Free Public Seminar
Islamic Law: Misconceptions and Misrepresentations

Saturday 5 November 2005
1.30pm—3.00pm
Brisbane City Council Library Theatrette
Lower ground level, City Plaza, cnr Ann, George & Adelaide Streets,
Brisbane

Please RSVP to LRA-QLD@hotmail.com

Members of the public interested in learning about the nature and role
of Islamic Law from an informed and scholarly perspective are
encouraged to attend this free seminar jointly hosted by the Lawyers'
Reform Association (Queensland) and the Women's International League
for Peace and Freedom.

Speakers:

Dr Nadirsyah Hosen, 'Islamic law: Revelation, interpretation and
social change.' Dr Hosen completed his first PhD (Law) at the
University of Wollongong and a second PhD (Islamic Law) at the
National University of Singapore. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at
the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland, Nadir is
currently writing a manuscript on International law, human
rights and anti-terrorism law.

Dr Christine Mason, 'Challenging the ignorant: Islam and female
circumcision in the Horn of Africa and Australia'. Dr Mason has a
BA(Hons)/LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University and a PhD
from the University of New South Wales. She lived in the Horn of
Africa for three years researching her PhD and working for UNHCR. She
is now a Lecturer in the School of Political Science and International
Studies at the University of Queensland.

Dr Nicky Jones, 'Legal and cultural aspects of the Islamic headscarf
in a secular State.' Dr Jones has a PhD in French and Law from the
University of Queensland, and has published articles on secularism and
on the Islamic headscarf in France.

In indonesian-studies@yahoogroups.com, johnmacdougall@c... wrote:

From Sulistyowati

The Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism

Announcement of the XVth International Congress and the
VIIth International Course on Legal Pluralism

The Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism will hold its 15th
International Congress in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, June, 29 -
July, 2, 2006, with the theme "Law, Power and Culture: Transnational,
National and Local Processes in the Context of Legal Pluralism". The
Commission will also organise its 7th International Course on the same
theme, in Ciawi/Bogor, West Java, June 24 - June 27, 2006. Both the
Congress and the Course will be hosted jointly by the Faculty of Law
and the Centre for Women and Gender's Studies, University of
Indonesia, HuMa (Association for Community- and Ecologically Based
Law Reform), and the Center for Irrigation, Land and Water Resources
and Development Studies (PSI-SDALP UNAND), Andalas University, Padang,
West Sumatra.

The Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism
The Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism was established in 1978
by the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological
Sciences (IUAES). A network of approximately 400 lawyers,
anthropologists and other social scientists as well as NGO activists
and policy makers representing all regions of the world and concerned
with state law, folk law and international law in both theory and
practice has participated in the activities of the Commission. The
Commission's primary purpose is to further knowledge and understanding
of folk law and legal pluralism, with a focus on theoretical and
practical problems resulting from the interaction of many levels of
law. The Commission's current activities are: the issue of an
electronic newsletter, the organization of international symposia, and
the initiation and encouragement of regional working groups in
different parts of the world. The Commission is particularly concerned
to further mutual learning and cooperation between scholars and
practitioners of northern and southern states. So far, the Commission
has organized 14 international conferences, all of which have led to
book publications or special issues of international journals.
The Commission has also organized six international courses on issues such as governance, resource rights, human rights, and social,
economic and political development from a legal pluralism perspective
to contribute to the capacity building of younger academics and
practitioners who are confronted with problems of folk law and legal
pluralism in their academic or practical work. The Commission members
(and its executive board) work on a voluntary basis; the Commission as
such is unable to finance major activities but has always attempted to
raise funds for participants from less developed regions for whom the
cost of attending international meetings is often prohibitive.
External funding is essential to undertake these activities.

Call for Papers and Panel Organizers. [1]
The Congress will address a number of related themes and issues
pertaining to power and cultural aspects of law, especially in the
context of the relations between transnational, national and local
processes which affect the everyday life of people as they pursue
their various activities.

While the congress symposia are comparative in nature and ask for
papers from all over the world, a major focus will be on issues
particularly relevant to South and Southeast Asia. In the historical
development and contemporary situation in these regions, the legal
landscapes are undergoing rapid change. Local populations,
non-governmental and governmental agencies alike are faced with
immense challenges posed by the plurality of laws and institutions.
Besides local forms of traditional and neo-traditional law and the
diverse regulations of governments at different levels of
administration, religious laws (Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu law in
particular) also play an important role in the organization and
legitimation of governance, of social, political and economic
relationships, and the administration of justice. In the context of
globalisation, international and transnational legal rules and
conventions as well as international actors, governmental and
non-governmental organisations increasingly add to the earlier forms
of legal complexity, not only influencing law making at the national
level but also having impacts on small-scale local communities. .

The Congress will attract participants from all over the world
including people from various academic backgrounds, such as law,
anthropology, sociology, development studies and gender studies as
well as practitioners (social workers, NGO members, dispute mediators,
legal advocates, planners, state officials, political activists) who
in their work are confronted with issues of legal pluralism.

The Congress will address a number of issues that will form the core
themes of the symposia and panels. The following outline is in a
preliminary stage. The symposia and panels will be more closely
focused in cooperation with panel organizers and the local organizing
committee. Moreover, interested colleagues are invited to suggest
additional proposals for panels, and proposals by participants from
less developed countries as well as joint panels organized by northern
and southern scholars are very welcome.

People who are interested in organising panels, either the ones listed
below or new ones, are invited to notify the local organising
committee by the latest and revised deadline of 15th February, 2006.
The panel organisers will be expected to submit the description
(themes, issues, questions) of their panels for general information.

Abstracts of papers are to be submitted to panel organisers, with a
copy to the local organising committee by 31st March, 2006. Completed
papers are to be submitted to the panel organisers by 15th May, 2006..






Symposia and panels for the congress

Symposium I: Theoretical and Methodological Issues
Panel: Normativity as Field, style or Objective of Study?
Panel organiser: Prof. Dr. Franz von Benda-Beckmann,
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
(fbenda@e...)

Papers are invited to problematise the tension between approaches to
law that (cl)aim to be as value neutral as possible, adopting a
clinical analytic perspective, and more normatively oriented or
politically activist approaches. Though the dividing line may be
difficult to find, it is usually assumed to be there. Problems
sometimes arise when descriptive-analytical statements are understood
as having normative consequences, or vice versa. This often occurs
when political claims - for the (universal) validity of some law are
inferred from and justified by "reality", or when "reality" is
constructed through normative argumentation. This is frequently the
case in discussions about human rights or religious and ethnic legal
rules not recognized by states. The questions of a) whether it is
possible to draw a sharp distinction at all between normative sciences
(such as legal dogmatics) and descriptive-analytical sciences (such as
anthropology), and b) whether a limitation of one's activities to one
of these fields is possible or desirable, are contested terrain in
anthropology and law, especially in studies concerned with legal
pluralism. There have been many often quite emotional discussions
between anthropologists about human rights issues, advocacy and
applied anthropology. Just to mention a commented CA article by
Hastrup and Elsass in 1990 on anthropology and advocacy, and a very
recent 2005 commented CA paper with comments by Carrithers on
"Anthropology as a moral science." The dialogue between Eberhard,
Gupta, Vanderlinden, and Woodman's comments in the recent newsletters
of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism provide another
interesting example, as does Zips' theory of justice.

Symposium II: Law, Governance and Market in a Transnational World
Panel: Globalization, Market and Law
Panel Organiser:
Al Andang L. Binawan ,
Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyakara (Driyakara School of Philosophy),
Jakarta (andang@p...)

Law, in such a modern world, is a conditio sine qua non. It is a necessity, though it may be a necessary evil. On one side, law is
needed as a means for unifying people in a fragmented society; but on
the other side it is hated since it limits the freedom of people. In
recent time, such phenomenon is closely related to the paradox of
globalization. Globalization, especially through its sophisticated
communication technology, has indeed unified people in the world. The
world, in McLuhan's words, is becoming a global village. However,
globalization, through its modernity, has increased the individual
autonomy and self-identity, which caused the fragmentation of society.

Another important factor which pushed the globalization ahead is the
growth of market. With the development of money as a symbolic token
(Anthony Giddens, 1990: 22), market no longer meant a place. It is a
social system, and even has a paradigmatic role in society. For many,
its values becomes the highest individual and social values. This fact
brings many new challenges for law, at least in its two different
dimensions. In the first place, it creates philosophical or ethical
problems since it questions the relation between (conventional) moral
systems and law. Besides, it questions the definition of law because
the state sovereignty, which is usually taken for granted in the
discourse of national law, is under a big question mark, especially
vis-à-vis the power of international market system. In the second
place, it creates political challenges, because it addresses the
problem of (among others) how to limit the power of market in a
political and judicial system of a state. In many cases, it seems that
business corporations are very powerful. With enough money they could
buy ballots, polices and also judges. It is clear that without such
limitations, law would become merely the 'protecting fence' for the
strong, no longer the shelter for the weak. There are many more
problems or questions can be discussed in this panel. There are many
approaches to use. However, the very crucial question for all is how
we can find a 'good' law in this globalized, modern world which could
guarantee justice for the people, especially those who are weak. Or,
is such an ideal becoming obsolete?

Symposium III: Rights, Culture and Plural Laws
Panel 1: Negotiating Multiculturalism
Panel organisers:
Prof. Dr. Keebet von Benda-Beckmann
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
(kbenda@e...)

Dr. Rajendra Pradhan
Social Science Baha, Kathmandu
(icnec@w...)

This panel intends to look at legal pluralism and cultural, religious
and ethnic differences. Some states explicitly encourage cultural
pluralism (e.g. the Dutch model of verzuiling, apartheid, colonial
models of indirect rule, the Indonesian model of regional autonomy,
the Nepalese model of pluralism and hierarchy); for some it is an
unintended consequence of decentralisation policies, while others only
grudgingly accede to partial cultural pluralism due to struggles
within the state and to international pressure. The purpose of this
panel is to look at how state policies of modernisation, development,
and nation building affect the relationships between people and groups
of different cultural, religious and ethnic provenance and between
them and the state, and the specific forms of legal pluralism that
ensue. Cultural pluralism takes shape in states that historically have
oscillated between centralism and decentralised state administration
and we encourage papers to look at these tensions. As legal pluralism
is not only a result of the ways the state defines the relationship
between the various normative orders, we encourage papers that look at
the modes in which states cope with a cultural pluralism and at the
responses from various groups of a particular society.

Panel 2: Religion and Legal Pluralism
Panel organiser:
Arskal Salim
Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne, Australia
(arskal@u...)
The focus of this panel is religion and legal pluralism in the modern
nation-state era. The fact that diverse religious believers
(especially Muslims, Jews and Hindus) are required to strictly follow
their religious law, while in the same time they are as citizens who
live in a country subject to laws enacted by the secular state, has
often resulted in a conflict of authority between different sources of
legal sovereignty. Legal pluralism has been proposed to overcome this
problem. Under this scheme, there would be more than one legal system
at the same time in the same country, and each citizen has the right
to choose the legal system of his preference. This concept of legal
pluralism, however, contradicts the goal of the state, namely to unite
the citizens by means of homogenisation, which creates not only a
common culture, symbols and values among them, but also one legal
system that applied equally. This panel seeks to address this
complicated issue by inviting papers that will discuss it from legal
and constitutional perspectives, political view or anthropological
analysis. The panel welcomes papers on theoretical issues that sought
to elaborate more about religious law, legal pluralism and the state.
The panel is mostly disposed to have papers on empirical case studies
of particular country that implement, or religious political movements
that advocate, legal pluralism.
Panel 3: Human Rights, Conflicts and Law
Panel organizer:
Kerstin Steiner
Law School, The University of Melbourne, Australia
(steiner@u...). .

This panel addresses the effects that situations of conflict can have on securing human rights. Two different areas of international law are
securing the rights of the individual in situations of conflict,
albeit in different circumstances and in different ways. Humanitarian
law applies in situations of armed conflict, whereas human rights, or
at least some of them, protect the individual at all times, in war and
peace alike. While the purpose of humanitarian law is to protect
victims by hoping to limit the suffering caused by war, human rights
seek to protect the individual and further his development.
This panel will focus on the modification and restriction of human
rights law in the context of conflict.
Some provisions in international human rights law instruments provide
for the suspension of and derogation from certain `relative rights' or
`derogable rights' (e.g. freedom of movement and freedom of
expression) in times of public emergency by national laws. The
suspension of these rights has to be made in accordance with the
principle of non-discrimination, that is derogation in times of public
emergency is not permitted solely based on race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin. Yet, in situations of armed conflict the political and military
motivation behind the suspension of `relative rights' makes it often
questionable. Throughout history, threats to national security have resulted in
national laws curtailing human rights for either the whole population
or parts of the population. Most of these laws could be questioned
with regards to their legality as they appear to be discriminatory
towards a certain part of the population. For example, during World
War II, Americans of Japanese descent were locked up in camps out of
fear that they may pose a threat to national security. More recently
the events of September 11, 2001 has resulted in a `rush' to enact
national laws allegedly enabling governments to fight terrorism more
effectively. The scope of these laws cover a range of measures such as
an increase of police powers, tougher criminal laws, or restriction of
human rights to alleged terror suspects. Some of these more recent
laws have been questioned with regards to their legality on the
grounds that they are in fact of a discriminatory nature.
`Absolute rights' or `non-derogable rights' such as freedom from
torture and arbitrary killing, can never and under no circumstances be
suspended. Still recent events suggest that countries, which would be
expected to adhere to these restrictions, have circumvented them by
extraditing terrorist suspects to countries where torture is practiced
in order to obtain allegedly essential intelligent information.
This panel will invite papers on the topic of human rights, conflict
and laws from both the perspectives of theoretical and practical
analysis that can shed insights into the strained relationship between
human rights in times of conflict. .

Symposium IV: Gendered Perspectives on Law (Making Gender Visible in
Law: Challenges for Legal Pluralism)
Panel 1: Women's Strategies for Gaining Access to Property and Resources
Panel organisers:
Prof. Dr Anne Griffiths
School of Law, Edinburgh University, Old College, Scotland
(Anne.Griffiths@e...)

Julie Stewart,
The Southern and Eastern African Center for Women's Law (SEARCWL),
(stewart@l...).

In recent years attention has focused on globalisation as a phenomenon
and local communities' responses to it. This has led to a growing
recognition of the importance of transnational forms of law and
ordering derived from diverse sources, including the World Bank, the
European Convention on Human Rights, The World Trade Organisation, the
World Health Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the African Union as well as religious movements. Such developments
encompassing social and economic change require a reformulation of the
relationship between law, culture and rights, in an age where law and
legal institutions now cross local, regional and national boundaries
and in which the `local' is embedded in and shaped by regional,
national, and international networks of power and information. This is
especially pertinent given the emergence of and prominence accorded to
international human rights. In coming to terms with the plurality of law and its transnational
dimensions, this panel explores the challenges that a gendered
perspective on law raises for contemporary legal pluralism..

It will address:
 How gender is socially and legally constructed;
 What impact this has on women's access to property and
resources and the strategies that that they employ to secure such
resources;
 Who has the power and authority to define, interpret and
implement law at the many levels at which it operates, and what
implications does this have for women's access to, and use of, law;
 How women experience legal pluralism - what are the
advantages/ disadvantages that plural legal systems pose for women and
where does this leave them in terms of rights;
&61623; How may international instruments and conventions, such as
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, be used to empower women;
 To what extent can such international instruments and
conventions, that set up cross cultural expectations and agendas with
regard to women's rights, be applied or tailored to tackle the local,
everyday domains in which women operate.
Panel 2: The Rise of Fundamentalisms, Legal Pluralism and Gender Justice
Panel organizer: Kamala Chandrakirana
Komisi Nasional Penghapusan Kekerasan Perempuan (The National
Commission on Violence against Women), Indonesia
(kamala@r...)..

In the context of a rise of cultural and religious fundamentalisms,legal pluralism has become a means by which new laws and legal
procedures which undermine women's rights have been codified. In some
cases, this is part of a concession by a national/federal state in
order to maintain a particular political balance of power, or as a
means of providing political and legal recognition to a community
which defines itself in religious, cultural or racial terms. For
women's rights advocates, this is seen as a major setback to their
long struggle. At the same time, it is often the very process of
democratization and decentralization - in many countries, long-awaited
and much fought for, including by the women's movement - that has
brought about the space for such new laws to emerge.

The purpose of this panel is to look at the role that women have
played in challenging the new or upcoming legal constructs which are
seen to undermine gender justice, and provide explanations on their
successes and failures.

We encourage papers which look at how women engage with the system and
negotiate within the cultural/religious traditions, and/or how women
in secular political systems challenge the state, for instance, in
terms of unconstitutionality. In what terms do women make their
challenge and negotiate their interests? What tensions have emerged
between advocacy groups which adopt different strategies? What has
been the role of media in influencing outcomes? How can we explain the
successes and failures of these efforts? We invite critical inquiries
which deepen our understanding of such concepts as legal pluralism,
fundamentalism, secularism, citizenship, from a gendered perspective.

Panel 3: Gendered Justice and State Pluralism
Panel organiser: Ratno Lukito
Faculty of Law, McGill University Montreal, Canada)
(rlukit@p...)
This panel will focus on the bewilderment of the state principle of
gender-neutral justice in a society with a multicultural gender
system. Inherent in the idea of modern state is the notion of legal
centralism in which the state agency occupies the center of legal
life, while all non-state normative orderings stand in the periphery.
However, this lofty idea is not necessarily in line with the reality
of modern states. Comparative legal studies have repeatedly discovered
that there are alternative normative orderings in society and that
resistance to official law is always an issue faced by the state.
State laws will not work effectively if they are not congruent with
their social context, while the notion of law as social engineering
will usually not function as anticipated if the state neglects other
agencies and modes of inducing compliance found outside the state
institution. It is from this ideological perplexity that the panel
will try to decipher the state behavior towards varied teachings of
gender relations extant in one society. The state-backed idea of
gender-neutral justice, wherein all people are seen as having the same
rights before the law irrespective of their sex, will be discussed in
its encounters with the fact of plurality of gender teachings derived
from cultural conditions, religious and customary traditions existing
within the state. Therefore, this panel will invite papers on the
topic of state, gender and pluralism from both the perspectives of
theoretical and practical analysis that can elaborate more the idea of
gendered justice and its fate in many multicultural countries.
Symposium V: Natural Resources, Property Theories and Legal Pluralism:
Southeast Asia in Comparison
Panel 1: Recent Developments in Local/Indigenous Resource Management
Panel Organisers:
Prof. Dr. Melanie G. Wiber
Department of Anthropology, University of New Brunswick, Canada
(wiber@u...)

Dr. Chris Milley
Director, Integrated Resource Management
Mi'kmaq Confederacy of PEI, Canada
(cmilley@m...)

Over the past decade, devolution of natural resource management to the
community level has been promoted both in the Developed and in the
Emerging States as a means to resolve many issues related to
addressing shortcoming of past management practices - disregard of
state regulation, legal claims of disenfranchised local users,
over-exploitation of resources, failure to recognize and apply local
knowledge systems, and the lack of fit between top-down management
regimes and local production processes, to name a few.
Community-based management and co-management regimes are two of the
more common perspectives for greater local level involvement in both
governance and of management of natural resources. Since local level
managers are often involved in the subsequent generation and
modification of regulatory structures, many of the characteristics of
legal pluralism then come into play. But the past decade has also witnessed increasing awareness of theweakness in some of these devolution processes. Some scholars have argued that internal divisions within local communities have often
resulted in the cooptation of new governance and management
structures, allowing the local elite to secure any benefits of the new
regime. Other scholars draw attention to the need for local capacity
building so that new management structures do not fail before they can
be adequately tested. Among local participants in new management
regimes, many argue that they have been given all the responsibility,
but no real power, and that downloading of responsibility has rarely
come with downloading of jurisdiction, capacity, or finances necessary
to be effective.

In western states such as Canada and New Zealand, indigenous
agreements with the federal governments, often negotiated as a result
of settlement of outstanding treaties and land claims, have sometimes
served as the model for devolution of natural resource management. In
other cases, court decisions have precipitated government recognition
of aboriginal management rights, and the resulting management
arrangements have been touted as exemplars of devolution of
centralized power.

In this panel, we invite papers that assess specific devolution
experiences to assess how the landscape of natural resource management
is changing, and to evaluate those factors influencing structural and
processual outcomes, including outcomes of legal pluralism. We are
particularly interested in comparing those so-called exemplary cases
with non-western examples. We invite papers that explore the
local/state interface in any arrangements where local users were
expecting to be empowered and to generate their own level of
regulation, particularly those arrangements that have sufficient
time-depth to assess the actual outcomes.
Panel 2: Legal Pluralism and the Management of Marine Fisheries in
South Asia:
Panel Organiser:
Dr. Maarten Bavinck,
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(J.M.Bavinck@u...)
An international team of researchers (from India, Sri Lanka, Canada,
and the Netherlands) has recently (2003-2006) completed a comparative
study on legal pluralism with regard to management of the marine
fisheries of South Asia. Project members worked in six different
states of India and one in Sri Lanka; our unit of comparison is one
coastal district from each state. The general focus is on the complex
interplay of public-private law in the local fisheries - public
referring to government agencies involved in fishing regulation or
marine research, and private meaning both formal and informal fisher
organizations (e.g., for marketing, regulation, internal dispute
settlement) and NGOs. While we have coordinated our data collection,
research methodology, & theoretical framework of legal pluralism for
cross-district comparison, our research has also evoked unique and
controversial issues/results from each district.

The session, that should consist of three panels, will include two
kinds of papers:
1. A set of papers that compares findings from the various research
districts with regard to select topics - such as the influence of
migration, or the differential interplay between forms of law -
connecting to theoretical debates on natural resource management and
legal pluralism.
2. A set of papers that have a district focus, discussing important
developments or issues as they have emerged from the field studies.

Panel 3: Post-crisis Land and Natural Resources Tenure, South East
Asia in Comparison
Panel Organiser:
Yonariza,
Center for Irrigation, Land and Water Resources and Development
Studies, Andalas University, Padang, West Sumatra.
(yonariza@a...)

The economic crisis that hit the Southeast Asia region in 1997 and
other regions brought in international funding agencies and civil
society movements to request governments of affected countries to
reform land and resource tenure policy. Main reform initiatives were
intended to decentralize resource management and adopt more democratic
natural resources management. This reform intended to correct
previously centralized and authoritarian land and resources tenure
policy.

In earlier post-crisis periods, governments in the region promised to
take action for resource tenure reform, adopting a more democratic
power structure and popular participation. Now, 8 years later,
administrations have changed several times in each country. What
happened to those land and natural resources tenure reform agendas?

This panel would explore the following questions: 1) what post-crisis
new laws and regulations regarding resource tenure have been enacted
by the governments in this region; 2) what are the major factors
contributing to these changes, and 3) what are the implications of the
new land and resources policies from a legal pluralism perspective.
Analytical papers are invited from scholars in the region focusing on
the above questions.

Symposium VI: Social Security and Social Insecurity, Disasters, Aid
and Rights
Panel: Legal Techniques and Practices of Disaster Management
Panel Organizer:
Dr. Markus Weilenmann,
Office for Conflict Research in Developing Countries
(drmweilenmann@s...)

All development agency political interventions can directly or
indirectly influence the existing legal relations and change the
conditions under which people are able to use their rights. This is
particularly true for all those projects or programmes which
explicitly deal with legal matters such as the promotion of an
international criminal court, programmes on crisis prevention and
conflict mediation, the promotion of justice and human rights, good
governance issues etc. and for all those topics which are subject to
the conditionality. But all development bureaucracies refer also to a
whole series of models and techniques in order to achieve their goals.
However, all these models and techniques are subject to a growing
standardisation, whereby a particular kind of law, so-called "project
law", plays a significant role as well, since it structures the
development political consulting process by normative means and
intervenes in those socio-political contexts that are subject to any
social change whatsoever. In the recipient countries, development
projects as well as their applied project law(s) might thus clash with
local customary law(s), religious law(s) or the state law prevailing
there. These processes might thus have a significance for the
developing of new concepts of legal pluralism.

The International Course
In addition to the congress, a four-day International Course on the
subject "Law, Power and Culture: Trans-national, National and Local
Processes in the Context of Legal Pluralism" will be organized for
academics, researchers and practitioners whose work might benefit from
an in-depth study of the implications of legal pluralism.
The course aims at capacity building on the complex issues of legal
pluralism by drawing on the expertise of international scholars in the
field who will attend the conference. It will provide a combination of
practical and theoretical insights into some of the central questions
and problems of legal pluralism, especially concerning the development
and safeguarding of local populations' rights in the context of
trans-national, national and local processes and laws. The course will
assist participants to develop the legal and anthropological skills
necessary to understand and move towards the practical solutions of
problems in contexts of legal pluralism. The purpose of the course is
to familiarize the participants with the current international debates
and insights in legal pluralism and to offer them a comparative
perspective that allows them to rethink their own research and
practical work. At the centre of the discussion will be issues of
human rights, recognition of local populations' folk laws and
governance in the context of globalising economic, political and legal
developments. Special attention will be given to rights to natural
resources and sustainable development.

As in past courses, held in Wellington (NZ), Accra (Ghana), Moscow
(Russia), Africa (Chile), Chiang Mai (Thailand) and Fredericton
(Canada), the teaching teams will consist of senior academics drawn
from the Commission and of colleagues from the region, in this case
from Indonesia, India and the Philippines. Co-teaching among
international and local scholars has proven to be very conducive for
challenging discussions among the staff and the participants. Here, as
during the conference, both practitioners and academics of various
backgrounds will be brought together.

The Course Participants
Participation is limited to 30 persons, to allow for maximum
discussion. The majority of the participants (maximally 25 of the 30)
will come mainly from South and Southeast Asia, but it has been an
established practice to have some wider international participation.
Therefore five places in the course will be reserved for participants
from other regions. Participation to the course is open only to
persons who will attend both the course and the congress.

The participants should be academics and practitioners who are dealing
with folk law and legal pluralism in their academic or practical work.
Academics are those who are teaching legal anthropology, sociology of
law, adat law (indigenous/folk law) science and other socio-legal
field of studies and/or doing research using legal pluralism
perspectives. Practitioners are those who have to address issues of
legal pluralism in their activities or work; they include NGO
activists, planners and government officials.

Proposed topics for the course:
1. Theories and methodologies in legal anthropology (1):
 Prof. Dr. Franz von Benda-Beckmann
 Prof. Dr. Soetandyo W Soebroto
2. Transnational, national and local processes and laws:
 Prof. Dr. Keebet von Benda-Beckmann
 Prof. Dr. Hikmahanto Juwana
3. Gendered perspectives on law:
 Prof. Dr. Anne Griffiths
 Dr. Sulistyowati Irianto
4. Rights, culture and legal pluralism:
 Dr. Rajendra Pradhan
 Dr. Indira Simbolon
5. Natural resources:
 Prof.Dr. Melanie Wiber
 Dr. Brad Morse
6. Conflict Research and Disasters Management:
 Dr. Markus Weilenman
7.Theories and methodologies in legal anthropology (2):
Prof. Dr. Gordon Woodman
Prof. Dr. Werner Zips
8. Half day field trip
Organization
The conference and the course will be hosted jointly by the Law
Faculty and the Centre for Women and Gender's Studies, University of
Indonesia, Association for Community-and Ecologically Based Law Reform
(HuMa), Center for Irrigation, Land and Water Resources and
Development Studies (PSI-SDALP UNAND), Andalas University, West
Sumatra. The local organising committee, co-chaired by Hikmahanto
Juwana and Sulistyowati Irianto of the Law Faculty, University of
Indonesia, and including as members, Asep Yunan and Sandra Moniaga of
HuMa and Yonariza of PSI-SDALP UNAND, will organize the logistics of
the congress and the course in cooperation with the Commission on Folk
Law and Legal Pluralism.

The programme committee will develop and coordinate the symposia and
panel structure for the conference and the teaching and discussion
programme of the course. The programme committee will consist of
members of the local organisation committee and some members of the
Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism. The programme committee
will review and evaluate the applications for full or partial funding
of non-Indonesian applicants for the course and congress. It will also
coordinate with the Course Organisers. Members of the programme
committee are Sulistyowati Irianto (convenor), Anne Griffiths, Melanie
Wiber, Franz von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Valerine
Kriekhof, T. Omas Ihromi and Yonariza.

The course organisers will help develop and coordinate the teaching
and discussion programme of the course, in consultation with the
programme committee. The course organisers are Sandra Moniaga and Asep
Yunan F. (co-convenor), Gordon Woodman, Anne Griffiths, Melanie Wiber,
Rival G. Achmad and Rajendra Pradhan.

The secretariat for the congress and course will be located in the
Center for Women and Gender's Studies, University of Indonesia, with
Lim Sing Mei as the Executive Secretary. A supporting secretariat,
mainly for the course, will be located in HuMa.

Finance
The Congress and the Course fees will be 100 US$ for each. Registered
members of the Commission will have to pay only US$ 75 each.
Accommodation for the congress will be most probably in Makara
University Hotel located in the campus of University of Indonesia in
Depok and a training center/hotel in Ciawi/Bogor, West Java for the
course. The Makara University Hotel and its price is still under
negotiation. The probable costs of the Makara University Hotel will be
around 45 US$ for a single room, and 56 US$ for a double room (US$ 28
per person), including accommodation and breakfast. Local transport to
the course's venue is between US$ 10 (shuttle bus + mini bus) and US$
30 (taxi). Further information will be provided in subsequent
communications. The other Hotel outside campus, its prices and its
facilities will be announced later.

Travel and Participation Grants
There is a probability that the organising committee will find funding
for a limited number of persons, especially from South and Southeast
Asia, to attend both the congress and course. We expect that these
funds will cover participants´ travel costs, conference and course
fees and living costs during their stay in Indonesia. Those who wish
to attend the course and the congress are strongly advised to seek
funding from their own sources, due to the limited funding available
from the Commission.

In addition to the grants for both congress and course, there will
hopefully be some funds for persons interested in presenting papers at
the congress. These funds will be used to (co-)finance travel and
accommodation costs of scholars and participants from less developed
countries.

Applications for Grants
Applications for grants to cover travel and other expenses should be
sent to Dr. Sulistyowati Irianto, with a cc to the secretariat by
March 31st, 2006. Applications should include a one page letter
indicating what the applicant's work has been so far in the field of
folk law and legal pluralism, the reasons for attending the course and
conference, and a CV.

Important Deadlines
1. Panel organizers to notify the local organizing committee (Dr.
Sulistyowati Irianto) of their intention to organise a panel (if
possible with panel description - key themes, issues and questions)
Extended until 15th February, 2006.
2. Panel description - Submission by panel organizers of panel
description to the local organising committee - Extended until 15th
February, 2006.
3. Information regarding panels (organizers and description of panels)
to be posted on the website and sent via email - January 10th, 2006.
4. Submission of paper abstracts to panel organizers, with a copy to
the local organizing committee - Extended until 31st March, 2006.
5. Acceptance of abstracts (to be communicated by the panel organizers
to their panel members and the local organizing committee) - Extended
until April 15th, 2006.
6. Application for funding for the course and congress - March 31st, 2006.
7. Information about funding - April 20th, 2006.
8. Visa letters to be sent out third week of April by regular post.
9. Submission of papers: 15th May, 2006.
Contact persons

Co-Chair,
Local Organising Committee
Dr. Sulistyowati Irianto
Faculty of Law, Depok Campus
University Indonesia
Phone: +62 21 7863442 Ext. 30
E-mail: sulis@p...

Secretariat emails: mei.susilo@y...
legal_pluralism@y...
Commission website: www.unb.ca/cflp..