Conference at the American University: The Use of Foreign Law in Constitutional Adjudication

Bill Davies has organised a conference taking place at the American University (Washington, D.C.) on March 30 with the title: The Use of Foreign Law in Constitutional Adjudication: Global Influence, Judicial Diplomacy and Legal Dialoguein the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In an historic one-on-one debate in early 2005 at American University's Washington College of Law, Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer jump-started a global debate on the use of foreign law in domestic decisions.  A decade on, the question is no longer whether, but how courts use foreign law.  In what ways do judges adapt the solutions and interpretations of other legal systems to their own, both directly and indirectly?  What impact has the growing transnationalization of legal education and of judicial elites on the jurisprudence of our courts?  To mark the 10th anniversary of this seminal occasion, the next step of our discussion will be propelled forward by examining the use of comparative reasoning and foreign law in the EU’s highest panel, the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

Bill will present a paper in the panel on "EU Law Stories: Contextual and Critical Histories of European Jurisprudence".