FRANCO-AMERICAN LEGAL SEMINAR 2009
This year the University of Maine School of Law (Portland, Maine) – Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Économiques (Le Mans, France) Franco-American Legal Seminar will take place in France between March 7 and March 15. This year’s subject is “Égalité in France vs. Equality in the United States.” Eight American law students and three professors will participate along with an equal number of French law students and law professors.
The Seminar will begin in Paris, where the group will visit the Constitutional Council, the National Assembly, and other political and legal institutions to meet with officials to discuss legal questions pertaining to the concept of égalité in France and its protection by law and by judicial and administrative authorities. Discussion will focus on the concept and implementation of égalité in assuring participation of women and minorities in the electoral and political processes. One Seminar session will take place at the École Normale Supérieure with the eminent French legal historian Jean-Louis Halpérin to explore the historic and philosophic bases of the French idea of égalité.
The group will then travel to Le Mans, where French and American law students will present papers on specific aspects of the subject and engage in discussion comparing American and French problems and approaches to their resolution. Students will make presentations on the following topics:
- The history of the idea of equality in the United States and the idea of égalité in France
- Laws protecting equality in the United States and égalité in France (race, sex, age, nationality, religion, handicap, etc.)
- Equality and égalité in the courts in France and the United States
- Equality and égalité and the right to vote in France and the United States
- Equality and égalité: the problem of equal representation in the electoral process
- The participation of women and minorities in political life in France and the United States
- Affirmative action in the United States vs. la discrimination positive in France (schools)
- Affirmative action in the United States vs. la discrimination positive in France in the economic sphere (employment and public contracting)
The group will also visit the Law School at the University of Nantes for a program arranged by the Nantes faculty and will spend a journée touristique in the beautiful and historic city of Rennes.
2009 French Law Program Newsletter, 2007 French Law Program Newsletter and photo gallery.
