Comparative law today: digging trenches, bridging knowledge? 75th Anniversary BACL Workshop

7-8 July 2025, King's College, University of Cambridge

The Centre of European Legal Studies and the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) warmly invite you to attend their workshop to mark BACL's 75th Anniversary.

BACL's ancestor, the UK National Committee of Comparative Law, was established in 1950 to promote 'the development of legal science, by using in particular the comparative method'. Today, comparative law teaching and research utilizes many different approaches. How do we address the existing or potential limitations of legal comparison, and how does legal comparison properly bridge knowledge? This workshop provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the theory and substance of comparative law, to exchange ideas and practices about teaching comparative law, and to explore the use of comparison to construct knowledge about legal systems and ideas of legal change.

Speakers

• Dr Sophie Boyron (Birmingham University), 'Is there be a role for 'administrative' mediation in common law jurisdictions?'
• Ms Chen Chen (Oxford University), 'Asymmetries in the regulation of neighbourhood land use conflicts in England and France'
• Professor Erin Delaney (UCL), 'Heuristic constitutionalism'
• Dr Penny Giosa (University of Reading), 'Liquidated damages as a remedy for cartels: comparing the UK with Germany'
• Professor Michele Graziadei (Turin University), 'The not so lonely comparative lawyer'
• Dr Irini Katsirea (Sheffield University), 'Press freedom guarantees for online news providers: comparative insights from the UK and Germany'
• Professor Naomi Creutzfeldt (Kent University), 'Access to Justice in an age of digitisation – what can we gain from a comparative perspective?'
• Dr Dorota Leczykiewicz (Oxford University), 'Theorising judicial law across jurisdictions'
• Professor Yseult Marique (Essex University), 'Independent fiscal boards: a case study for new challenges for comparative law'
• Dr Colm McGrath (KCL), 'Legal development and the decolonial turn in comparative law'
• Professor Son Ngoc Bui (Oxford University), 'Comparative law's engagement with Asia'
• Professor Geoffrey Samuel (Kent University), 'Do comparatists really need to think seriously about theory and method?'
• Dr Johannes Ungerer (Oxford University) (paper co-authored with Prof. Dyson), 'Juggling authority and rationality through comparative law: normative bridging across national trenches'
• Dr Bo Wang (Sheffield University), 'Theft, fraud and dishonesty - a comparison between English Law and Chinese Law'
• Professor Se-Shauna Wheatle (Durham University), 'Unwritten constitutional principles: lessons from the Commonwealth Caribbean'
• Dr Paulina Wilson (QUB), 'Distilling the essence of professionalism: comparative insights into tort liability as a guide to professional regulation'

Roundtable

• Professor John Bell (Cambridge University)
• Professor Paula Giliker (Bristol University)
• Professor Mathias Siems (EUI)

The workshop will start at 13:15 on Monday 7 July and will end no later than 14:35 on Tuesday 8 July. A detailed schedule will be available by mid-June.

Places are limited; please register to express an interest in attending:

Register your interest