Uses of Foreign Law by Courts - the Australian view

The Hon. Michael Kirby, who retired in 2009 as judge of Australia's highest court, spoke at Pace University Law School October 4, 2010. He delivered the annual Sloan lecture on the subject of “The Use of Foreign Judicial Authority…Why Justice Scalia is Wrong.” More information about judge Kirby is here. Video, ± 1 hour, no transcript

Foreign Law and Legal Development

Duke Law School's 9th annual Bernstein lecture (2010) was given by Professor John Bell of the University of Cambridge Law School. His subject was "The Relevance of Foreign Examples to Legal Development." The lecture addressed three claims: governance through law is a universal and global activity and therefore its application cannot be confined to a specific jurisdiction; institutional activities of legislating and deciding cases are part of a conversation that extends beyond jurisdictional boundaries; and arguments based on foreign experience have only a limited persuasive status in national legal reasoning and therefore require discussion at a general rather than specific level. You can download the video of the lecture on Duke Law's iTunesU page or directly from the Duke Law site.

Foreign law in U.S. courts

NPR's All Things Considered of September 8, 2010 has a story about the effort by a legislator in Oklahoma to adopt a constitutional amendment in his state which would bar judges from considering Shariah or any foreign law.
4 min 34 sec, something like a transcript, with a few errors.

Jeremy Waldron gave the Storrs Lectures at Yale University Law School in September, 2007. The titles of the lectures don't really do justice to the richness of the subjects he examines - ius gentium and human rights, for example.

• 1 - DEMOCRACY, JUDICIAL REVIEW, AND ‘THE DISAPPROVING VIEWS OF FOREIGNERS'
• 2-THE EXPANSION OF INTEGRITY: TREATING LIKE CASES ALIKE (HERE AND THERE)
• 3-LEARNING FROM OTHER COURTS: THE RIGHT WAY, THE WRONG WAY, AND THE LEGAL WAY

Available in video or .mp3 There is no transcript, but a written version of the lectures can be found here.

Universal Rights and Wrongs Michael Tigar, famous law professor and attorney, lectures on universal rights and wrongs at the University of Texas. He talks about universal jurisdiction, Roper v. Simmons (juvenile death penalty), torture and Richard Posner's views on the subject and the role of foreign law in U.S. courts. The web page presenting this lecture and linking to it can be found here. Windows Media Player required.90 min. Update : You can find the text of the lecture here.

Unreliable Evidence - Foreign law in English courts The last of the current series of programmes of the BBC's Unreliable Evidence is available here. Law professors and judges discuss the role foreign law plays/should play in English law. Since the programme does not have audio archives, listen before next Tuesday (June 6) to be sure to catch it before it disappears.