ABF Participates in World Justice Forum, Vienna, Austria, July 2-5, 2008
June 25, 2008, ABF news
ABF Research Professors Robert Nelson and James Heckman have brought together some of the world’s leading scholars in law and social science to develop new scholarship on the rule of law. Many of the scholars will present and discuss their work as they participate in the World Justice Forum, an international gathering of over 500 leaders from government, academia, and other fields, to be held in Vienna, Austria, July 2-5, 2008.
Nelson, Director of the ABF, and Heckman, who holds the Nobel Laureate in economics, are part of an international team of scholars who are conducting research for the World Justice Project, an initiative whose purpose is to strengthen the rule of law around the world, and which is funded by foundations, corporations, professional firms, and the American Bar Association. Nelson and Heckman’s team consists of twelve scholars – including Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, Professor Margaret Levi (past president of the American Political Science Association), Professor Barry Weingast of Stanford University, Professor Katharina Pistor of Columbia University, ABF Research Professor Terence Halliday, and other experts in law, history, political science, philosophy, sociology, and economics. The group first convened at the American Bar Foundation in November of 2007 in a workshop where preliminary papers were presented and discussed. Final versions of several of the papers will be presented at the World Justice Forum, in a session titled, “Scholarship on Rule of Law Issues.”
A second team of scholars led by Professor Yash Ghai, of the University of Hong Kong Law School and the Constitution Advisory Unit, United Nations, will present papers and discuss issues related to access to justice and the rule of law. Papers presented in this session cover such topics as South Africa’s land reform program, and honor-related violence against women in Pakistan.
Papers and information are available by clicking the hyperlinks, or by clicking here.
« Return to ABF news