NOTICE: Professorship for European Legal and Constitutional History

I was just made aware of a professorship for European Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna.

The deadline for applications is 1 October 2010 and complete details are at http://personalwesen.univie.ac.at/fuer-mitarbeiterinnen/professorinnen/job/english/singleview/article/11965/the-faculty-of-law-of-the-university-of-vienna-ann-7/.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Law, Order and Individual Rights – Theory, Intent and Practice conference (Lyon, 8-10 September 2011)

A SOLON-related call for papers has been issued for the following (very interesting) conference:

SOLON,

in association with the Université Lyon Lumière

PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS

Crime, Violence and the Modern State III

Law, Order and Individual Rights –

Theory, Intent and Practice

September 8-10 2011

The third conference in this series will explore comparative, historical and transnational perspectives on crime and violence through a focus on Law, Order and Individual Rights, aiming to contextualise the concepts of individual or ‘human’ rights in the modern state utilising a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, but with a particular interest in promoting the historical dimension. We invite papers that, for example, seek to:

 explore state agendas and the use of law to define ‘deviance’ etc

 explore the changing comprehensions of an ‘orderly’ society, across chronological and territorial boundaries

 map differences, interconnections and movements through space and time.

 explore the differentiated social, cultural or political meanings of violent or criminal acts and ways in which violence is legitimised (or not) by states

 explore the impact of gender, race/ethnicity and other forms of social identification/exclusion

 religion, blasphemy and heresy, and other moral challenges to state authority

 the role of moral panics and other tools for voluntary or involuntary social control

 the management of crime and violence by the state, particularly reflecting on responses by individuals.

In line with the previous two conferences (Crete, 2007, University of Rethymno; St Petersburg, 2009, Herzen State University) the impact of social imaginaries of cultural identity, as well as conceptualisations of nations and empires, will be important considerations. We will also pay particular attention to comparative national or regional dimensions, and papers exploring the extent to which the actions of the modern state may clash with traditional cultural perceptions of deviance and violence in different communities will be of particular interest

Please send proposals to soloncvmsconferences@gmail.com by 29 October 2010. Please send any enquiries to Judith Rowbotham (judith.rowbotham@ntu.ac.uk), David Nash (dsnash@brookes.ac.uk) or Neil Davie (ndavie@mail.univ-lyon2.fr)

NOTICE: EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY Membership

The European Society for Comparative Legal History is pleased to announce that it is now accepting membership applications.

Annual fees are €50 for professionals and €25 for students (including doctoral students).

In addition to being able to vote in future ESCLH elections, members will receive a waiver of conference fees in years in which the official conference is held. In addition, we are negotiating for additional benefits of membership. Individuals accepted for membership before 1 November 2010, for example, will receive Kjell Å Modéer and Per Nilsén (eds), Teaching comparative and European legal history (forthcoming, October 2010).

To apply for membership, see the link on the ESCLH blog.

NOTICE: International School of Ius Commune (Erice, Sicily; 8-14 October 2010)

I just received the following information on this year's International School of Ius Commune to be held in Erice in October:

Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture

International School of Ius Commune

Direttori della Scuola: M. Bellomo – K. Pennington – O. Condorelli
XXX Corso, Erice, 8-14 ottobre 2010

History of dogmata iuris - dogmata iuris in the History

Direttore del XXX Corso
Manlio Bellomo (Catania)

Sponsored by: The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research - Sicilian Regional Government - Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. - University of Catania –Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Imola

Purpose

At the center of attention for this year’s School is the problem of the possibility and utility of thinking and writing a history of private law using specific terms. Such a history would focus on individual legal concepts and principles (figurae) as dominium and obligatio and on the history of a sistema iuris within which the variae causarum figurae are placed within a chronological framework and within the legal systems of Europe and beyond.

From this point of view the investigation and consideration of the dogmata iuris (or figurae) ought to be placed in their historical context. However, dogmata iuris are abstract by their nature. For example, the glossators thought of them ontologically as endowed with a unchangeable and thus eternal nature. They spoke therefore of natura contractus, natura dominii etc. Since the dogmata iuris are abstract, legal historians have encountered and continue to confront grave difficulties in placing them in their historical context and in utilizing them as a signpost of an ideal value and of a variable social and political reality in time and space.

The existence of this difficulty has led to many attempts by legal historians to explore this problem, especially in the civil law world. An analysis of these efforts has stimulated some legal historians to outline adequate historiographical profiles of the dogmata iuris to give a framework within which scholars may locate their work when they explore this problem more deeply. In brief, along side the dogmata iuris as a witness and mirror of the history of circumscribed and determined times and places (dogmata iuris in history or with the expressive German phrase Dogmengeschichte), one may see a series of attempts undertaken to resolve the problem of the dogmata iuris in history (history of historiography, or to use the German word Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung). The organizers of the course propose two points of view that point to one common objective that is properly and exclusively the goal of legal history: to understand history in terms of law and jurisprudence.

In particular the Course proposes to explore if the dogmata iuris and what is written about them can indicate which was (and which can be, in the present or in the future) the level of culture of the people who have conceived and have utilized dogmata iuris as a guide, or have forgotten them, or have rejected them with distructive force. Then there is the final question: can a society be considered civil that has rejected, mocked, and smashed all models regulating relationships in society and in the field of law and rights all figurae (or categories or dogmata)?

Al centro dell’attenzione vi è il problema della possibilità e dell’utilità di pensare e di scrivere una storia del diritto privato in termini specifici: come storia di singole figure giuridiche (dominium, obligatio etc.) e come storia di un sistema iuris entro il quale le variae causarum figurae sono state collocate nella successione dei tempi e nella varietà dei territori europei e d’oltre mare. Da questo punto di osservazione e lungo questa linea di indagine e di riflessioni i dogmata iuris (o figurae) devono essere collocati nella storia. Ma i dogmata iuris sono astratti per loro natura. Per primi, i glossatori li pensano, ontologicamente, come dotati di una natura immodificabile, e anzi eterna, e parlano perciò di natura contractus, natura dominii etc. E poiché i dogmata iuris sono astratti, la storiografia ha incontrato e incontra gravi difficoltà a collocarli nella storia, a utilizzarli come documento di valori ideali e di realtà socio-politiche variabili nel tempo e nello spazio. L’esistenza delle difficoltà ha comportato molteplici tentativi degli storici del diritto, soprattutto di area europeo-continentale. L’analisi di tali tentativi ha sollecitato alcuni storici del diritto a tracciare profili storiografici adeguati a dare un quadro di orientamento per ogni successivo approfondimento del problema. In breve, accanto ai dogmata iuris come testimoni e specchio della storia di tempi e di luoghi circoscritti e determinati (dogmata iuris nella storia, o con espressiva parola tedesca Dogmengeschichte), si è formata una storia dei tentativi compiuti per risolvere il problema dei dogmata iuris nella storia (storia della storiografia, o Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung). Si tratta di due punti di vista che mirano a un unico e comune obiettivo, che è proprio ed esclusivo della storiografia giuridica: capire la storia, in uno dei suoi qualificanti aspetti giuridici. In particolare, il Corso si propone di esplorare se i dogmata iuris e quanto si è scritto su di essi possano indicare quale sia stato nel passato, e quale possa essere nel presente e nel futuro, il livello della civiltà dei popoli che, nel succedersi dei tempi, hanno concepito e utilizzato dogmata iuris, o li hanno dimenticati, o avversati con impeto distruttivo. È vi è perciò una domanda finale: può essere considerata civile una società che rifiuta e dileggia e infrange ogni ‘forma’, e nel campo del diritto ogni figura (o categoria, o dogma)?

Topics and Lecturers

Manlio Bellomo (Università di Catania, I)
“Sigismundus dogmate legum fultus”: (I) Per una storia della storiografia in tema di categorie giuridiche; (II) “Irnerius qui fuit ausus dirigere cor suum ad legem istam”. Il problema socio-politico dei “dogmata iuris”

Giovanni Chiodi (Università di Milano “Bicocca”, I)
L’interpretazione del testamento nel diritto comune: nascita e sviluppi di un metodo (I)

Emanuele Conte (Università Roma Tre, I)
Il vassallaggio medievale fra le maglie della scolastica giuridica. Un capitolo della storia del diritto comune in Europa (I)

Alessandro Corbino (Università di Catania, I)
“Iura condere” e “iura constituere” nel pensiero dei giuristi romani (I)

Anne Lefebvre-Teillard (Université Panthéon Assas, Paris, F)
“Ne pater pro filio”: la responsabilité délictuelle personnelle du mineur entre principe et réalité (I); Le droit romano-canonique: droit savant? (II)

Emma Montanos Ferrín (Universidad de La Coruña, E)
Un ejemplo de categoría jurídica pasada del derecho canónico al derecho español: el asesinato (I)

Andrea Padovani (Università di Bologna, I)
“Tenebo hunc ordinem”: metodo e struttura della lezione dei giuristi medievali dalle “Summae” al commento (I, II)

Beatrice Pasciuta (Università di Palermo, I)
Il processo come “sistema” tra ricostruzioni storiografiche ottocentesce e struttura medievale delle fonti (I)

Kenneth Pennington (Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USA)
Legal Positivism and Natural Law (I)

Hans Schlosser (Universität Augsburg, D)
Die deutsche Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Mythos, nationalem Pathos und richtiger methode: (I) Von der Historischen Schule bis zur Krise der Pandektistik Ende XIX. Jahrhundert; (II) Neue Wege nach 1945 (Coing, Wieacker, Thieme), die Methodendiskussion und der heutige Standort.

Alain Wijffels (Université Catholique, Louvain, B)
Early-Modern ius commune: transmitting and renewing old doctrines? (I, II)

For information and applications please write to:

Prof. Orazio Condorelli
Università di Catania
Facoltà di Giurisprudenza
via Gallo 24
I-95124 Catania
tel. 0039-095-230417
ocondorelli@lex.unict.it

I hope to see you there.

REPORT: European Society for Comparative Legal History Conference

Last week's inaugural conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History was a great success.

Much of this was due to the organisation of the event, on reasonably short notice, by the local organiser and new ESCLH President, Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia). He was also generously supported by the Faculty of Law at the University of Valencia, the Universitas Foundation, the managers of the La Nau Building, and the Instituto de Historia de la Intolerancia. Finally, he was ably supported on the ground by an elite group of students.

On behalf of the ESCLH Executive Council, we'd like to thank the many speakers and participants who attended. Your contributions, both in formal sessions and in informal gatherings, made the conference both enlightening and enjoyable. 

In addition to selecting our first Executive and launching the Western Legal Traditions casebook project, a final Constitution is being completed, a second conference is being planned, a logo will soon be available, and membership has been opened to all those interested in our subject.

More details on these developments will follow soon.

Best wishes to all. We look forward to working together.

Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick), ESCLH General Secretary