Worshop series | Decolonizing Comparative Law? Resisting the Colonial Legacies of the Discipline - A theoretical framework for decolonial comparative law. 

The Wainwright Chair in Civil Law and the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law are pleased to invite you to a workshop series on the following theme: Decolonizing Comparative Law? Resisting the Colonial Legacies of the Discipline, which will take place on zoom, this spring and into next year. This workshop series aims to set the stage for the American Association of Comparative Law's annual meeting to be held at the Faculty of Law in 2025, an opportunity for our community to rethink the foundations of the discipline that still is central to our programme and our work. 

With Professor Anthony Diala, Director of the Centre for Legal Integration in Africa at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His lecture, to be held on zoom (register Comparative.law [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Prof.%20Diala%27s%20Conference) (here)) is entitled: A theoretical framework for decolonial comparative law.  

Abstract

Although recent scholarship challenges the Eurocentric tradition of comparative law, this decolonial turn lacks a realistic theoretical framework. I argue that decolonial comparative law should reflect the foundational values of indigenous laws, the enduring legacies of colonial transplants, and the adaptive character of normative interaction in modern social fields. I therefore propose adaptive legal pluralism as the cross-cultural framework for reconciling state and indigenous legal orders in an era of globalisation.