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 invite you to the first installment of their 2024-2025 virtual workshop series "Decolonizing Comparative Law? Resisting the Colonial Legacies of the Discipline" : A theorical framework for decolonial comparative law. We are honoured to welcome to this event the Professor Anthony Diala, Director of the Center for Legal Integration in Africa of the University of the Western Cape. 

Summary : 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.

The event will take place on April 5, 2024 at 10:30 am, on zoom. 

Please register for free via email : comparative.law [at] mcgill.ca

We look forward to having you among us!