CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Renaissance Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law' - Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting 2011

The Renaissance Society of America is holding its 2011 Annual Meeting in Montreal from 24-26 March, 2011. The topic is 'Renaissance Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law':

Papers are invited for a session that will explore aspects of legal theory in the Renaissance. The impressive corpus of works produced in the three centuries from Marsilius of Padua to Hugo Grotius is testimony to the crucial and multifaceted transition from medieval to modern legal principles and application. The exploration of legal theory within the context of the dynamic developments that took place in related fields (such as political philosophy, ethics and theology) sheds light on how varying degrees of continuity and innovation in the Renaissance laid the foundations of modern legal thought.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Major theorists of the period (e.g. Machiavelli, Bodin, St. Germaine, Vitoria, Suárez, Bellarmine);

- Other theorists whose work in the field of legal philosophy has been neglected or left unexplored;

- Continuities and innovations in theology-based legal theory;

- The 'French school', the 'Italian School' and the School of Salamanca;

- The reconfiguration of 'natural law' and 'positive law' and the relation between the two;

- Law and the discovery of the new world;

- Law, interpretation and authority;

- Law and utopia;

- The individual and the state;

- Universal law and international law;

- Roman law in the Renaissance;

- Legal theory and legal education

Please send proposed title and abstract (not exceeding 200 words) together with a brief biographical note (clearly indicating institutional affiliation) and AV requirements to jean-paul.delucca@um.edu.mt by May 20.

See also www.rsa.org/meetings/conference_start.php