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Accepted Paper:

Promoting integration of anthropological research and legal practice in continental Europe: what lessons can be drawn from the English-speaking world?  
Marie-Claire Foblets (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)

Paper short abstract:

The matter I propose to address concerns the relationship between basic research in anthropology and legal practice, with a particular focus on the situation in contemporary continental Europe, and in particular on issues of coexistence between legal cultures. I advocate an intensified collaboration between basic research in anthropology and legal practice, but not without some conditions attached.

Paper long abstract:

Increasingly, in recent years in continental Europe, there is an expanding array of roles for ethnographic data to play in policy and in legal decisions dealing with issues raised by increasing cultural diversity. This tendency opens up prospects for reflection on the way in which anthropological insights may be incorporated into the judicial process and legal practice more generally.

The English-speaking world (Common law countries) has had a head start in experimenting with the application of ethnographic research in the form of recommendations to judicial and political decision-makers. Continental Europe lags behind in this realm. The object of our paper is threefold: (1) what lessons can Europe learn from the experience of the English-speaking world, given the differences in legal cultures and traditions? (2) Are there precedents that might enable us to see the added value of ethnographic expertise for the elaboration of legal solutions? (3) What are the conditions that would ensure that expert opinions are not instrumentalised for purposes other than the search for justice?

From the available English-language literature, we know the ethical, professional, methodological and epistemological problems raised by consultancy work. These problems are liable to arise ever more frequently as well in continental Europe, thus obliging consultants (anthropologists) to face questions that have been - proportionally speaking - rarely addressed in the literature outside the US, Canada and the UK. The paper will be based on experiences both of consultants and legal practitioners. We will analyse the testimonies collected in the light of the three questions mentioned above.

Panel P03
Anthropology in and of the law
  Session 1