SCLP Seminar: Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin)

The Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy is committed to the idea that the study of law is deepened when grounded in philosophical principle, and philosophy is of greater benefit to society when relevant to pressing practical and legal issues. The Centre’s members consist not only of legal theorists, but also of lawyers with philosophical training and philosophers with interests in legal questions—all of whom are invested in an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research. Our home is the University of Surrey School of Law.

Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy

SCLP Seminar: Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin) presents 'Derivative Recognition and Intersystematic Interpretation'

University of Surrey School of Law

P﻿lease join us for this HYBRID event in person if you can. But if not, you are welcome to join us online at<a href="https://surrey-ac.zoom.us/j/93980022644" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> https://surrey-ac.zoom.us/j/93980022644</a>N﻿OTE THAT WE WILL BEGIN 30 MINUTES LATER THAN OUR USUAL TIMEAbstractIn intersystemic cases, judges are charged with interpreting and applying law from foreign systems. Even when it is clear which system’s law applies, though, it may be far from clear how the judges are supposed to go about interpreting and applying that law. Several American legal scholars, focusing on federal-state intersystemic adjudication in the United States, claim that federal courts are duty bound to apply state interpretive methodology when deciding questions of state law. This now seems to be the prevailing view among scholars (although not judges) in the United States. But the view is undertheorized, and, at least under a Hartian positivist theory of law, it doesn’t withstand jurisprudential scrutiny. In this paper I suggest that, given how law is determined in American jurisdictions, we have good reason to believe that various interpretive methodologies are capable of identifying the law of a single jurisdiction, and that a methodology’s capability in that regard will depend somewhat on the interpreter’s identity and institutional context. The latter factors are likely to vary considerably and systematically between jurisdictions, such that the proper interpretive methodology with respect to a given body of law might well depend on whether the interpreting court is situated within or without the law-supplying jurisdiction. Further, we cannot assume that a jurisdiction’s judges use an interpretive methodology that is optimal even for them with respect to their own law. And finally, whereas judges interpreting their own law will necessarily be guided to some extent by their own rule of recognition, judges interpreting another system’s law need not be guided by that system’s rule of recognition, which means that there will be restrictions on judges interpreting a body of law intrasystemically that do not apply to judges interpreting that law intersystemically. I conclude that federal courts do not necessarily have a duty or even a reason to apply state interpretive methodology to disputes arising under state law.About the Speaker:Nina Varsava’s research focuses on procedure, courts, judicial administration, ethics, and jurisprudence. She is especially interested in issues of precedent, interpretation, and intersystemic adjudication. She teaches courses on civil procedure, professional responsibility, and jurisprudence.Varsava’s recent research has appeared in the Notre Dame Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law and Humanities, and the NYU Law Review Online, among others. Her scholarship has been covered by media outlets such as the The New York Times and the American Bar Association Journal, and has been cited by both federal and state courts.Following law school, Varsava served as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Supreme Court of Colorado.<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ddS-z10VMqOhtEXqsI94QX192ln8H_v/view" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Click here to download the paper</a>. Pre-reading optional.

SCLP Seminar: Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin)

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SCLP Seminar: Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin)

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