The Seventh Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations will be held at the University of Hong Kong from 16-18 July 2014. The Obligations VII conference will be co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law and Melbourne Law School and will address the theme: The Common Law of Obligations: Convergence and Divergence. The biennial Obligations conferences bring together scholars, judges and practitioners from throughout the common law world to discuss current issues in contract law, the law of torts, equity and unjust enrichment.
Both junior scholars and established academics are invited to submit proposals to present papers addressing the conference theme, which is described as follows:
All common law jurisdictions have local influences that cause divergence in the common law, such as national and international human rights instruments, local statutory regimes, civil law influences, regional harmonisation, local circumstances and values, local cultural and political influences, and even, in some cases, a desire to express national identity by developing a distinctive local version of the common law. Have those localising influences rendered it anachronistic to refer to the common law of obligations? Or does the ‘common’ remain important as a stabilising influence and a useful source of comparative perspectives? Is there something valuable and worth retaining in the shared heritage? Should ultimate appellate courts be slow to abandon principles that remain well accepted throughout the common law world? Does some divergence even strengthen the common law by rendering it more valuable as a source of collective wisdom and experience and a source of different solutions and different approaches? The aim of this conference is to explore these issues at the general level and at the level of specific subject areas and specific doctrines.
Anyone wishing to offer a paper should submit a working title and an abstract (of no more than 500 words) by email to oblig7@hku.hk by 30 June 2013. Papers will be selected on the basis of engagement with the conference theme and fit with other papers being presented at the conference, as well as quality and originality. All presenters whose offers of papers are accepted will be expected to meet their own travel and accommodation costs and to pay a discounted registration fee.
The conference web site is at: http://www.law.hku.hk/obligationsvii/.
All correspondence should be directed to: oblig7@hku.hk.
First posted 2013-02-05 06:48:23
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