(Source: Wikipedia)
We learned of a call for papers for a symposium
on law and governance in 17th century Amsterdam. Here the call:
Four hundred years ago, like today,
globalisation and urbanisation impacted the world’s cities. In
seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the afflux of trade and migrants prompted rapid
economic and demographic growth, resulting in dynamic multicultural urban life and
leading to complex questions of governance. The foreign merchants and newcomers
were governed by the city administrators, who pursued policies of commercial
and religious freedom. The governance of the city was both local and global.
The Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company was the most affluent and
had a large say in the Company’s policies.
The communities of foreign merchants and often
well-skilled newcomers were very well connected to their home regions and
cities contributing to the constitution of Amsterdam at the center of global
trade networks. It was the city where the first ‘modern’ stock exchange was
established and the availability of capital pushed the Amsterdam and Dutch
economy into a new phase of capitalism. The Dutch hegemony in the global slave
trade soon made a significant contribution to the wealth of the city. The
Burgerzaal of the seventeenth-century City Hall visualised the city’s bold
ambition: Amsterdam as the center of a global (commercial)empire – the center
of the universe. From 1500 to 1700
Amsterdam grew from 12.000 to 200.000 inhabitants, mostly due to massive immigration.
The city’s relatively tolerant intellectual climate contributed to an influx of
– sometimes very wealthy – religious refugees as well as progressive/radical
thinkers.Economics and politics were highly intertwinned. Economic interests
and ambitions went hand in hand with political interests and ambitions. The
public and the private were very much intertwined. How to govern such a rapidly
expanding and very diverse city well? How did this impact existing local
government practices? How to approach global trade and commercial activities stemming
from and coming through Amsterdam? How did law and government support and
contribute to the Amsterdam economy, and vice versa? How did the city governors
deal with the risks, tensions and complications of a city and its people
catapulted into a global existence? How did the city government approach
Amsterdam’s immigration and diversity? What were the legal and institutional
responses to the local and global challenges that came with globalisation and
urbanisation in this 17th century city? The revolt against Spain ended
ultimately in a quest for independence. But how to organise and govern a
leading city of this emerging state? Where should sovereignty be vested? How
did Amsterdam contribute to the position of The Dutch Republic on the
international stage? The Dutch Republic developed into a (con)federalised state
with powerful towns and Holland as the most urbanised province. Amsterdam – the
rising metropolis of a rapidly expanding colonial Empire - was a city in need
of new ideas, policies and institutions to govern at home and abroad. The
global role of cities and city-based companies contributed to a normative
discourse, which drew on different bodies of law, including (Dutch-)Roman law
and the emerging law of nations and nature, ius gentium et naturale. Slavery, trade, war, as well as discussions
of religious toleration, justice and good government triggered legal questions
and debates.
Against this background, this Call for Papers
invites submissions engaging with the aforementioned questions and issues
related to three themes: I. City of commerce and tradeII. City of
immigration and diversity III. City of Innovative governance and law
Call for papers:
We call on scholars from legal history, history
and theory of international law, urban history, as well as scholars from
related disciplines, such as political philosophy, economic history, social
history, history of ideas and intellectual history, history of slavery and
empire, and migration studies, to send an abstract of circa 500-700 words
setting out the prospective paper they would like to submit for inclusion in
the symposium dealing with one of thethemes identified within the overarching
topic of law and governance of Amsterdam in the 17th-century.
PLEASE SUBMIT PAPER PROPOSALS TO LGAMSTERDAM@ASSER.NLDeadline
Abstracts July1st, 2019
On the basis of the Abstracts we will select
authors by September 1st, 2019.
Deadline First Draft March1st, 2020 Selected Authors’deadline for first
draft.
Symposium June2020
In June 2020, a symposium will take place in
Amsterdam to bring together the selected authors.
Co-donors / co-organisers: ERC-Project led by
Dave De ruysscher (Tilburg University), ‘Coherence in Law Through Legal
Scholarship’ (http://www.clls.eu/ ).Gieskes Strijbis-project led by Janne
Nijman (Asser Institute/University of Amsterdam), ‘The Global City: Trust,
Challenges, and the Role of Law’ ( http://www.asser.nl/Global-City ).
VIDI-Project led by Bram van Hofstraeten (Maastricht University), ‘What's in a
Name? Challenging Early Modern Ideal-Types of Private Partnerships in the Low
Countries (17th-18th Centuries)’
(http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/privatepartnerships )
All info can be found
here
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