The Bernstein Memorial Lecture: The First Six Years (original) (raw)

In2006,DukeLawwasfortunatethatZhuSuliacceptedtheDean's invitation to speak [Political Parties in China's Judiciary, pp. 79-110]. Prof.ZhuisDeanofPekingUniversityLawSchool,China'smosthighly regardedlawschool,andascholarofunusuallyextensiveinterestand expertisenotonlyinChinesebutalsoinU.S.lawandlegalphilosophy. His lecture begins as a response to a review of one of his books but soonturnsintoafascinatingsuggestionthatWesternnotionsofjudicial independence are inadequate for an analysis or even critique of Chinese law. Provocative for a Western audience, the lecture highlights a coretheme in moderncomparativelaw:the contingencyandfrequent Westernbiasofmanyofourframesofreference,andthedifficulty(and promises) of intercultural comparison and critique. Jonathan Ocko, a professor of history at North Carolina State University and an adjunct professoratDukeLawSchool,addsanimmenselyhelpfulintroduction. Finally,2007sawalecturebyaclosefriendandcollaboratorofthe lateProf.Bernstein:JosephLookofsky,anAmericangraduatefromNew YorkUniversityLawSchoolwhoisnowaprofessorattheUniversityof Copenhagen [Desperately Seeking Subsidiarity: Danish Private Law in the Scandinavian, European, and Global Context, pp. 111-130]. Prof. LookofskyprovidesaninsightintoDanishlegalculture,butnotasmere illustration.Rather,heviewsthatcultureasendangeredbytheEuropeanization of law, and his view on that Europeanization from the perspectiveofasmallcountrywithaverypeculiaridentity,bothnational andScandinavian,greatlyenrichesourstandardpicturesofEurope. Viewedtogether,theselecturesprovideaglimpseoftherichnessof comparative law today and prove the high value that the field has at Duke.Thesixauthorscamefromuniversitiesinsixdifferentcountries, and where a topic occurs in more than one lecture-the constitution-alizationofEuropeanlawforexample,orthedirectionofcomparative lawasafield-theirviewsoftendiffer.Thevarietyofperspectivesand viewpointsamongthesearticlesreflectsquiteeffectivelywhatmaybe thebestofcomparativelawtoday.Ascomparedtotheloneperspective availabletothemythologicalCyclops,thisvarietybodeswellforthefu-tureofCICLOPs. Infinishing,IthankStephenBornick,AssociateDirectoroftheCenter for International & Comparative Law, and Jonathan White, a first-yearstudentinDuke'sJD/LLMprogram,fortheireditorialworkonthe individual papers. Susan Manning and Melinda Vaughn from Duke Law'scommunicationdepartment formatted thepapers;I amgrateful tothemaswell.IthankNeylânGürel,programcoordinatorattheCenter,forherworkandhercontributions,includingespeciallythedesign oftheCICLOPscover. xii I would also like to thank each of the copyright holders: Kluwer Law International, Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law and Peri Bearman,Wolfhart Heinrichs,and Bernard G. Weiss fortheir consenttoallowrepublicationofthesearticlesinCICLOPs.Thearticles and citations contained herein are unchanged from their respective original or published versions, with the exception of minor editing andformatting.