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The Alan Watson
Foundation (AWF) opened a new chapter in its development. Established in 2005
for essay prizes for the students of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, the Alan Watson Foundation today represents a significant source for
scholarly research in the field of comparative law and legal history. The
Foundation’s website encloses a number of scholarly papers written
by distinguished academics from various countries, legal history and
comparative law news, and other relevant information in accordance with
the mission of the Foundation.
By gathering around
the international scientific community devoted to research of law in its
social context, AWF is dedicated to the advocacy and development of
comparative law and legal history via developing international
cooperation in these fields, publishing electronic publications,
information dissemination and other activities.
Prof. David
Westbrook, a distinguished scholar at the New York State University
points out that “in a place of mixed and sometimes conflicting
allegiances, the Alan Watson Foundation works to deepen our abilities to
understand others through their laws.
The importance of this work is not only a matter of the knowledge
or even wisdom thereby acquired.
The puzzles in comparative law (which reveal themselves as the
mysteries of law itself) form an ideal conceptual terrain for civilized
conversations -there is always more to say, and so talks may be
continued”. As maintained by Westbrook, there are many others
worldwide who care about such discourses, who care that conversations go
forward, and this is how he envisions the perspective of this initiative.
Prof. André-Jean
Arnaud, President of the European Network for Law and Society (Réseau
Européen Droit & Société) supported the Foundation’s efforts by
disseminating information pertaining to AWF activities to the colleagues
affiliated to this network. Prof. Jan Smits, Chair of European Private
Law at the Maastricht University School of Law, who sent his
congratulations to the Foundation, holds this initiative for a
well-deserved token of appreciation for Alan Watson. Prof. Marko Petrak,
who teaches Roman law at the University of Zagreb, stated that it is nice
to hear that Prof. Sima Avramovic, President of the Alan Watson
Foundation appointed promising students Ana Batricevic and Viktor
Milosavljevic for project coordinators of this initiative. Other renowned
academics, such as Gerhard Thuer, distinguished professor at the Karl
Franzens University of Graz and a member of the Austrian Academy of
Sciences, Paul du Plessis, lecturer in Roman Law at the University of
Edinburgh and Andéas Helmis, Professor of History of Law at the
University of Athens, also expressed their appreciation for the efforts
of the Foundation. Furthermore, the news on the Foundation’s electronic
publications was published in Legal History Newsletter of the University
of Ghent School of Law.
In its future
efforts, the Alan Watson Foundation will assemble a significant number of
eminent comparativists and legal historians whose strength and enthusiasm
will contribute to its development into a leading international
association for the studies of comparative law, legal history and the
diffusion of law in various social spaces.
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Acta
Diurna, the Monthly Bulletin of the
University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
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