3d Workshop on Flexibility in Contracting

On the 25th and 26th of October the 3d Workshop on Flexibility in Contracting was held in Oulu, Finland.  It was hosted by the University of Oulu – a great Finnish innovative project that focuses on careers of IT specialists. The Law and Society researchers from Petersburg presented their preliminary findings of the flexibility in international contracting in Russia. The workshop participants agreed to start working on joint papers and present drafts on the following session.

Thomas Barton Report on the Workshop.

State Violence, Prostitution and the Rule of Law

On the 2nd and 3d of October seminars of researchers from Argentina and Colombia were held in the Centre for Independent Social Research. Marisa Fassi and Camilo Umaña claimed that the rule of law may be understood uncritically as a just system that does not produce inequality, whereas empirical findings prove the contrary. Acceptance of democratic principles and human rights rhetoric by the state apparatus surprisingly do not contradict to practices of violence, performed by the state officials and police. In order to do so, state officials and police officers use ‘excuses’: from securing urban space and moral boundaries to special historical conditions that promote violation of human rights.

Rules from an Empirical Perspective: Some paradigmatic problems.

On November 8th at 15:00 an open seminar will be held at the Centre for Independent Social Research by Maria Isabel Narváez Mora on ‘The Rules from an Empirical Perspective: Some paradigmatic problems‘.

In this presentation I hold that some methodological assumptions in ‘rules’ studies are the source of the very problems these studies face. In particular, that is the case of an empiricist conception guiding the analytical tradition of legal theory and legal philosophy: the methodological considerations are seen in that paradigm as theoretical. This should alert us of the tensions this tradition encloses. Thus, it is understood that among the more prevalent theoretical difficulties we must face the ‘problem’ of normativity. Generically this ‘problem’ is described as the urge to find a location of the normative in a natural world. However, substantive concerns as diverse as the establishment of the sources of morality or the possibility of talking about justified impositions in case of social conflicts are at stake. My aim is to show which assumptions (of conception, conceptual, or paradigm) generate and perpetuate this situation.

Dr. Maria Isabel Narvaez Mora is professor of philosophy of law at The Department of Private Law in the Universitat de Girona (Catalunya). Her main research interests include critical legal studies, Wittgenstein philosophy on law and studies of the fear of crime. She has also contributed in development of theoretical relations between neuroscience and law.

Legal Profession Group News

Recently, we have got news from Ulrike Schultz, who visited Law & Society in Russia last acdemic year. The research she talked about in Petersburg is on march! On the following link you may find Ulrike Schultz’s interview with Susanne Baer, the judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany: watch the interview. The interview is taken within ‘Women in Legal Profession’ project. Ulrike also recommends iTunes for apple on socio-legal studies: go iTunes.

Rule of Law, Violence and Contestation

On October 2nd and 3d two open seminars will be held at the Centre for Independent Social Research by Marisa Fassi and Camilo Eduardo Umaña on ‘Rule of Law, Violence and Contestation‘.

1. October 2 (Tuesday) at 13:00;
2. October 3 (Wednesday) at 15:00.

Rule of Law has become the model for State’s organizations in an effort to replace the Rule of Violence equated to authoritative regimes. According to this model States have the legitimate use of coercion through legal systems and balanced interplay of state’s powers. However a closer look to discourses and practices built through State’s authority show the marginalization of certain groups by violent means. In this seminar we would like to propose the analysis of relevant elements that allow oppression within the Rule of Law as well as to share experiences of contestation to oppressive situations.

2012/2013 Law & Society Seminars

In 2012/2013 academic year ‘Law & Society’ seminars of the Centre for Independent Social Research will be continued. Anyone interested is invited! Please, follow us on facebook, vk.com, cisr.ru, theory&practice to learn the schedule.

This year, we plan to cover the following topics:

Fieldwork: Solikamsk

Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky in front of GULAG office in Solikansk.

The project dedicated to study of rehabilitation of the victims of political repressions in the Soviet Union is on march. The study is on stage of data collection. This means researchers are supposed to collect biography interviews in several cities of Russia. The interviews are not about personal life histories, rather than they are about family biographies. Our respondents are children of those who were the victims of political repressions. They use the legal mechanisms of rehabilitation now. Their stories are narratives on the life of their parents from the past when Soviet regime tried to construct a new nation which was not supposed to include many citizens of the state: those who were considered of suspicious ethnic group, class enemy or any other ‘anti-Soviet element.’

Corruption and Anti-Corruption in EU

On May 24 at 13:30 a lecture ‘Corruption and Anti-Corruption in EU’ by Angelos Giannakopoulos, Ralf Rogowski & Dirk Tänzler will be held in The State University of St. Petersburg (Faculty of Political Science).

The lecture includes three parts: based on research carried out in the frame of the projects “Crime and Culture” and “ALACS: Promotion of Participation and Citizenship in Europe” funded by the European Commission (Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes), the lecturers provide evidence on perceptions of corruption in Europe and on why are perceptions of corruption important to anti-corruption measures. By doing so they also highlight the importance of citizens’ participation in the fight against corruption by focusing on the “Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres” (ALACs), being them the currently most successful mechanism within the so called anti-corruption regimes worldwide. Besides, they evaluate the ALACs against the background of new trends in the European anti-corruption legal framework and finally analyse the relationship between the fight against corruption and perspectives of professionalisation in the anti-corruption field.

NB: 25 May, another paper will be delivered at the conference ‘Complex Gaze at a Complex World‘, organised by the Centre for Independent Social Research in the European University at St. Petersburg.

Dirk Tänzler

Dirk Tänzler is a professor at the University of Konstanz (Germany). His main research interests include crime and culture, law and economic transformations, cultural aspects of practices of corruption in European Union. Professor Tänzler also works on theories of mass-culture and society interactions.

24 & 25 May, 2012, Dirk Tänzler will present his current work on ‘Corruption and Anti-corruption in the EU’ in St. Petersburg at ‘Law & Society’ seminars:

1. 24 May, 13:30 – St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Political Science, the Big Hall (Bolshoy Zal);
2. 25 May, 16:30 – European University at St. Petersburg, CISR Conference ‘Complex Gaze at a Complex World’.

Ralf Rogowski

Ralf Rogowski is a professor of law at the University of Warwick (UK). Main research areas are European Union law, employment law, sociology of law, social theory and comparative law. He is the author of the concepts of reflexive labour law (with T. Wilthagen) and autopoietic industrial relations. Professor Rogowski has a longstanding interest in studying the judiciary, the legal profession and legal advice.

24 & 25 May, 2012, Ralf Rogowski will present his current work on ‘Corruption and Anti-corruption in the EU’ in St. Petersburg at ‘Law & Society’ seminars:

1. 24 May, 13:30 – St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Political Science, the Big Hall (Bolshoy Zal);
2. 25 May, 16:30 – European University at St. Petersburg, CISR Conference ‘Complex Gaze at a Complex World’.