of reforms in financial-sector regulation since the advent of the crisis. Our perspective will be resolutely comparative and, we hope, “transatlantic” and indeed “global.”  As the call-for-papers put it, “[t]he financial crisis of 2008 was truly a global crisis, and the world continues to face a wide range of post-crisis economic and political challenges.”  Not least of these is the continuing quest for the right institutional mechanisms as well as the right regulatory and enforcement strategies to promote political and legal accountability in the financial system, whose sound operation is of obvious high public importance.

For many of us in the European Law Section, the study of risk regulation in the financial sector takes us distinctly outside our comfort zone. But the question of financial-sector regulation, I would submit, touches on issues that should be deeply familiar to anyone who has closely followed the process of European integration – indeed, the evolution of modern governance more generally – over the last several decades. 

As our two discussants today (Anna Gelpern and Bob Hockett) put it to me recently, regulation of the financial sector is “an inherently public-private partnership.” If we were to cast this in terms more familiar to Europeanists, we would say that financial-sector regulation is an example of “network” and “multilevel” governance in which significant amounts of regulatory authority, for better or worse, has seeped beyond the confines of individual nation-states.  In these circumstances, the question of accountability – legal, political, even moral – becomes acute.  The regulator’s role, whether in terms of macro-supervision of systemic risks or micro-prudential supervision of individual firms, becomes daunting.  Enforcement of regulatory norms is an ongoing challenge.  Coordination among regulators at various levels of governance becomes crucial.

Panel on Comparative Urban Governance, Joint Program of the Sections on State and Local Government Law and Comparative Law, AALS Annual Meeting, Saturday January 4, 2014 (2:00 to 3:45 PM)

Network member Fernanda Nicola (AU-WCL) has passed on this announcement, which may be of interest to readers attending the AALS Annual Meeting this weekend in New York City:

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DESCRIPTION

International law and global governance regimes are increasingly shaping the legal framework within which U.S. cities, states and metropolitan regions are operating. International institutions such as the World Bank are likewise influencing the governance approach of cities in developed countries in an effort to attract foreign investment and to make those cities more equitable, efficient, and sustainable. At the same time, scholars and local policymakers in every part of the world are looking abroad for new ideas, best practices and models to approach urban governance in light of changing fiscal realities and the variety of challenges that accompany increasing rates of urbanization across the world.  Sustainable development, adaption to climate change, among other challenges, necessitates that cities and regions be innovative and nimble in their approaches to these issues.  Comparative studies of urban governance regimes and policy innovations are important tools in shaping local and regional responses to urban growth, development and sustainability.

FIRST PANEL The City in Global, International and Comparative Settings

This panel explores different legal regimes from which cities derive their power and whether international law and institutions add a new layer of governance. How does and should international and comparative law address cities, regions or sub-national governments as new emerging actors in this field?

Saskia Sassen, Columbia University/London School of Economics

Richard Ford, Stanford Law School

Nadav Shoked, Northwestern Law School

Daniel B. Rodriguez, Northwestern Law School

Chair: Sheila Foster, Fordham Law School (Chair State and Local Government Section)

SECOND PANEL Comparative Perspectives on Urban Governance, Development and Sustainability

This panel focuses on how scholars and policymakers engage in cross-national comparisons to assess different urban governance and planning models. What is the relevance of comparative law in determining what type of economic development agenda is more suitable to a specific geographic environment? How can interdisciplinary tools be utilized to establish some entry points for cross national comparisons? How can learning from other countries’ experiences enrich our understanding of what cities can or should not do?

Matt Glasser, Legal Vice-Presidency, World Bank

Prya S. Gupta, Southwestern Law School

Andrea McArdle, City University of New York School of Law

James A. Kushner, Southwestern Law School

Chair: Fernanda Nicola, AU-Washington College of Law (Chair Comparative Law Section)

Section on Comparative Law, Works-in-Progress Program in Comparative Law, AALS Annual Meeting, January 3, 2014 (8:30 to 10:30 AM)

Network member Fernanda Nicola (AU-WCL) has passed on this announcement, which may be of interest to readers attending the AALS Annual Meeting this weekend in New York City:

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The AALS Section on Comparative Law is pleased to announce a new Works-in-Progress Program in Comparative Law from 8:30 to 10:30 AM on Friday January 3 at the AALS 2014 Annual Meeting in New York.

This program will bring together junior and senior scholars for a lively discussion of emerging comparative law scholars’ works-in-progress.  We want to thank all of the comparative law scholars who have submitted papers to our call for papers during the fall of 2013. The committee that selected four out of many excellent papers was formed by the members of the AALS Comparative law section: Sudha Setty (Western New England University School of Law), Kristen G. Barnes (University of Akron School of Law) and César F. Rosado Marzán (Chicago-Kent College of Law) in conjunction with the Chair-Elect and the Chair of the Comparative law section.

 

The session in NYC will be divided in three panels that will last 35 minutes each. Each senior commentator will present and comment on their paper for 15 minutes and then we will have twenty minutes of general discussion for the first two panels. For the third panel we envisage 10 minutes for each commentator and 15 minutes for general discussion.

FIRST PANEL  

Aditi Bagchi (Fordham Law School) The Political Economy of Regulating Contract 

Commentator: Daniela Caruso (Boston University Law School)

SECOND PANEL

Mathilde Cohen (University of Connecticut School of Law) The ExAnte/ExPost Deliberation

Commentator: William E. Forbath (University of Texas School of Law)

THIRD PANEL

Martin Gelter (Fordham Law School) and Geneviève Helleringer (Oxford University,UK) Unveiling the Hidden Diversity in Corporate Fiduciary Duties 

Commentator: Peer Zumbansen (Osgoode Hall Law School)

Darren Rosenblum (Pace Law School) Sex Regimes and Corporate Governance

Commentator: Julie Suk (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law)

This new program will presents an opportunity to hear cutting edge comparative law scholarship by emerging comparative law scholars. Our business meeting will take place promptly after the end of this program. We hope to see you all in January in NYC.

Fernanda G. Nicola                                                      Intisar Rabb

Section Chair                                                               Section Chair-Elect

Reminder: AALS Annual Meeting, New York City, Joint Program of the Financial Institutions and European Law Sections (January 3, 2014, 10:30 AM)

A reminder regarding the AALS Annual Meeting in New York on January 2-5, 2014:  The Section on Financial Institutions & Consumer Financial Services and the Section on European Law are co-sponsoring a joint program entitled “Taking Stock of Post-Crisis Reforms: Local, Global, and Comparative Perspectives on Financial Sector Regulation.”  The program will take place on Friday, January 3, 2014, at 10:30 am, and network member Peter Lindseth (UConn) will chair.  Speakers will include Bob Hockett (Cornell) and Anna Gelpern (Georgetown), along with papers selected in response to the the CFP by Hilary Allen (Loyola-New Orleans) [paper here], Sabeel Rahman (Harvard) [paper here], and Art Wilmarth (GW) [paper here]. 

Take note that each section will have a business meeting immediately following the conclusion of the panel (the European Law Section's will be over lunch -- more details here).  An overview of the program is immediately below and otherwise we look forward to seeing many of you in New York.

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The financial crisis of 2008 was truly a global crisis, and the world continues to face a wide range of post-crisis economic and political challenges. Today, several years after the market turmoil began, both the United States and the European Union are in the midst of major regulatory reforms in the financial services sector. The effects of these financial regulation reforms however, remain unclear. Structural reform in the U.S. is thus far limited to a yet-to-be finalized "Volcker Rule," while in the U.K. and the Eurozone, respectively, Vickers- and Liikanen-style "ring-fencing" remain incomplete if not inchoate.  Debate in the U.S. still rages around whether and how smaller "community banks" should be regulated differently from megabanks, while the E.U. continues to debate whether to form a "banking union" at all and, if so, what it might or could entail, given various political constraints.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to innovate in the realm of monetary policy in the absence of functional fiscal policy, while the European Central Bank moves furtively toward acting as a full Fed-style central bank capable of backstopping sovereign debt instruments and providing real liquidity.  Where might these multiple developments be ultimately heading, and what might the Americans and Europeans learn from each other as they grope tentatively forward? What broader implications do they raise for political accountability and legitimacy in a post-crisis world?

European Law Section Lunch, AALS Annual Meeting, January 3, 12:30 pm (Tang Pavilion, 65 West 55th Street, off 6th Avenue)

At 12:30 pm on Friday, January 3rd, in conjunction with the AALS Annual Meeting, members of the European Law Section and guests are invited to take part in a section lunch at the Tang Pavilion, 65 West 55th Street, off 6th Avenue.  Tang is a Chinese restaurant (Shanghai style cuisine) only a 2-minute walk from the Hilton Hotel where the AALS Annual Meeting is taking place.  (The Hilton is at 54th Street and 6th Avenue.)  Join old friends and new for a delicious lunch to ring in the New Year!   A set menu lunch, including vegetarian options, tax, and tip, will cost $50 per person.  To reserve your spot (and pre-pay), please contact Erin Delaney, section treasurer, at erin.delaney@law.northwestern.edu.  And thank you to to the indefatigable Julie Suk for arranging the details!