NOTICE: 2013 British Legal History Conference

The Twenty-First British Legal History Conference

Wednesday 10 July – Saturday 13 July 2013

The Twenty-First British Legal History Conference will be held in Glasgow from Wednesday 10 July 2013 to Saturday 13 July 2013. 

The conference theme will be:

Law and Authority

How have sources of law and frameworks for their application related to underlying conceptions of authority, or to the authority of other institutions, processes or actors within the legal order? The conference addresses the ways law has been shaped historically by different forms and ideas of authority, and by assumptions, arguments and debates about the relationship between law and authority. The theme embraces the authority of lawyers, judges and jurists; law courts, legislatures and other institutions of governance; judicial decisions, legislation and codes; texts such as legal opinions, law reports and juristic treatises; records such as charters, court decrees and verdicts; rules, principles and precedents; forms of argument, interpretation and doctrinal categories; custom, social practice and myth; ideology, equity and wider traditions in intellectual history, legal and political thought.

Papers concerning all jurisdictions, branches of the law and historical periods are welcome. Ideally, papers should reflect the conference theme. Papers embodying innovative legal history research and proposals from doctoral students are encouraged.

Proposals for papers (up to 500 words) are invited, to reach the organisers – preferably by email attachment (in Word or pdf format) sent to the address below – by 31 August 2012. If potential contributors are unsure whether their proposals suitably reflect the theme, enquiries may be made informally by email (again to the address below). A draft programme and details of registration and accommodation will be circulated early in 2013.

Conference email: BLHC2013@gla.ac.uk

Conference Organising Committee: Dr Mark Godfrey (Convenor),

Professor Ernest Metzger, Professor Ronan Deazley, Professor Lindsay Farmer

Dr John Finlay, Dr Andreas Rahmatian, Ms Dot Reid