Dalhuisen gift to the Robbins Collection
The Robbins Collection at the School of Law has just received a generous donation of rare books from a distinguished legal scholar to add to its permanent collection. The gift comprises nearly 80 volumes, most of them dating from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, from the collection of Professor J. E. Scholtens (1902-1991) and donated by his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth J. S. Scholtens Dalhuisen. Mrs. Dalhuisen shares a long connection to the School of Law with her husband, Professor Jan Dalhuisen, an expert in International Commercial, Financial, Insolvency and Arbitration Law who received an LL.M. degree from Boalt in 1967 and has returned frequently as a Visiting Professor.
Professor Scholtens earned a doctorate in law in Amsterdam and taught Roman-Dutch law at Utrecht from 1946-1949. In 1949 he accepted the chair in Roman-Dutch law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he taught until 1972. Centering on the subject of Professor Scholtens’ life work, the volumes donated to the Robbins Collection in his honor are a wonderful complement to the Collection’s existing holdings in Roman-Dutch jurisprudence.
The development of the Roman-Dutch legal tradition was an important stepping stone in the early modern evolution of Western civil law systems from medieval Roman law scholarship. Influenced by French Humanism and the post-Reformation political and cultural transformation of Europe, Roman-Dutch law became foundational not only to modern legal practice in the Netherlands and its neighbors but, through Dutch colonial influence, to South Africa as well.
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Water Rights and Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa
Roundtable Meeting
Sponsored by the Robbins Collection and the Institute for Global Challenges and the Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
On March 13, 2008, the Robbins Collection and the Institute for Global Challenges and the Law welcomed experts from Senegal and France to a roundtable meeting on water rights and governance in sub-Saharan Africa. After opening remarks from Dean Edley and Professor and Robbins Collection Director Laurent Mayali, Professors Mamadou Badji, Moustapha Ngaidé, and Samba Thiam from Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, and Professor Bernard Durand from Université Montpellier I, Montpellier, offered perspectives on legal tradition and current models of water rights in Senegal, with Boalt student Hana Ivanhoe presenting additional analysis of international norms. Roundtable discussion followed, with Boalt professors Joseph Sax, Howard Shelanski, Rick Frank and Cymie Payne of the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Dan McGrath, Executive Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, contributing to a broader examination of current challenges in global water rights governance. This first encounter paves the way for future research and collaboration on legal and policy issues in sub-Saharan Africa as part of Boalt’s ongoing efforts to examine global issues in comparative and interdisciplinary contexts.
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New Publication
Iuris Historia: Liber Amicorum Gero Dolezalek, edited by Vincenzo Colli and Emanuele Conte, published January 2008. ISBN 978-1-882239-18-4. Order here.
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Exhibit of Milestone Texts from the Robbins Collection and Law Library
From August 16 through September 30, the Robbins Collection and the Law Library present an exhibit of milestone legal texts at Boalt Hall. Milestones in Legal Culture and Traditions features a selection of landmark works in civil law, common law, international and comparative law, religious law, and world legal cultures. Highlighted works range from manuscript and early printed texts to new groundbreaking material and give a glimpse of the depth and diversity of resources that our two collections have to offer.
The exhibit is located in the Law Library lobby on the second floor of Boalt Hall, and is open to the public during normal library hours. For a look at some of the featured works on display, click here.
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New Roman Law Web Module for Teachers and Students
A new teaching module on Roman Law developed by the Robbins Collection is now up on our website and available as an educational resource for teachers and students. This is the first in a planned series of modules on diverse areas of law and legal history, developed with K-12 secondary teachers and students in mind but accessible to anyone in search of introductory material on law and legal traditions. Available both online and as a downloadable PDF, the unit offers an introduction to the history and concepts of Roman law as well as a glossary, selected bibliography, and examples of primary source material from our collection.
Take a look at the Roman Law unit here. Future modules forthcoming in 2008–9. For more information, contact us at robbins@law.berkeley.edu.
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New publication
Emerging Concepts of Rights in Japanese Law, edited by Harry N. Scheiber and Laurent Mayali, published July 2007. ISBN 978-1-882239-17-7. order here.
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Forthcoming publication
Collected Works of David Daube, vol. 4: Ethics and Other Writings
ISBN 978-1-882239-15-3
Forthcoming 2008.
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International Roman law scholars convene at the Robbins Collection to initiate Corpus Scriptorum Iuris Romani project
In July, a group of international specialists in Roman law and Greek and Latin philology met at the Robbins Collection to begin a new critical edition of Roman legal texts based on the fundamental work of renowned Roman law scholar Otto Lenel. Lenel’s Palingenesia laid the groundwork for generations of modern scholars, serving as a fundamental text not only for Roman law studies but also for the history of legal thought in civil law countries.
The newly initiated Corpus Scriptorum Iuris Romani project is organized by the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane in collaboration with more than a dozen European universities in Italy, Germany, Spain and France. Led by Aldo Schiavone, Professor of Law and Director of the institute in Florence, the IISU’s editorial team for the Corpus Scriptorum Iuris Romani project includes Roman law specialists from universities in Florence, Rome, Pavia, Trent, Parma, Lecce, Bologna, Siena, Cagliari, Naples, Cassino, Heidelberg, and Paris, all of whom convened in Berkeley to participate in a weeklong meeting organized by Professor Schiavone and Boalt professor and Robbins Collection director Laurent Mayali.
The aim of the IISU project is to produce a series of volumes to be published during the next decade. Each volume will focus on one or more of the Roman jurists and include an introduction to his career and work, a reconstitution of the existing fragments of his writings, and a modern Italian translation of these passages from Latin, annotated for the reader.
The Robbins Collection, with a rare and modern Roman law collection that ranks as one of the best in the world, was a venue uniquely suited to host the beginnings of this ambitious and groundbreaking project. The opportunity to collaborate with the prestigious team of legal scholars on the Corpus Scriptorum Iuris Romani is an example of the dynamism of the School of Law in the international legal community and further testament to the ongoing global impact of the scholarship that takes place at Boalt Hall and the Robbins Collection. This unique scholarly gathering also honored the intellectual legacy of Professor David Daube, one of Boalt Hall’s greatest teachers, who, as a young student in Freiburg, began his studies of Roman law with Otto Lenel.
More information.
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New publication Fall 2005
Bartolomé Clavero, Freedom's Law and Indigenous Rights: From Europe's Oeconomy to the Constitutionalism of the Americas.
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Latin American Supreme Court Justices visit Robbins Collection
In 2005 the Robbins Collection hosted a lecture series that brought several distinguished Latin American jurists to Boalt: Peruvian Supreme Court Justice Delia Revoredo, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Joaquim Barbosa Gomes, Mexican Supreme Court Justice José Ramón Cossío Díaz, and Professor Carlos Rosenkrantz, former advisor to Argentine President Raúl Alfonsín.
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