Chair of Comparative Legal Studies and Internationalization of Law

Why this title?
The central theme of my research is the process of Internationalization of Law , on the regional as well the global level. To achieve harmonious internationalization, I have proposed a model which I call ordering pluralism . This model involves developing the relationship between International Law as a whole and Comparative Legal Studies to harmonize or hybridize different legal systems. My principal points of reference are European construction, which I compare to other regional constructions (most particularly in Latin America), and globalization. I have also been running research programs in China for the last twelve years.

Lecture topics
Criminal law/criminal procedure seems to me to be one of the primary bases upon which law is internationalized: European economic construction must comply with the protections offered by the European Convention on Human Rights, and an international criminal law is being developed by tribunals such as those for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. My lectures therefore focus on the interplay between national, regional and international norms as seen through the prism of the universalism of human rights on the one hand, and economic globalization on the other.

research centre

The Research Laboratory of the Chair of Comparative Legal Studies and Internationalization of Law

I – AXES OF RESEARCH (Since 2003)

The Research Laboratory of the Chair of Comparative Legal Studies and Internationalization of Law conducts research along two major axes:
- "European Construction and internationalisation of law"
- "Internationalisation of law and globalisation".

The objective, building on the formal courses ("The relative and the universal" in 2003 and 2004, "Ordering Pluralism" in 2005, "Re-founding Powers" in 2006, and finally "Towards a community of values? – founding prohibitions and fundamental rights" in 2007 and 2008), is to analyze the influence on legal systems of the main factors of internationalisation: the universalism of human rights and economic globalisation.
This research program concentrates on normative and institutional interactions, in particular, both vertical processes (between the national, international, regional and global levels) and horizontal processes (between differing legal areas, such as human rights, environmental law, and the law of the market).
Starting from a description of observed practice, the hypothetical basis of the research is that there is a mutation in the very conception of legal systems. Studying this mutation requires research based more on the dynamics of transformation than on stabilization models: the internationalisation of law does not imply the suppression of the traditional model (State based, unified and stable), but the superposition of other, more complex and as yet unstable models, born out of a polycentric normative space, following a dialogical order and an evolving periodicity. Neither monist nor dualist, this model may be called "ordering pluralism".
The method used to verify this hypothesis consists, as the title of the Chair implies, not of separating, but rather of combining comparative studies and those relating to international law.

 Weaknesses of Legal Universalism (2002-2003)
 Limits of Legal Relativism (2003-2004)
 Ordered Pluralism (2004-2005)
 Refoundation of Powers (2005-2006)


II - FOCUS : LIBERTIES & SECURITY IN A DANGEROUS WORLD (2008-2009)

By a law enacted on February 25, 2008, France instituted a “retention of security,” which permits the state to continue to detain a prisoner who has completed his sentence for a year, a period that is renewable indefinitely by reason of “dangerousness.” The way for this measure having been prepared by a succession of laws on recidivism, this law thus established a rupture in the relation of guilt, responsibility, and sanction. It is a rupture that risks dehumanizing criminal justice.

How did this come about? The answer cannot be reduced to a discussion within France itself (that is, that the right wing is repressive, the left wing permissive). Keeping in mind the convergence of other systems, such as the European and international systems, we hypothesize an indirect effect from the attacks of September 11, 2001, which in symbolic and legal ways freed policymakers from the duty to respect the proper limits of the rule of law, and thus unleashed shock waves that rendered issues less controllable matters that previously had been confined to the domestic legal framework.

Besides its purely national aspects, the question in fact relates to the interdependencies that lie at the heart of law’s internationalization. Confronted by genuine threats to persons, states, and even the planet, the entanglement of national, European, and global normative spaces doubtless contributes to incertitude in response. Whether it is a matter of transformation of social control, of mutation in the rule of law, or in fluctuation in the global order, it favors all at once results and reactions to them, problems and the solution to problems.

Details on specific lectures here.

The course will lay the groundwork for a June 8, 2009, conference entitled Les politiques sécuritaires à la lumière de la doctrine pénale des 19ème et 20ème siècles (Security Policy in Light of 19th and 20th Century Criminal Law Jurisprudence), organized along with Professors Geneviève Giudicelli-Delage, Université de Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Jean Louis Halpérin, École Normale Supérieure, Ulm.

Completed Research

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Ongoing Research

- Paths towards Penal Harmonization
Presentation

- The Schemas of Internationalization
Presentation

III – THE TEAM
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IV – PARTNERS

- Association for European Criminal Research (Association de Recherches Pénales Européennes – ARPE)
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- Doctoral School of Comparative Law – Paris I
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- Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Law
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- Comparative Law Research Centre in Paris (UMR de droit comparé de Paris)
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- CERDIN - Centre d'étude et de recherche en droit international de l'Université de Paris 1
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- ATLAS - Armed Conflicts, Peacekeeping, Transitional Justice: Law as Solution
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- California International Law Center (CILC)
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V – ID NETWORKS (INTERNATIONALIZATION OF LAW)

- General presentation
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A – Franco-American ID Network

Coordinator : Luca D'Ambrosio
luca.dambrosio@college-de-france.fr

- First Meeting: "The Role of the National Judge in the
Internationalisation of Law" (Paris, 10-11 April 2006)
- Second Meeting: "The Internationalization of Constitutional Law and
the Constitutionalization of International Law" (New York, 15-16 May 2007)
-Third Meeting : "Climate's quality and Internationalization of Law"
(Paris, July 1-2, 2008)
- Fourth Meeting :“Internationalisation of Law When Judging Difficult
Cases Particularly in the Cases Linked with Internet" (New-York,
November 11-12, 2009)

B - Franco-Brazilian ID Network

Coordinator: Kathia Martin-Chenut
kathia.martin-chenut@college-de-france.fr


- Presentation of the Franco-Brazilian system
Presentation

- First Meeting: October 2007, Sao Paulo
- Second Meeting: November 2008, Paris
- Third Meeting: September 2009, Sao Paulo

C - Franco-Chinese ID Network

Coordinator : David LEMETAYER
david.lemetayer@college-de-france.fr

- Presentation of the Franco-Chinese Network
Presentation

- First Meeting: June 2007, Paris
- Second Meeting: October 2008, Beijing

VI - Theses

- Completed Theses
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- Ongoing Theses
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