Cultural Expertise and Socio-Legal Studies

Special Issue

Austin Sarat

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This special issue of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society aims to foster a dialogue that is inclusive, constructive, and innovative in order to lay the basis for evaluating the usefulness and impact of cultural expertise in modern litigation. It investigates the scope of cultural expertise as a new socio-legal concept that broadly concerns the use of social sciences in connection with rights and the solution of conflicts. While the definition of cultural expertise is new, the conflicts it applies to are not, and these range from criminal law to civil law, including international human rights.

In this special issue, socio-legal scientists with interdisciplinary backgrounds scrutinize the applicability of the notion of cultural expertise in Europe and the rest of the World. Cases include murder, female genital mutilation, earthquake claims, Islamic law, underage marriages, child custody, adoption, land rights, and asylum. The authors debate on a variety of themes, such as legal pluralism, ethnicity, causal determinism, reification of culture, and the "culturalization" of defendants. The volume concludes with an overview of the ethical implications of the definition of cultural expertise and suggestions for a way forward.

Introduction; Livia HoldenPart I. Cultural Expertise with(out) Cultural Experts From Invisible to Visible: Locating Cultural Expertise in the Law Courts of Two Finnish Cities; Taina Cooke Cultural Expertise in Italian Courts: Contexts, Cases and Issues; Antonello Ciccozzi and Giorgia Decarli Part II. Sites of Cultural Expertise Assessing Cultural Expertise in Portugal: Challenges and Opportunities; João Teixeira Lopes, Anabela Leão and Ligia Ferro Cultural Expertise in Asylum Granting Procedure in Greece: Evaluating the Experiences and the Prospects; Helen Rethimiotaki Part III. Comparative Perspectives on Cultural Expertise Court Cases, Cultural Expertise, and FGM in Europe; Ruth Mestre and Sara Johnsdotter Between Norms, Facts and Stereotypes: The Place of Culture and Ethnicity in Belgian and French Family Justice; Caroline Simon, Barbara Truffin and Anne Wyvekens Part IV. Cultural Expertise in Non-European Contexts Cultural Expertise in Australia: Colonial Laws, Customs, and Emergent Legal Pluralism; Ann Black The Role and Use of Cultural Expertise in Litigation in South Africa. Can the Western World Learn Anything from a Mixed, Pluralistic Legal System? Christa Rautenbach Part V. Suggestions for a Way Forward Beyond Cultural Expert Witnessing: Toward an Integrated Definition of Cultural Expertise; Livia Holden

The research project "Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it Useful For?" held its first conference in Oxford during December 2016. Scholars specializing in law and culture in civil and common law traditions both inside and outside Europe present nine papers on cultural expertise with(out) cultural experts, sites of cultural expertise, comparative perspectives on cultural expertise, cultural expertise in non-European contexts, and suggestions for a way forward. Their topics include from invisible to visible: locating cultural expertise in the law courts of two Finnish cities; assessing cultural expertise in Portugal: challenges and opportunities; between norms, facts, and stereotypes: the place of culture and ethnicity in Belgian and French family justice; cultural expertise in Australia: colonial laws, customs, and emergent legal pluralism; and beyond anthropological expert witnessing: toward an integrated definition of cultural expertise.
- Annotation ©2019

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, USA. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor. He has written, co-written, or edited more than fifty books in the fields of law and political science.