Mireille Delmas-Marty

Comparative Legal Studies and Internationalisation of Law

PARIS IN AMERICA

3:30 p.m.
 
 

WELCOMING

Pierre Corvol, Board member at the Collège de France
Mireille Delmas-Marty, Professor at the Collège de France
 
The bicentennial of Edouard Laboulaye (1811-1883) - American democracy and comparative law: chaired by Olivier Dutheillet de Lamothe, Member of the French Conseil d'État, former member of the French Constitutional Council
 
Laboulaye: law historian and/or comparatist, by Jean-Louis Halpérin, Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure
 
Laboulaye: American democracy and comparative law. Debate with: Vivian Curran, Professor at the University of Pittsburg and Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson, Professor at the University of Paris II, Secretary-General of the Society of Comparative Legislation
 
Transition - From the 19th to the 21st century: George Bermann, Professor at the University of Columbia, President of the International Academy of Comparative Law

 
 
5:00 p.m.
 
 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGE

5:00 p.m. - The constitutional judge and democracy - Discussion on the book by Stephen Breyer: chaired by Robert Badinter, Senator, former President of the French Constitutional Council, Debate with: Stephen Breyer, Judge at the US Supreme Court, Guy Canivet, member of the French Constitutional Council, Mireille Delmas-Marty, Professor at the Collège de France,
Antoine Garapon, Secretary-General of the French Institute of Advanced Studies on Justice.

 
 
 
 
"Paris in America" is the title of the English-language version of a philosophical novel published in 1863 by Edouard Laboulaye, jurist at the Collège de France and founder of the Society of Comparative Legislation. Written under the penname René Lefebvre, this plea advocating liberty and the American model of government was a genuine bestseller with thirty-five editions published in French and eight in English.
Laboulaye began his courses in 1849, at a time when the United States was not featured on the curriculum, but he was fascinated by American democracy and dedicated his efforts to studying the US constitutional system. He became a member of the Board at the Collège de France, and actively contributed to building the Statue of Liberty.

Borrowing the title of his work is both a way of paying tribute to Laboulaye on the bicentennial anniversary of his birth (1811-1883) and also a way to celebrate the continuity of Franco-American exchanges on democracy and legal systems.
After a first session devoted to Laboulaye and comparative law methods, "American democracy and comparative law", we shall focus on "The constitutional judge and democracy" in a debate organized around Justice Stephen Breyer, judge at the US Supreme Court, on the occasion of the publication in France of his latest book entitled "Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge's View". The nine judges composing the US Supreme Court have authority to block laws emanating from elected representatives. Where does their legitimacy stem from? How did the judges gain the trust placed in them? How do these judges contribute towards furthering democracy? To elucidate all these matters, Stephen Breyer revisits the pages of history, recalling the dispossession of the Cherokee Indians, the status of slaves, the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during the Second World War, and the desegregation of schools in Little Rock during the Black civil rights struggle. He also focuses on the contemporary role of the US Supreme Court regarding the election of President George Bush or the fate of detainees.