BOOK: Peter HARRIS & Dominic DE COGAN (eds.), Studies in the History of Tax Law, vol. 12 (London: Bloomsbury/Hart, 2025), 456 p. ISBN 9781509981731, USD 157,5

(image source: Hart)

Abstract:

The authors are a mix of senior tax professionals from academia, the judiciary, and practice, with representatives from 9 countries. The chapters fall within 3 basic categories: 1. UK tax, looking at a variety of topics ranging from income tax (introduction and deduction at source), tax administration (Scotland), cases and judges (Lord Wilberforce), to the Peasants' Revolt, indirect taxation (tonnage tax and excise), and tax concepts (beneficial ownership). 2. International taxation, with chapters on the origins of the international income tax order, the UN (1950s and 60s), and VAT (origins and procedure). 3. Non-UK tax systems, including chapters on income tax in Singapore and early developments in Japan, South Africa (GAAR), an influential Canadian report (Carter Commission), taxation in classical Athens, and in the medieval Italian city-states. Collecting papers from the biennial Cambridge Tax Law History Conference, the book is a key resource for those interested in tax law and legal history.

Table of contents:

1. Tonnage Taxes, Old and New, Victor Baker (HMRC, UK)
2. 'Tax has tenet us alle': The Burden of Taxation in England in the Epoch Preceding the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Barbara Abraham (Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers, UK)
3. Examining the Influences on English Excise Taxes, After 1643, Jane Frecknall-Hughes (The Open University Business School, UK), Hans Gribnau (Tilburg University, the Netherlands), and Onno Ydema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
4. The Numerical Effect on Specific Taxpayers of Triple Assessment followed by the Introduction of Income Tax, John Avery Jones (Upper Tribunal Tax and Chancery Chamber, UK)
5. The Challenges of Localism in Tax Administration: The Scottish Experience 1750-1850, Chantal Stebbings (University of Exeter, UK)
6. Lord Wilberforce's Contribution to Tax Law, Philip Ridd (Law Reporter, UK)
7. Death and Resurrection, Richard Thomas (First Tier Tribunal, UK)
8. The Shift from an Inclusionary to an Exclusionary Focus: The Relatively Late Appearance of Beneficial Ownership in UK Tax Statutes, Vincent Ooi (Singapore Management University)
9. False Idols in the Early History of International Taxation, Weu Cui (University of British Columbia, Canada)
10. The United Nations' International Tax Interregnum, 1954–1967, Nikki Teo (University of Sydney, Australia)
11. From Zero to Hero: The Invention of VAT as the World's Consumption Tax, Ian Roxan (London School of Economics, UK)
12. United in Diversity: Historical Explanations for the Limited Harmonisation of VAT Procedural Law in the EU, Stefanie Geringer (University of Vienna, Austria)
13. Taxing the Rich in the Medieval Italian City States, Reinier Kooiman (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
14. How Modern Japanese Business Elite Formed a Way to Intervene in Legal Reform? The Case of Income Tax Reform During the 1920s, Shunsuke Nakaoka (Kokushikan University, Japan)
15. The South African General Anti-avoidance Rule: Its Formative Years, Enelia Jansen van Rensburg (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
16. The British Crown Colony of Singapore: Income Tax to 1948. Governor Uses Reserve Powers, Diane Kraal (Monash University, Australia)
17. Trusts, Partnerships and the Carter Commission, Colin Campbell (Western University, Canada) and Robert Raizenne (McGill University, Canada)
18. Taxation Without Tax Law? Exploring Taxation in Classical Athens through the Lens of Aristotle, Jo Badisco (Hasselt University, Belgium)

On the editors:

Peter Harris is Professor of Tax Law and Director of the Centre for Tax Law at the University of Cambridge,  Dominic de Cogan is Professor in Tax and Public Law, Assistant Director Centre for Tax Law, and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge,

Read more here. 

BOOK: Paula ZICHI, Feminist Governance and International Law. A Critical Legal History from Mandate Palestine [Feminist and Queer International Law, eds. Gina HEATHCOTE & Tamsin Phillipa PAIGE] (London: Routledge, 2025), 266 p. ISBN 9781032568867, € 175

 

(image source: Routledge)

Abstract:

Documenting the intertwined history of international institutions and transnational feminism through the lens of Mandate Palestine in the inter-war period, this book elicits the historical formation of an early form of feminist governance at the international level. It is commonly accepted that ‘International Women’s Rights’ entered the halls of international institutions with the 1979 passage of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. But as this book argues, feminist interventions in international law began much earlier. Engaging the history of feminist engagements with the first international institution of modern international law, the League of Nations, this book – based on archival research and drawing upon TWAIL and critical legal feminist approaches – focuses on the Arab-Palestinian feminist movement. Uncovering a peripheral feminist legal agenda, driven by women under colonial rule, the book interrogates feminist legal advances in three different fields: criminal and anti-trafficking laws, family and divorce laws, and human rights and prisoners’ laws. Detailing this early feminist legal activism, the book demonstrates how today’s feminists’ mission, as enshrined in the UN Charter and subsequent conventions, are the by-product of a much longer history of colonial resistance and contestation. This book will be of considerable interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of international law, international history, women’s and feminist history, and feminist legal studies.

Table of contents:

Introduction, Chapter 1: Palestine and Interwar Feminisms – Communities, Associations, Institutions; Chapter 2: Personal Status Laws as Technologies of Global Governance; Chapter 3: Colonial Penality Laws as Technologies of Global Governance; Chapter 4: Policing Women’s Labour as Technologies of Global Governance ; Chapter 5: Palestine in the Global Context: Comparative Perspectives; Chapter 6: Conclusion.

On the author:

Paola Zichi is a feminist legal scholar specializing in gender, history, and international law, with a particular focus on feminist histories and methodologies for legal research. She is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Warwick Law School, working on Feminist Lawyering and International Law in European History (1899–1949). Previously, she worked as an AHRC-funded postdoctoral researcher at the School of History, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Zichi completed her doctorate in Gender Studies at SOAS University of London. Her PhD project won the Helen Reece Prize, awarded by the Modern Law Review for the best PhD project in feminist legal studies. Her academic background bridges international law, history, criminology, and family law, with a particular emphasis on the intersections of gender, postcolonial theory, and legal history. Her work has been published in leading journals, and she serves on the editorial board of the Australian Feminist Law Journal. Her forthcoming book, Feminist Governance and International Law: A Critical Legal History from Mandate Palestine, explores the intersections of feminist activism and international institutions in the early twentieth century.

Read more here.

BOOK: Pierre-Louis BOYER, Histoire des avocats de l'antiquité à nos jours (Paris: Librairie Dalloz, 2025), ISBN 9782247245031, € 32

 

(image source: Dalloz)

Abstract:

Des logographes grecs du IVe siècle av. J.-C. aux bouleversements liés à l’Intelligence artificielle, cet ouvrage retrace l’histoire d’une profession en constante mutation, celle d’avocat. Pétri d’une déontologie aux principes pluriséculaires, l’avocat a toujours été un peu plus que le seul défenseur des parties. Si la protection et la représentation du justiciable est, certes, au coeur de sa fonction, il est aussi, comme auxiliaire de justice, un acteur essentiel de la société et un collaborateur de la paix sociale. Du patricien soutien de la Cité romaine aux avocats « 2.0 », l’avocat est à la fois une figure juridique, politique, intellectuelle et économique, parfois même religieuse, du monde judiciaire et de la vie publique. Il en est de même pour les structures auxquelles l’avocat a pu appartenir ou appartient encore, que l’on évoque le premier collège d’avocats sous l’Empire romain, les corporations médiévales ou les barreaux modernes : les Ordres, parfois éclatés, souvent différents, sont tout à la fois des phares, des corps constitués et hiérarchisés, des unités politiques et des secours pour les citoyens. Il n’est dès lors pas étonnant que les avocats, seuls ou unifiés, aient marqué les siècles : de Cicéron à Robert Badinter en passant par les grandes figures médiévales, les parlementaires du Grand Siècle ou encore les résistants de l’époque de Vichy, l’histoire est marquée par les avocats, et les avocats restent marqués par l’histoire. Ce livre, très richement illustré, principalement à destination des professionnels du droit, des universitaires et des étudiants, propose tant une relecture historique de l’avocature qu’une mise en lumière de l’évolution des pratiques et d’une déontologie qui se veut unifiée malgré les soubresauts de l’histoire, interrogeant aussi les évolutions en cours dans une approche plus prospective.

On the author:

Pierre-Louis Boyer est maître de conférences en histoire du droit et des institutions, habilité à diriger des recherches en Droit, ancien doyen de la faculté de Droit, des sciences économiques et de gestion de l’université du Mans et ancien avocat. Spécialisé en histoire des professions judiciaires et de la procédure, ainsi qu’en éthique et en philosophie du droit, il est membre des laboratoires Thémis-UM (Le Mans), IODE (CNRS – Rennes 1) et CREC (Académie de Coëtquidan).

Read more with the publisher. 

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Marguerite RONIN, "Une histoire de l'eau dans le droit romain" (EHNE, Sorbonne-Université, NOV 2025)

(image source: EHNE)

First paragraph:

L’eau constitue à la fois une ressource naturelle indispensable à de nombreuses activités économiques et sociales, mais peut également engendrer des risques dommageables à ces activités. Dans le monde romain, cette dynamique des opportunités et des risques est bien reflétée par les règles juridiques. Leur étude montre que les juristes et les institutions envisageaient le contrôle de l’eau avant tout à travers la protection d’usages comme l’irrigation, le drainage, ou le transport fluvial, dans le respect des intérêts particuliers et de l’intérêt général. L’héritage du droit romain mérite cependant aujourd’hui d’être adapté, car il est peu approprié au nouvel enjeu que constitue la protection des ressources et des écosystèmes.

Read the contribution here. 

BOOK: Emily GORDON, Charles MITCHELL & Ian WILLIAMS (eds.), Epidemics and the Law from Plage to Present (London: Bloomsbury/Hart, 2025), 280 p. ISBN 9781509984442, USD 130

 

(image source: Bloomsbury)

Abstract:

This collection of essays presents a socio-legal history of epidemics from the medieval period to the present day. Building on previous studies of infectious diseases undertaken by social historians of medicine, this collection explores the histories of epidemics and disease by looking at the legal measures deployed against them. Whilst previous works have considered the mechanisms by which legal change occurs, the social and political assumptions on which new laws and new legal structures are premised and the social changes which follow, this book focuses on the way in which historical actors understood law to be a complex means of responding to disease and the way in which that law shaped (and limited) the responses which could be made to disease. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it features contributions from scholars across a range of academic disciplines who consider the wider implications of epidemics and disease beyond the obvious health effects. The collection focuses first on regulatory responses such as the quarantine laws and border policies in the eighteenth century, the framing of 'disease' in the Colonial Immigration Acts in the nineteenth century and the ethics of public health in the twentieth century in Great Britain. It then goes on to consider developments in broader legal doctrine which themselves resulted from social and/or legal responses to disease, including the centralisation of labour regulation in the wake of the black death, property disputes about leper houses, pest houses and fever hospitals, and the prosecution of medical professionals for disease transmission in 19th century England. Methodologically all the chapters are historical, but a range of approaches has been taken, from quite traditional doctrinal legal history through socio-legal history to traditional political and social history, to bring the history of epidemics and the legal measures deployed against them in to sharp focus.

Table of contents:

 Part I. Introduction
1. Socio-Legal Histories of Infectious Disease, Emily Gordon (University of Cambridge, UK), Charles Mitchell (University College London, UK) and Ian Williams (University of Oxford, UK)
Part II. Direct Regulatory Responses to Infectious Disease
2. Central and Local Legal Responses to the Plague of 1603, Joe Sampson (University of Cambridge, UK)
3. Epidemic Extraterritoriality and Border Prophylaxis in Western Europe, 1780–1850, Alex Chase-Levenson (Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA)
4. Frontline Powers and the Uses of the Law: Official Authority, Public Trust, and Public Health in England, c 1850–1910, Tom Crook (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
5. Revisiting Disease in Immigration Law: Colonial and Commonwealth Histories, Alison Bashford (University of New South Wales, Australia)
6. Old Laws, New Logics: Medical Management at Britain's Borders 1962-1988, Roberta Bivins (Warwick University, UK)
7. Values and Infectious Disease Regulation in 20th Century England and Wales: The Cases of Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, Janet Weston (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK)
Part III. Longer-term Legal and Social Consequences of Infectious Disease
8. Centralisation of Labour Regulation in Response to the Black Death: The Statute of Labourers and Contract Law, Lorren Eldridge (University of Cambridge, UK)
9. Property Disputes about Leper Houses, Pest Houses and Fever Hospitals, Jonathan Garton (Warwick University, UK) and Charles Mitchell (University College London, UK)
10. The Taxation of Proprietary Medicines and the Regulation of Poisons in Nineteenth-century Britain, Chantal Stebbings (University of Exeter, UK)
11. Private Offence, Public Wrong: Prosecuting Disease Transmission by Medical Professionals in Nineteenth-century England, Katherine D Watson (Oxford Brookes University, UK)

 On the editors:

Emily Gordon is a College Affiliated Lecturer at St John’s College, Cambridge, UK. Charles Mitchell is Professor of Law at University College London, UK. Ian Williams is Associate Professor of Law at University College London, UK.

Read more here. 

BOOK: Peter Oldham KC, Law and Politics at the National Industrial Relations Court 1970-75. 'Rather Peculiar Things' (London: Bloomsbury/Hart, 2025), 208 p. ISBN 9781509985418, 108 USD

 

(image source: Bloomsbury)

Abstract:

This book gives extraordinary new insights into the legal, political and industrial strife in the UK of the early 1970s, focusing on the National Industrial Relations Court and how its independence came to be injured at a time of national crisis. Constitutional and employment lawyers, and indeed anyone interested in the history of the times, will not want to be without this deeply researched yet entertaining work. When the Heath Government came to power in 1970, it set up the National Industrial Relations Court to referee highly contentious disputes between unions and employers. Regarded with hostility by the labour movement from the start, the Court and its President, Sir John Donaldson, faced mounting suspicion, and were regularly front-page news. When Donaldson jailed five dockers in 1972 – the Pentonville Five – for defying the Court's orders, strikes erupted and the docks closed. With the country's food supplies dwindling, a state of emergency loomed. How had it come to this? Could a way through be found? This is a revelatory account of the National Industrial Relations Court's defining crisis, set in the context of a wider, and frequently startling, exposition of how Donaldson went about his role as its President. Peter Oldham KC combines decades of experience as a barrister with archival research to shine a bright new light on how and why the Court found itself doing – in Donaldson's own words – 'rather peculiar things'.

Table of contents:

Foreword, Sir Patrick Elias
1 'Little Cause for Gratitude to our Profession': The Origins of the National Industrial Relations Court
2 'Doubt Upon my Parentage': Donaldson's Appointment
3 'It is a Court and Totally Independent of the Government': Communication between the Department of Employment and the NIRC
4 'Less than Orthodox': Donaldson's Expansive Presidency
5 'Angry after Lunch': Prosecuting Martyrs
6 'The Answer Which We Were All Seeking', or 'Seemed to be a Load of Rubbish to Me': Three Days in July 1972
7 'Judges are not Expendable. Lord Chancellors Are': Con-Mech

8 'Not a Happy Outcome for Anyone': The End of the NIRC, and What Donaldson did

On the author:

Peter Oldham is a barrister at 11 King’s Bench Walk, UK.

Read more here. 

 

BOOK: Philip BAJON, Informal Decision Making in the European Community under the Luxembourg Compromise. The Law that Never Was (London: Bloomsbury/Hart, 2025)

 

(image source: Hart)

Abstract:

This book analyses the informal decision making process in the EU against the background of a gradually emerging European legal order. Based on extensive multi-archival research in the UK, France, Germany, the Benelux countries and in Community institutions, the book explores the resistance against majority rule under the so-called Luxembourg Compromise of 1966, a European 'soft law' that allowed Member States to invoke 'vital national interests' and to veto legislation. This 'gentlemen's agreement' was never sanctioned or codified. However, as a 'rule of the game' it had a significant impact on the operations of the EU for several decades and became an integral part of the EU's 'consensus' approach. Its underlying rationale is still alive in the present-day EU. Presenting a deeply revisionist account of European law and politics, the book demonstrates how the Luxembourg arrangement served as a compromise between the Treaty text and political reality, as a counterweight to technocratic ideas, and as a bridge between irreconcilable divides over European unification. It includes case studies from 1965 - 2000, such as the 'Eurosclerosis' of the 1970s, British exceptionalism as an EU member, the European revival of the mid-1980s, and intergovernmentalism on the verge of negotiating the Maastricht Treaty. Highly original in its interdisciplinary, comprehensive and archivally-rooted method, the book interrogates the most important and controversial debates about the past, present and future of the European Union.

Table of contents:

Part 1: The Gaullist Legacy 1965–72
1. The 'Empty Chair' Crisis
2. Suspending the Transition to Majority Voting
3. Decision-Making Sociology after the 'Empty Chair'

Part 2: Transition 1972–78
4. British Accession
5. The Lifting of the 'Culture of Unanimity' in the Mid–1970s
6. The Tindemans Report
7. Southern Enlargement
8. The Three Wise Men Report

Part 3: Transformation 1978–84
9. Reconceptualising the Compromise
10. A Case Law History
11. The Search for Clarification

Part 4: Trade-Off 1984–86
12. The European Revival of 1984
13. The Dooge Committee and the Reception of its Report
14. The Milan European Council of 1985
15. The Single European Act

Part 5: Towards Maastricht Europe and Beyond 1986–2016
16. The SEA Ratification Debates
17. The Council Internal Rules of Procedure
18. The 'Evocability' of the Compromise
19. The Maastricht Treaty and the GATT
20. The Compromise in Today's European Union

On the author:

Philip Bajon is Senior Lecturer in Law at Aston University, Birmingham, UK.

Read more here. 

CONFERENCE: Territoire(s). Notion, limites et extensions (Lille: Université de Lille, Salle Guy Debeyre, 14-15 NOV 2025)

(Image source: Univ-droit)

Abstract

Understood as part of the earth’s surface in the usual sense, described by Sextus Pomponius in the Digest as ‘all the land within the boundaries of any community’, territory is defined in modern and contemporary times as ‘a constitutive element of the State, for which it forms the geographical basis and whose powers it determines’. The link between territory and public and judicial authorities thus predates the concept of the State. The civil authority freely administers and organises its territory, which is divisible and divided. It can also create subdivisions within the same territory, which have a greater or lesser extent of autonomy and their own powers, as in the case of French decentralisation or the devolution of power in the United Kingdom.

The notion of territory inherently includes the idea of its own limit, i.e. the border, and raises the question of its extension. 

National borders can be natural (theory of the natural borders of France) or artificial (borders of the European colonies in Africa and Asia). It can be physical, such as a city wall, but it can also be vague, such as the limes of ancient Rome or the demarcation of the European continent from Asia. The border divides an internal space (the territory itself) from a space beyond, in which sovereignty no longer applies and public authority no longer has any power. It is therefore possible, as the Roman jurist Paul wrote, to disobey ‘the judge who exercises jurisdiction outside his territory’4. In this context, the rules of international private and criminal law clarify the problems raised when a legal act or crime is committed abroad and provide solutions to conflicts of law and jurisdiction.

This consideration of borders invites us to examine how war shapes territory, particularly through annexation, recognition of a newly-formed state or state succession. These different ways of altering borders can bring up complex legal issues. Medieval jurists developed the ‘just war theory’, derived from Roman fetial law and the reflections of Christian thinkers of late antiquity. International law has gradually incorporated mechanisms to limit the effects of war on territories and populations, but these legal principles are difficult to reconcile with geopolitical realities. At national level, the extension of borders through the incorporation of new territories can lead to the establishment of special public and private law statutes, as in certain overseas territories, former French colonies, or in the British Overseas Territories.

Territories are constantly extending their borders to new horizons, such as the sea from the end of the Middle Ages and the sky and space in the 20th century. Diplomacy is instrumental in exploring and sharing these new territories and spaces. More generally, diplomacy is a means of preventing or resolving border and territorial disputes between states, as well as maintaining peaceful international relations and boosting economic exchanges. 

Program:

Vendredi 14 novembre 2025

09h00 : Mots d’accueil et propos introductifs

• Gaël Chantepie, Directeur de l’École doctorale SJPG
• Serge Dauchy, Directeur du CHJ
• Alexandra Garifullina, Hugo Neuhauser, Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille

Séance 1. Territoire(s), échelles et frontières

• 9h30: Daniel Bökenkamp, Tilburg University - Territory and Scale in Urban Legal History: A Framework for Comparative Analysis.
• 9h50: Quentin Muller, Université de Lorraine / Alexandre Ruelle, CY Cergy Paris Université - Concevoir le(s) territoire(s) dans des États composites au XVIIe siècle. L’exemple des espaces lorrain et savoyard.
• 10h10: Antoine Laurent, Université Paris Panthéon Assas - Penser le territoire par la frontière : réflexions sur la conceptualisation exclusive du territoire en droit international.

Séance 2. Territoire(s), cultures et identités

• 11h20: Natalie Schwabl, Sorbonne Université - Constructions et légitimations des frontières dans les régimes fascistes : l’exemple du territoire de l’« État indépendant de Croatie » (1941-1945).
• 11h40: Asena Poyrazer, Université Paris Saclay - Territorialiser l’immatériel ? Approche juridique du patrimoine culturel immatériel en contexte post-conflit.
• 12h00: Raphaël Capet, Université Toulouse Capitole - Le territoire de chasse comme palimpseste.

Séance 3. Territoire(s) divisés

• 14h30: Jean-Michel Mangiavillano, Office français de la biodiversité - Le découpage entre le territoire urbain et le territoire rural de la Provence baroque d’après le Code Buisson : le témoignage de la réception de la romanité.
• 14h50 : Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille - Chambres de commerce et territorialisation du pouvoir économique : les cas de Lille et Dunkerque au XVIIIe siècle.
• 15h10 : Benedetta Rinaldi Ferri, EHESS - Un idiome juridictionnel de la ville : la dédicace des espaces en droit contemporain (Italie, 1971-1988).

Séance 4. Territoire(s) occupés et colonisés

• 16h20 : Thao Anh Hoang, Université de Montpellier - La question du conflit de lois sur les territoires colonisés : le cas du Vietnam (1862-1945).
• 16h40 : Paul-Emmanuel Babin, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah - Le « quadrillage » du FLN pendant la guerre d’indépendance algérienne ou la constitution d’une véritable atteinte à l’intégrité du territoire national ?
• 17h00 : Claire de Blois, Université d’Orléans - Du territoire occupé au territoire revendiqué : l’effectivité de la souveraineté territoriale face aux occupations prolongées.

Samedi 15 novembre 2025

Séance 5. Territoire(s) et souveraineté

• 10h00: Stefano Cattelan, Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Sarpi et la mer Adriatique : le territoire maritime vénitien entre souveraineté et déclin (v. 1610–1720).
• 10h20 : Andrea Raffaele Amato, Università di Macerata - À l’ombre de la Grande Guerre. La nature juridique du territoire d’élément co-essentiel de la souveraineté étatique à simple objet de dominum dans la disponibilité de l’État-nation : Santi Romano, Tommaso Perassi
• et Donato Donati (1902-1924).
• 10h40 : Alexandra Garifullina, Université de Lille - The Status of Outer Space in Legal Soviet Doctrine.

11h30 : Propos conclusifs

• Alexandra Garifullina, Hugo Neuhauser, Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille

More information can be found here

BOOK: Andrés LIRA (with the assistance of Pablo MIJANGOS and Francisco Javier BELTRÁN, foreword Erika PANI), Derecho e instituciones en la historia de México [Historia del Derecho en América Latina] (México: Tirant lo Blanch, 2025), 570 p. ISBN 9788410953963

 

(image source: publisher)

Abstract:

Don Andrés Lira ha sido uno de los principales renovadores de la historiografía jurídica mexicana durante el último medio siglo, tanto por la originalidad de sus contribuciones como por su trabajo docente en el Colegio de México y el Colegio de Michoacán, donde ha formado a varias generaciones de historiadores. La presente antología recoge sus ensayos más importantes sobre historia del derecho y las instituciones, distribuidos en cuatro secciones: reflexiones metodológicas, instituciones coloniales, instituciones de la república independiente y el tránsito del individualismo al colectivismo jurídico. Como podrá advertir el lector, Andrés Lira piensa que el historiador del derecho debe poner a su objeto de estudio “en relación con el complejo social en el que se hace evidente, trata de hacerse vigente o se desvirtúa”. De este modo, en lugar de poner la mirada en la obra abstracta del legislador, Lira propone explorar los vasos comunicantes entre la norma jurídica y su experiencia efectiva, así como analizar el modo en que los distintos actores sociales acatan, manipulan, resisten y eventualmente se apropian de un “pretendido orden general” dispuesto en constituciones y códigos.

On the author:

ANDRÉS LIRA es profesor-investigador emérito de El Colegio de México, del cual fue presidente (1995-2005). También ha sido docente en la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UNAM, la Universidad Iberoamericana y El Colegio de Michoacán, institución que presidió de 1985 a 1991. Sus principales áreas de interés son la historia de las ideas y de las instituciones jurídicas y políticas. Es miembro de número de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia, de la cual fue director entre 2011 y 2017.

Read more here. 

BOOK: Éric ANCEAU (dir.), Nouvelle Histoire de France (Paris: Passes Composés, 2025), 1104 p. ISBN 979104040689, €36

 

(image source: Passés Composés)

Abstract:

L’histoire est trop souvent un champ de bataille où s’affrontent des idéologies. Ces dernières années, des entreprises politiques de toutes sortes ont essayé de s’approprier tel ou tel aspect du passé, de façon partiale et partielle. C’est pourquoi il fallait une nouvelle histoire de France, intégralement revue et renouvelée, afin de mettre un terme à ces querelles. Pour la revisiter, à la lumière des plus récentes découvertes, Éric Anceau a réuni 100 spécialistes unanimement reconnus, des historiens bien sûr, mais aussi des historiens de l’art, des juristes, des sociologues, des économistes, des géographes, des philosophes et des écrivains. Ce ne sont pas moins de 100 chapitres et 340 éclairages qui sont ici proposés dans tous les domaines : des Capétiens, des Lumières et de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale à l’histoire des femmes, du genre ou encore de l’environnement, de Vercingétorix aux Jeux Olympiques de 2024… Brillante mise à jour de nos connaissances, ce livre offre un récit organisé de façon à la fois originale et cohérente, qui revient sur tous les aspects d’une histoire française complexe et nuancée. Un monument construit sur des faits, rien que des faits.

See publisher's website. 

BOOK: Stefano CATTELAN, Mare Clausum: The Formation of the Law of the Sea in Pre-Modern State Practice and Legal Doctrine (c. 1350–1650) [Legal History Library, eds. Dirk HEIRBAUT, Michelle McKINLEY, Matthew C. MIROW and C.H. VAN RHEE, 77; Studies in the History of International Law, ed. Randall LESAFFER, 28] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2025), ISBN 9789004741393, € 147,34

 

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

Who owns the sea? This book explores this timeless question by tracing the development of claims over the sea from the late Middle Ages to the early modern era, shedding light on the complex interplay between legal arguments, political interests, and geostrategic realities. By the time Hugo Grotius’s Mare liberum (1609) famously championed the freedom of the seas, competing traditions of ‘claimed seas’ had already shaped European legal debates for centuries. Examining three macro-regions – the Mediterranean, the seas of Northern Europe, and the world oceans – this study challenges the dominant Grotius-centric narrative, offering a broader perspective on how political actors and jurists justified exclusive maritime rights long before John Selden’s Mare clausum (1635). While assessing the Eurocentric foundations of the modern law of the sea, it reveals how historical legal arguments and notions continue to shape contemporary ocean governance.

On the author:

Stefano Cattelan is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law and Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Research Group CORE) and Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance. He publishes on the history of international law, with a particular focus on the law of the sea and the laws of war between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. His research has been supported by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).

Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004741409.

BOOK: Alain LAQUIÈRE, Éric PEUCHOT & Jean-Félix de BUJADOUX (dir.), Crise de la démocratie parlementaire et réformisme constitutionnel au temps de la Belle Époque [Rencontres, 681; Science Politique, 14] (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2025), 373 p. ISBN 9782406186144, € 35

 

(image source: Classiques Garnier)

Abstract:

Le réformisme constitutionnel au temps de la Belle Époque aspirait à se déployer dans de nombreux domaines : révision constitutionnelle, réformes règlementaires, modification de la loi électorale ou nouvelle organisation des partis, pour trouver des remèdes à la « crise du parlementarisme ». Autant de questions qui se posent aussi aujourd'hui pour les démocraties européennes.

Read more here: DOI 10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-18616-8.

VACANCY: Postdoctoral researcher in legal history on Labour Evolution: Forging Individual Rights in the Transformation of Early Modern European Empires (Helsinki: University of Helsinki; DEADLINE 15 NOV 2025)

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

 Description:

The Faculty of Law invites applications for a fixed term employment as a postdoctoral researcher from 1.1.2026 to 31.12.2026. The post is linked to the project Labour Evolution: Forging Individual Rights in the Transformation of Early Modern European Empires, led by Docent Adriana Luna-Fabritius and funded by the Research Council of Finland.

 

The successful candidate will work with Dr Luna-Fabritius and the project team, developing an individual research agenda aligned with the project’s focus on early modern labour governance, coerced labour, legal reforms, patriarchal structures and police regulations across the Portuguese and British empires.

 

The work will include:

• Collect and analyse relevant archival and bibliographical material for the project.
• Produce at least one single-authored, peer-reviewed journal article/or book chapter per year.
• Co-author at least one academic output with the PI or another team member per year.
• Organise and participate in the international conference and contribute to the editing of the resulting volume.
• Teach or co-teach (up to 10% of annual workload).
• Contribute actively to the project and the host institution’s research community.

 

Eligibility and assessment

 

Applicants must hold a PhD (candidates who are in the final stages of completing their doctoral dissertation may also be considered), demonstrate the ability to conduct independent research, and have prior experience of academic publishing (teaching experience is an advantage). A research proposal aligned with the project is expected.

 

Candidates are expected to reside in Helsinki, attend on-site activities regularly, and participate actively in project events. Postdoctoral researchers have a teaching load of 10% of their annual working time, corresponding roughly with one or two courses of 20 hours contact teaching. 

 

Evaluation criteria

• Ability to develop research independently and collaboratively.
• Knowledge and/or experience in intellectual history, legal history, labour history, imperial history, cameral sciences, public law, or science of police in Early Modern period.
• Familiarity with relevant theoretical frameworks (e.g. rights formation, political economy, legal practices, governance and patriarchal regimes in colonial contexts).
• For postdoctoral applicants: a record of peer-reviewed publications.
• Excellent command of English. For work requiring Portuguese sources, proficiency in Portuguese is highly desirable (Spanish is an asset).

 

What we offer

 

The salary for the position will be based on level 5 of the job requirement scheme for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal performance. The annual gross salary is €42,000 - €46,000. There will be a six-month trial period for the position.

 

How to apply

 

The application must be accompanied by the following documents in PDF format:

• a cover letter;

• a curriculum vitae;

• a numbered list of publications (highlight two key items)

• a research plan (max. 4 pages), explaining how your project aligns with Labour Evolution project, including objectives, methodological and theoretical approach, deliverables, and a publication plan. 

• Contact details for one referee and/or one letter of reference

 

Further information about academic portfolios is available on our website.

Other attachments or certificates are not required at this point.

 

Applications must be submitted through the University of Helsinki electronic recruitment system by clicking on the link below. Current employees of the University of Helsinki must submit their applications through SAP Fiori’s Suffeli recruitment portal. The University of Helsinki welcomes applicants from a variety of genders, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and minorities.

 

Further information about the position can be obtained from Docent Adriana Luna-Fabritius (adriana.fabritius(at)helsinki.fi). Further information about the recruitment process can be obtained from HR Specialist Mella Mattila (mella.mattila(at)helsinki.fi).

 

 

 

The Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki is the leading Finnish institute of legal education. Some of the degrees awarded by the Faculty are completed at its bilingual Vaasa Unit of Legal Studies. The Faculty's mission is to train qualified, ethically resposible legal professionals for both the Finnish and international markets through research of an international standard and research-based teaching. The Faculty offers undergraduate degrees in Finnish, Swedish and English as well as a bilingual degree in Swedish and Finnish.The Faculty has a teaching and research staff of around 120 people and 2,400 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

More information here. 

BOOK: Ferdinand MÉLIN-SOUCRAMANIEN, La Constitution de 1875. La République parlementaire en France (Paris: Lefebvre Dalloz, 2025),

 

(image source: Lefebvre Dalloz)

Description:

Les lois constitutionnelles de 1875 sont les trois lois de nature constitutionnelle votées en France par l'Assemblée nationale entre février et juillet 1875 qui instaurent définitivement la Troisième République.
Ces lois viennent organiser le régime républicain :
- la loi du 24 février 1875, sur l'organisation du Sénat ;
- la loi du 25 février 1875, sur l'organisation des pouvoirs publics ;
- la loi du 16 juillet 1875, sur les rapports entre les pouvoirs publics.

Read more here. 

CONFERENCE: Les journées régionales d’Histoire de la Justice « Greffes et greffiers » (Dijon: CREDESPO, 6-7 NOV 2025)

 

(image source: CREDESPO)

Abstract:

organisées par l’AFHJ, en partenariat avec l’Université de Bourgogne Europe (Credespo), la Cour d’appel de Dijon, l’École nationale des greffes, le Barreau de Dijon, les Archives départementales de la Côte d’Or, Direction Interrégionale des Services Pénitentiaires et le Conseil National des greffiers des tribunaux de commerce

See here for conference program. 

CONFERENCE: "Les cours souveraines face aux déviances et aux minorités religieuses" (Grenoble: CESICE, 6-7 NOV 2025)

 

(image source: CESICE)

Description:

Du 6 novembre 2025 au 7 novembre 2025 Complément date Le CESICE co-organise avec le CERHIIP un colloque portant sur la thématique "Les cours souveraines face aux déviances et aux minorités religieuses". Ce colloque aura lieu à l'auditorium des Archives départementales le jeudi 6 novembre de 2025 de 9h00 à 12h00 et de 14h00 à 17h00 ainsi que le vendredi 7 novembre 2025 à l'auditorium de l'IMAG de 9h00 à 12h00.

See here for program. 

CONFERENCE: Belgisch-Nederlandse Rechtshistorische Dagen (Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 27-28 NOV 2025)

(Image source: Radboud University)

Nederlands-Belgische Rechtshistorische Dagen (donderdag 27 en vrijdag 28 nov 2025)

 

Alle onderdelen van het programma vinden plaats in het Van der Valk Hotel Nijmegen-Lent, Hertog Eduardplein 4, 6663 AN Nijmegen

 

Donderdag 27 november 2025

Tijdstip	Onderdeel
13:00 – 13:30	Ontvangst en welkomstwoord in de foyer
	Zaal A, voorzitter: Corjo Jansen	Zaal B, voorzitter: Vincent van Hoof
13:45 – 14.15	Rik Haverman (VU Amsterdam) – Pluralisme van juridische bronnen in de vroegmoderne rechtspraktijk aan het Hof van Friesland	Gideon de Jong (Radboud Universiteit) – Bisschoppelijke arbitrage: Enkele gevolgtrekkingen uit tekstproblemen in C.J. 1.4.7.
14:15 – 14:45	Brent Lievens (Universiteit Gent) – Het belang van de statenvergaderingen in de Habsburge Nederlanden	Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly (Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience) – Damhouders Practijcke Criminele boekhistorisch bekeken
14:45 – 15:15	Annemieke Romein (Universiteit Twente) – De stemmen van Overijssel: digitale verkenning van provinciaal bestuur aan de hand van de Resoluties van de Staten van Overijssel (1578-1795)	Mark Vermeer (VU Amsterdam) –  ‘Overvloedige vuyle processen, cavillatien, abusive gefabriceerde getuygenissen, instrumenten ende sacken vol papieren’. De conflicten van de familie Van Heessel tegen de Staten-Generaal en de Raad van State inzake het schrijfambt van Peelland (1651-1664)
15:15 – 15:30	Pauze in de foyer
	Zaal A, voorzitter: Corjo Jansen	Zaal B, voorzitter: Vincent van Hoof
15:45 – 16:15	Amber Gardeyn (Universiteit Gent) – Nazi gespolieerde cultuurgoederen in België: een archiefonderzoek naar het Belgische beleid in de naoorlogse periode	15:45 – 16:10	Femke Gordijn (Tilburg University) – Contested Customs: Tariffs, Officials and Mercantile Interests in the port of Late Medieval Southampton (1445-1509)
		16:10 – 16:35	Maurits den Hollander (Tilburg University) – Court, Credit, and Capital: Innovatief Insolventierecht in 17e-eeuws Amsterdam
16:15 – 16:45	Louise Martens (KU Leuven) – “Une certaine expérience”: de ontwikkeling van het Belgische recht inzake activisme en staatsveiligheid na de Eerste Wereldoorlog
		16:35 – 17:00	Rodrick van der Smissen (VU Brussel) – Negentiende-eeuwse insolventierecht: Compromis tussen het verleden en de eigentijdse noden
16:45 – 17:15	Christine Lucardie – Belemmeringen voor vrouwen om toe te treden tot de advocatuur en alternatieven binnen de rechtshulpverlening in België en Nederland (1838-1922)
		17:00 – 17:15	Robin Hermans (Radboud Universiteit) – Aankoopfinanciering in het Romeinse recht
17:20 – 17:25	Boodschap van prof. dr. mr. H. de Jong over Pro Memorie in de foyer
17:25 – 17:45	Uitreiking van de Feenstraprijs van het Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis in de foyer
17:45 – 20:15	Dinerbuffet in het restaurant

 

Vrijdag 28 november 2025

Tijdstip	Onderdeel
8:30 – 9:00	Ontvangst in de foyer
	Zaal A, voorzitter: Corjo Jansen	Zaal B, voorzitter: Rick Verhagen
9:00 – 9:30	Jasper van de Woestijne (Universiteit Gent) – De non-geschiedenis van arbeidsrechtbanken in Nederland. Een verhaal van gemiste kansen of pure efficiëntie?	Vincent van den Eynde (KU Leuven) – Wie erft als er geen kinderen zijn? Het fideï-commis ‘si sine liberis decesserit’ in de vroegmoderne Zuidelijke Nederlanden
9:30 – 10:00	Janwillem Oosterhuis (Maastricht University) – De vrije markt in het Nederlandse handelsrecht van de negentiende eeuw	Derk van Wageningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) – De verwerving van erfdienstbaarheden door een deelgenoot
10:00 – 10:30	Emanuel van Dongen (Universiteit Utrecht) – Rechtsmisbruik in het Frans-Italiaans Ontwerp voor een nieuw Verbintenissenrecht	Florian Herrendorf (Tilburg University) – De zaak Hendrick Schilt: De methodes van uitsluiting van de WIC in Nederlands-Brazilië met betrekking tot haar eigen ambtenaren, 1630-1654
10:30 – 10:45	Pauze in de foyer
	Zaal A, voorzitter: Corjo Jansen	Zaal B, voorzitter: Rick Verhagen
11:00 – 11:30	Robin Navez (ULiège & Universiteit Gent) – “In beide de talen even zeer oorspronkelijk en authentiek zij”. De taaldimensie van de Belgisch-Nederlandse codificatie opdracht (1816-1830)	Kato Desaever (KU Leuven) – Transactionele soevereiniteit in de lobby voor Congo Vrijstaat (1885 – 1900): industriële macht in ruil voor staatsbestuur in een kolonie zonder metropool
11:30 – 12:00	Frederik Dhondt (VU Brussel) – De digitale weg door het publiekrecht van de pruikentijd? Kansen en beperkingen van een machine-readable tekstuitgave	Ilaria Masseroni (KU Leuven) – Polygamy and the Missionary Discourse: Catholic Conceptions of Marriage in the Congo Free State (1885–1908)
12:00 – 12:30	Antoine Leclère (FRS-FNRS) – The formation of a Liège National Convention between 1792 and 1793: a political and legal novelty?	Tomás Kocsis (Open Universiteit) – De staat van oorlog en de staat van beleg in Nederlands-Indië (1854-1904)
12:45 – 13:45	Afsluitende lunch in het restaurant