Reasoning about Equity and Law
1st Edition of the 'Harvard-Hamburg Conferences on New Approaches to Legal Reasoning'
In one way or another, equity has been associated with certain styles of reasoning through long periods of history and across a wide variety of legal systems. What is this style of reasoning? Is it mere discretion or the crafting of exceptions? Is it a matter of standards or principles rather than rules? Does it reflect some special kind of morality or appeal to conscience not found in other parts of the law? Or is its essence more structural, in that it involves defeasibility or operation from outside the regular law? All of these questions are relevant to the role equity plays – and should play – in the legal system. Equity has at various times been seen as contradicting, supplementing, and fulfilling the law. Each of these roles might correspond to a different type of reasoning.
Whether there is a special kind of equitable function that comes with its own kind of reasoning or even logic is complicated by the diversity of doctrines and institutions that are said to implement equity (whatever that is). Many common law jurisdictions once had (and a few still do have) separate courts of equity, and large parts of the law in such jurisdictions are still denominated “equitable”. In contrast, civilian jurisdictions mostly never had separate courts of equity, yet they do feature doctrines of good faith and abuse of right that closely resemble common law equity in many ways, including in their mode of reasoning.
This conference will bring together scholars from multiple disciplines and legal cultures to address the kind of reasoning associated with equity and how it should be implemented institutionally. The goal will be both to get a handle on the role equity plays in the law and through an exploration of equity to identify different modes of reasoning. Emphasis will be placed on bringing new tools – new logics, new models, new disciplinary perspectives – to bear on the time-honored questions of equitable reasoning.
Hosts:
Prof. Dr. Matthias Armgardt, University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Scott Brewer, Harvard Law School
Prof. Dr. Henry E. Smith, Harvard Law School
| Date: | June 26-28, 2023 | |
| Location: | Monday, June 26: | Warburg Haus, Heilwigstrasse 116, 20249 Hamburg |
| Tuesday, June 27: | Warburg Haus, Heilwigstrasse 116, 20249 Hamburg | |
| Wednesday, June 28: | Grand Elysée Hotel Hamburg, Tagungsraum Shanghai, Rothenbaumchaussee 10, 20148 Hamburg | |
| Contact: | Chaofeng Chen | |
Cf. Poster and Flyer with Programme for the Conference: Poster and Flyer
Speakers:
Monday:
- Monday, June 26, 9:00
'Opening Speech'
Prof. Dr. Tilman Repgen
Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg - Monday, June 26, 9:30
'Equity in Comparative Property Law'
Prof. Dr. Yun-chien Chang
Jack G. Clarke Professor in East Asian Law, Cornell Law School - Monday, June 26, 11:15
'Equity in Insolvency Law'
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Bork
Professor Emeritus for Civil Procedure Law and General Procedural Law, University of Hamburg - Monday, June 26, 13:30
'Abuse of Rights - Functional Analysis of Adjustments of Law for Reasons of Equity'
Prof. Dr. Claudia Schubert
Professor for Civil Law, Labor Law, Corporate Law and Comparative Law, University of Hamburg - Monday, June 26, 14:45
'Equity, Defeasibility and Positivism'
Prof. Dr. Carsten Bäcker
Professor for Public Law, Constitutional Theory and Legal Philosophy, University of Bayreuth
Tuesday:
- Tuesday, June 27, 9:00
'Slouching Toward the Absorption of Equity in Law: A Logocratic Analysis of Some American Contract Cases'
Prof. Dr. Scott Brewer
Professor of Law, Harvard Law School - Tuesday, June 27, 10:45
'Equity in International Investment Arbitration: A Logocratic Analysis'
Prof. Dr. Gabriel Lentner
Assistent Professor, Department for Legal Studies, University for Continuing Education Krems - Tuesday, June 27, 13:00
'How English is Equity?'
Prof. Dr. Ben McFarlane
Professor of English Law, University of Oxford - Tuesday, June 27, 14:15
'Good Faith and Abuse of Right as Equitable Meta-Law'
Prof. Dr. Henry Smith
Fessenden Professor of Law, Harvard Law School - Tuesday, June 27, 16:00
'Equity, Meta Law and Consistency'
Prof. Dr. Matthias Armgardt
Nucleus Professor for Global Legal History and Private Law, University of Hamburg
Wednesday:
- Wednesday, June 28, 9:00
'Equity in International Legal Reasoning'
Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken
Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory, Public International and European Law, University of Hamburg - Wednesday, June 28, 10:45
'The Role of Equity in Public International Law'
Prof. Dr. Stefan Oeter
Professor for Public Law, International Law and Foreign Public Law, University of Hamburg - Wednesday, June 28, 12:00
'Lunch and Final Discussion'
The conference is chaired by:
Monday morning: Prof. Dr. Saskia Lettmaier, University of Kiel
Monday afternoon: Prof. Dr. Markus Kotzur, University of Hamburg
Tuesday morning: Prof. Dr. Matthias Armgardt, University of Hamburg
Tuesday afternoon: Prof. Dr. Henry Smith and Prof. Dr. Scott Brewer, Harvard Law School
Wednesday morning: Prof. Dr. Ralf Michaels, Max-Planck Institute for Comparative and Private Law