Palmer on Empires as Engines of Mixed Legal Systems @TulaneLaw

Vernon V. Palmer, Tulane Law School, has published Empires as Engines of Mixed Legal Systems as Tulane Public Law Research Paper No. 17-13. Here is the abstract.

Nowhere else is the evolution of pluralism more accelerated than in the legal transformations brought about by assembling and managing empires. Whether Roman, Ottoman or English, Empires have been veritable engines of mixed and plural laws. This essay will suggest that mixed legal systems have been with us since antiquity and have been continually generated in conditions of increased social contact, commerce and communication between peoples. The incubation of mixed systems within empires suggests that legal mixing is unavoidable (and maintaining original purity unsustainable) when there is sufficient social and intellectual connection between peoples who fall under the same imperial sovereign. Different variables affect the speed and thoroughness of integration, for instance the social distance between cultures and civilizations, the prestige and rational appeal of the imperial law, and imperial policies which promote assimilation or seek to maintain separate laws for different peoples. Furthermore empires have distinctive purposes and devise distinctive strategies toward foreign laws. The Roman and Ottoman Empires clearly had different purposes and strategies and such differences have contributed to two forms of pluralism we find in the modern world.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Legal Tradition, Legal Reform, and Louisiana

Christopher K. Odinet, Southern University Law Center, has published Commerce, Commonality, and Contract Law: Legal Reform in a Mixed Jurisdiction in volume 75 of the Louisiana Law Review (2015). Here is the abstract.

This Article explores the tradition/reform dichotomy as it exists in certain jurisdictions that, because of their unique history and nature, are particularly susceptible to the struggle between legal tradition and legal reform — mixed jurisdictions. In order to more closely examine the tradition/reform dichotomy and its theoretical and practical effects, this Article analyzes the role that traditional legal institutions play in the legal reform process through the lens of America’s lone mixed jurisdiction — Louisiana.

By exploring Louisiana’s subtle, yet prevalent, anchor-like legal conundrum caused by the struggle between progress and tradition — the process of mooring oneself to existing institutions to such a degree that newly adopted institutions are rendered less effective and the law as a whole suffers — one is able to extrapolate as to how historical forces play a role in the much larger sphere of mixed jurisdictions globally. This Article also explores the broader social science and psychology behind this anchoring effect by looking at society’s inherent desire to hold on to traditional customs and practices, and to resist, even if only subconsciously, letting go of the past.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

François Gény's Influence

François-Xavier Licari, University of Metz, Faculty of Law, has published François Gény En Louisiane. Here is the abstract.

L'oeuvre de François Gény a fait l'objet d'une véritable réception tant par la doctrine que par la jurisprudence louisianaises. Cette contribution narre cette sucess story doctrinale, véritable réalisation de la prophétie de Jaro Mayda ("François Gény and Modern Jurisprudence" (LSU Press, 1978, p.69), traducteur et fin connaisseur de "Méthode d'interprétation et sources".
In his book "François Gény and Modern Jurisprudence" (LSU Press, 1978), Jaro Mayda wrote (p.69): "The important point…is that, despite the art represented by the current literature, the pragmatic temper of America and of its mixed jurisdictions, such as Louisiana, may well be the environment that will send Gény’s themes toward their integration into a rational, modern jurisprudence".
This paper tells the story of the realization of this scholarly prophesy.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.