Workshop: Legal Realism as the regulatory foundation of Scandinavian law?

The Research Group for Legal Culture, Legal History and Comparative Law invites you to a kick-off workshop on December 15th 2023, focusing on Legal Realism as the regulatory foundation of Norwegian and Scandinavian Law.

The workshop aims to assess the interest in and perspectives on, an externally funded research project on legal realism as the regulatory foundation for contemporary law in the Nordic countries.

Registration is sent by e-mail to Zoe Eliza Nordén at Zoe.Norden@student.uib.no.

Program 

The program is attached as a PDF-file at the bottom of this page.

Location: Møterom 546, The Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

9:00 – 9:30 Coffee and light breakfast 

9:30 – 9:45 Sören Koch (University of Bergen): Welcome. Introduction to the Workshop and the RCN founded initiative – The institutional framework and overall objectives 

9:45 – 10:15 Brage Thunestvedt Hatløy (University of Bergen): Initial reflections on legal realism as a regulatory foundation of Norwegian and Scandinavian Law 

10:15 – 11:30 Toni Malminen (University of Eastern Finland / University of Tampere) Keynote: The Past, Present, and Future of Legal Realism 

The presentation will encapsulate my doctoral dissertation of 2016, The Intellectual Origins of Legal Realism, a study that remains rather difficult to access. I will argue that the roots of American and Scandinavian realism lie in three modes of social thought characteristic of the late-nineteenth century: critical historicism, disenchantment, and agonism. Focusing on American experience, I will submit that recent political developments make legal realism a timely program in jurisprudence (and politics more broadly). 

11:30 – 13:00 Lunch 

13:00 – 13:30 Daniel Nygård (University of Bergen): Funding regimes and administrative support 

13:30 – 14:30 Open discussion 

14:30 – 14:45 Brage and Sören (University of Bergen): Concluding remarks