Iustoria
2026: In the Shadow of Empires
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law is
now receiving paper proposals for the Sixth student conference on legal history
– the Iustoria 2026, to be held on May 11th-13th, 2026,
its topic being “In the Shadow of
Empires”.
In 2026, we mark the 1,550th anniversary of the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 – an event that reshaped the map and
destiny of Europe at the time. Nevertheless, this political collapse could not
erase a thousand years of the development of Roman law, which later returned to
Western Europe through the rediscovery of the Digest and the work of numerous
schools that studied and applied Roman law, from the glossators to the
pandectists. By contrast, in the Eastern Roman – Rhomaian – Byzantine Empire, Roman
law, increasingly enriched with Greek and Christian components, continued to
develop for another thousand years, exerting a significant influence on many
neighbouring lands, above all the Slavic countries. In order to commemorate
this important anniversary, we seek to invite discussion on the emergence,
development, dissemination, and influence of the legal systems of empires and
imperial polities – from the Roman Empire and other great empires of antiquity,
through their successors in the medieval and modern periods, up to today’s
informal empires that extend their influence through an order that formally
proclaims the equality of peoples and democracy.
Research may focus on the legal organization of
empires themselves from various perspectives – or on their relations with other
states (including numerous issues of international law and the use of force),
as well as on transplants from their laws into other legal systems, whether
imposed or voluntarily adopted. It is also legitimate to pose the question – either
at a theoretical level or through concrete case studies – which characteristics
distinguish the law of an empire from the law of a small nation-state. Across
different empires throughout history, we can find examples of both
cosmopolitanism and discrimination, making it particularly interesting to
consider whether an empire tends to view its inhabitants primarily as citizens
endowed with rights or as subjects who chiefly owe it obligations, what is
required to acquire citizenship, and how its legal system treats those who do
not possess it. Whatever constitutes the principal basis of power of a given
empire – whether military conquest, slavery, or “soft power” – will inevitably
be reflected in its legal system, allowing us to trace the emergence and
development of many specific legal institutions.
All students of undergraduate and post-graduate
studies pertaining to law or other humanities are eligible to apply for the
conference. The applications should contain basic personal information (name
and surname, faculty, department, level and year of study), along with an extended abstract containing between 500
and 1000 words. Applications are accepted in either Serbian or English.
The applications should be e-mailed to iustoria@ius.bg.ac.rs before April 15th,
2026. The students
will be informed by April 20th whether or not their application has
been accepted. For any additional information you may enquire at the same
e-mail address, and important news will also be published at the official
Facebook page of the conference – https://www.facebook.com/iustoria
Just like on our previous conferences, apart
from the presentations given by their colleagues, the students at the
conference will have an opportunity to attend several lectures given by
renowned experts – more details on this will be available in the final version
of the programme.
The conference will be held in a hybrid format:
both in-person and online participation will be possible. We'll do our best to
secure accommodations either in student dormitories or with student host
families for participants who don’t reside in Belgrade and who wish to
participate in person. These arrangements will depend on the number of
available spots.
The final versions of the papers presented at
the conference, with final changes and corrections submitted within a
reasonable time after the conference, will be submitted for publication in the
journal „Vesnik pravne istorije / Herald of Legal History“ (http://epub.ius.bg.ac.rs/index.php/Vesnik/index). The deadline for the submission of papers is July 15th 2026.
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