WHAT Unity and/or
Diversity. An
International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Comparative Law, Juris Diversitas Annual Conference
WHEN May 30 - June 1, 2016
WHERE Louisiana State University, Law Center, Baton Rouge, USA
Comparative legal studies have long been perceived as an engine pulling legal traditions and systems towards convergence, harmonization, and unification. Today, legal pluralism pushes towards the recognition of human and social diversity. Does this mean that we have to choose between unity and diversity, Jus unum or juris diversitas? To what extent do pluralistic societies embrace or reject harmonization and uniformity, or simply ignore them? Do we unify or add layers, increasing the complexity of legal orders? Does history reflect a move from diversity to unity or an ongoing conflict between the two? What makes unity successful or sustainable? This is an invitation to discuss, in an interdisciplinary way, the development of laws and social norms, in the dialectical tension between the ontological unity of human beings and mankind and the plurality of individual aspirations and social arrangements.
