08 mai - 09 mai
Coordinators: Rafał Mańko (Central European University, Democracy Institute), Ewa Górska (Jagiellonian University)
Description of the meeting
- Rationale. The goal of the workshop is to analyse how legal institutions that were introduced in former colonies, dominated/occupied countries or were in force in federations (e.g. USSR, Yugoslavia) that have remained after decolonisation, the breakup of federations or empires, or end of domination or occupation, have continued to function after the relevant political transformation. To this end, we intend to use the notion of a “legal survival” (Mańko 2023), developed with reference to Karl Renner’s analyses of the change of social function of a legal institution despite the continuity of its legal form. By looking at at concrete examples of legal survivals, we hope to find answers to such questions, as: (1) why do newly independent countries decide to keep some parts of imperial/colonial/federal law, but abolish other parts? are the reasons purely pragmatic? how is it decided to keep some but abrogate other institutions/codes/rules? (2) how do lawyers (including judges) approach such legal institutions? are legal survivals subject to a reinterpretation? if so, what kind of interpretive techniques are used, e.g. axiological or constitutional arguments? (3) how do legal survivals interact with earlier law (prior to colonization/domination) and later law (enacted after independence)? does the presence of legal survivals contribute to the emergence of a patchwork, incoherent system, or are these interactions smooth? (4) what are the symbolic, cultural and ideological ramifications of legal survivals? are they present in the public discourse, subject to a critique by politicians, or rather treated as an axiologically neutral, technical legal device?
- Thematic scope. The workshop will focus on legal survivals in various settings in terms of space, time and subject-matter. The idea is to look for common patterns across different epochs, jurisdictions and contexts, and cover both legal survivals of former empires (e.g. in the colonial context), former federations (USSR, Yugoslavia), but also legal survivals that endured outside those contexts (e.g. feudal legal survivals).
- Structure. The workshop will kick off with a methodological paper by Mańko, with sociologist of law Górska and legal historian Cercel acting as discussants, followed by a common methodological discussion. Following that, the first four panels will be grouped according to regional specificities (post-Soviet legal survivals; post-colonial legal survivals; legal survivals in Common Law and mixed jurisdictions; legal survivals in the Balkans). The last two panels will be arranged according to area of law (legal survivals in constitutional law; land law and housing law).
