(Source: Latin American and Iberian Institute)
Via H-Announce,
we learned of a conference on “Arguing for the Rule of Law: Using the Hebrew
Bible and Caricatures of Foreigners in British and Spanish America”.
On Friday,
October 26, 2018, at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Symposium on
Comparative Early Modern Legal History will be presenting a conference
on “Arguing for the Rule of Law: Using the Hebrew Bible and Caricatures of
Foreigners in British and Spanish America.”
How did
settlers, imperial officials, indigenous peoples, and Africans in the New World
seek to demonstrate, or disprove, that a polity respected the rule of
law? (The phrase “rule of law” is modern; but the core of the idea is
not). Colonial rule invited accusations of arbitrary government and
systematic lawlessness. This conference will focus on two common
techniques used to assess whether a polity respected the supremacy of
law. First, controversialists asked whether governance accorded with
God’s expectations of justice as laid out in Scripture, particularly the Hebrew
Bible. Second, caricatures of other societies could be held up to make
one’s own appear lawful and just, or the reverse. British American
settlers applauded the civility of their law by reference to the presumed
barbarism of the Irish and Amerindians. They saw liberty in their
exploitive legal order by opposing it to the supposed absolutism of the Spanish
and French empires. Spanish settlers justified their rule and derecho by
contrasting them to the law of indigenous polities and of their New World
rivals. The conference will bring together historians, law professors,
and social scientists to think about the complex debates about the rule of law
in the English and Iberian Atlantic.
Attendance at
the Symposium is free and open to the public. Those who wish to attend
should preregister by sending an email to Richard Ross at Rjross@illinois.edu. Papers will be circulated electronically to all registrants
several weeks before the conference.
For information
about the conference, please consult our website at https://law.illinois.edu/faculty-research/specialty-programs/legal-history/ or contact Richard Ross at Rjross@illinois.edu or at 217-244-7890.
Contact
Info:
Richard Ross,
University of Illinois College of Law and History Department. Rjross@illinois.edu
217-244-7890
Contact Email:
(Source: H-Announce)
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