Civil and comparative law scholars from Louisiana and Mississippi will converge for the Louisiana Civil Law Symposium to be held Friday, March 8, at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
Over the course of two sessions, academics will present works-in-progress to gain feedback and advice from their colleagues. Their presentation topics cover timely legal issues in Louisiana, like short-term rental laws and recreational access.
LSU Law Professor Missy Lonegrass organized this year’s event and said the goal is to hold the symposium on a rotating basis among the four Louisiana law schools. Next year’s meeting will be held at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
The symposium will be held in the Tucker Room from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided, and the event is free and open to the public.
Three LSU Law professors and LSU Law alumni M.J. Hernandez (’19) and Martha Thibaut (’14) are among the presenters. Additional participants and presentation titles are listed below.
- Professor M.J. Hernandez, Mississippi College School of Law | “Louisiana’s Notarial Will: A Case for Reduction of Form Requirements and Return to Strict Compliance”
- Professor Hernandez critiques Louisiana’s current notarial testament jurisprudence and statutory form requirements. The article challenges Louisiana lawmakers to simplify the notarial will form requirements, impresses upon all the importance of adhering to Louisiana’s civilian tradition of exegesis when interpreting the requirements, and concludes that, after simplifying the form requirements, courts can return to a theory of “strict compliance” to the formalities.
- Professor John A. Lovett, Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center | “Running Water and Recreational Access in Louisiana: Crisis, Stalemate, or the Return of Public Things”
- Professor John Lovett will discuss his latest project to articulate a new vision for recreational access to disputed wet places in Louisiana, that is, natural or man-made water bodies whose beds may be privately owned. This project grows out of Lovett’s work as the Reporter for the Louisiana Legislature’s Public Recreation Access Task Force and builds on his most recent article, Ownership of Submerged Land on the Louisiana Coast: Resolving the Dual-Claimed Land Dilemma, which will be published by the Louisiana Law Review later this month.
- Professor Meera Sossamon, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law | “Air BNB or BRB: A Comparative Analysis of Short-Term Rental Laws”
- The short-term rental market is a hot-button issue both across the United States and globally. This Article intends to examine from a comparative perspective how different jurisdictions are regulating this industry, with a particular focus on any potential differences in approach as between civilian and common law jurisdictions.
- Professor Kenya Smith, Southern University Law Center | “The Partnership Probate Predicament”
- Professor Smith explores the inconsistency between the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure and the law of partnership, which requires cessation of the partner’s interest at the partner’s death.
- Professor Donna Garbarino Schwab, Southern University Law Center | “Prescription vs. Peremption? Relation Back Theory? What the Heck are We Talking About?”
- Professor Schwab will explore the treatment by the Louisiana courts of La. Civil Procedure Article 1153, the relation back article, and prescription and peremption. There is some inconsistency among the Louisiana Circuits courts with regard to their rulings concerning whether an amendment will relate back when dealing with peremptive periods.
- Professor Missy Lonegrass, Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center | “Catching Up to the Common Law: Louisiana’s Modern Bona Fide Purchaser Doctrine”
- Professor Lonegrass will discuss the efforts of the Louisiana State Law Institute to harmonize the Louisiana law of leases with the Uniform Commercial Code and the challenges of incorporating common law institutions into a civil code. In particular, her article describes the recently-completed revision of Louisiana’s bona fide purchaser doctrine and draws lessons from that successful revision that may be applied to the ongoing modernization of the law of lease
- Professor Martha Thibaut, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law | “The Greater Burden: Drawing the Lines in the Servient Estate”
- Professor Thibaut’s article addresses the problems arising in property law as pipeline infrastructure begins to age and thus requires relocation to prevent environmental risks. It will study how common and civil law jurisdictions currently limit relocation by the holder of an easement or servitude, including the policy implications of each approach, and seeks to resolve the competing stakeholder interests in relocation – that of the property owner and the holder of the easement or servitude, third parties and the state – through comparative methodology.
- Professor Nikolaos Davrados, Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center | “Aging Like Fine Wine: The Louisiana Conflicts Codification in Its Fourth Decade – A Tribute to Dean Symeon Symeonides”
- This Article pays tribute to Dean Symeon Symeonides (former Vice-Chancellor of LSU Law) and his work on the Louisiana conflict of laws codification, examining its impact in Louisiana and beyond thirty years after its enactment. The Article provides an overview and assessment of the codification’s key principles and evolution over the past three decades. The Article has been accepted for publication in the Willamette Law Review.