Twenty-five years ago a new and different legal journal aimed at global studies was started at IU. The Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, founded at IU in 1992 by then-Dean Alfred C. Aman Jr., still deals with issues of globalization, politics, culture, sociology and anthropology.
A two-day symposium to honor the journal’s 25th anniversary began yesterday and will finish today in the Moot Court Room of Baier Hall.
Several of the Maurer School of Law’s faculty members and graduate students will be featured in the symposium as participants.
“This milestone is a significant one,” Aman said in an IU press release. “I think we have been true to our original goals of scholarly creativity and an interdisciplinary approach to global issues.”
When the journal started in the early ’90s, globalization was not a common word like it is today, according to the press release. The journal was innovative in its attempt to bring about a scholarly discussion of international relations.
Aman said in the press release that students and faculty have the opportunity to learn a lot by going back through the journal’s archives and reading its contributions to the study of global issues. He also noted that it was not enough to look to the past for understanding when pursuing knowledge. Rather, he said scholars should try to find new approaches to understanding or studying global issues.
“Our challenge now is to look ahead and ask how our understanding of and approach to global processes may change over time,” Aman said in the press release.
He said globalization is also a local and regional phenomenon and the journal has been able to adapt with the evolution of globalization because it has served as a forum for exchanging ideas and agendas.
The global issues Aman refers to move beyond politics. He cited the depletion of the ozone layer as an example of the continuing localization of global issues. Although not all societies are equally responsible for the depletion of the ozone, all societies have to face the consequences.
“There you have different localities and different domestic legal regimes that had to respond to global forces in different ways,” he said in the press release.
Aman praised the journal for its continued role in discussing nuanced issues like the environment and all things globalization.
Larmie Sanyon
