CONFERENCE SERIES: Société d'Histoire du Droit (Paris: Faculté de Droit, 2025-2026)

 The Société d'Histoire du Droit published its program of public lectures for 2025-2026. More information here.

LECTURE SERIES: Spring 2025 History of International Law Speaker Series (Boston: Boston University, JAN-MAR 2025)

(image source: BU)

Abstract:

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future [at Boston University] is pleased to announce the International History Institute’s (IHI) Spring 2025 “History of International Law” speaker series. All three events will be held in the Pardee School of Global Studies’ Riverside Room at 121 Bay State Road. The series is open to the public

Line-up:

Thursday, January 30 | 5:00-6:30 pm
Keynote Lecture: “The Law of International Society: Remarks on a Domesticated Notion”

Martti Koskenniemi, Professor Emeritus of International Law, University of Helsinki

Wednesday, February 26 | 4:00-5:30 pm
Book Talk: “Odious Debt: Bankruptcy, International Law & the Making of Latin America”

Edward Jones Corredera, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for
Comparative Public Law and International Law

Discussant: Felipe Ford Cole, Assistant Professor, Boston College Law School

Wednesday, March 26 | 4:00-5:30 pm
Book Talk: “Arbitrating Empire: United States Expansion & the Transformation of International Law”

Allison Powers Useche, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Discussant: Andrei Mamolea, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Registration here. 

 (source: Legal History Blog)

LECTURE SERIES: Helsinki Legal History Series (Spring 2024) [ONLINE]

(Image source: University of Helsinki)

How have collective identities shaped law, and how has law been used to affect, change or protect common identities? Does law recognize marginalized identities or is the history of law a narrative of exclusion?

The themes of the first meetings will be: 

• Mathilda Tarandi, 30.1.2024: Who was criminalised? Analysing the crime of abortion in Sweden, early 20th century.

Tarandi's research is on the crime and the decriminalisation of abortion in Sweden. The analysis starts in early 19th century and ends in 1975, when the formal decriminalisation entered into force. She is looking at what, or rather who, was criminalised. Studying material from the parliament as well as court archives, She explores how norms on female identity came into play in the legal discourse and how concepts such as guilt were used in the argumentation for decriminalisation. In this presentation, she will analyse the criminalised area in early 20th century. Borrowing from the humanities, she will reflect on the argumentation and criminalised area in relation to female archetypes.

• Moritz Vormbaum, 27.2.2024: ‘A Legal Instrument of the Political Power of the Working Class’ - The Criminal Law of the German Democratic Republic

 Today, more than 30 years after the German unification, not much is known about the criminal law of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This is surprising, for the fact alone that, in 1968, the GDR enacted a new overall codification of criminal law – something that from 1871 until today no other German government has managed to do. In addition, a study of GDR criminal law gives us insights of the criminal law in an authoritarian regime based on socialist ideology. The presentation will give an overview of the development of substantive criminal law in East Germany from 1945 to 1990. Moreover, it will analyse the role of the judiciary and the Ministry for State Security in practice. Finally, it sketches a pattern of interpretation of GDR criminal law.

More information can be found here.

SEMINAR SERIES: Sécularités, dialogue entre théologiens et juristes (Paris: Institut de recherche juridique de la Sorbonne, JAN-MAR 2024)

(Image source: Institut de recherche juridique de la Sorbonne)

 

« Sécularités, dialogue entre théologiens et juristes » réunit depuis cinq ans à l’Institut de Recherches Juridiques de la Sorbonne, en partenariat avec le Centre d’études du Saulchoir, des représentants des deux disciplines, en prenant acte de l'achèvement de la sécularisation de notre société. Les séances ont lieu (avec quelques exceptions…) le deuxième vendredi de chaque mois, de 16 h 30 à 19 h 30, afin d’entendre un théologien et un juriste sur un thème commun, de leur permettre de dialoguer, puis de discuter avec eux. Elles se tiennent dans la salle des séminaires de l’IRJS (au deuxième étage du 4 rue Valette, 75005 Paris).

Animé par Bernard Bourdin, dominicain, professeur d'histoire des idées et de philosophie politique, Institut catholique de Paris, directeur du Centre d'étude du Saulchoir ; Pierre Bonin, professeur d'histoire du droit, Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne ; François-Guy Trébulle, professeur de droit privé, Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne

Programme:

• Vendredi 12 janvier : La légitimité, avec Bernard Bourdin, dominicain, professeur d'histoire des idées et de philosophie politique, Institut catholique de Paris, directeur du Centre d'étude du Saulchoir, et Aïda Manouguian, docteur en droit public, université Lyon 3 Jean Moulin
• Jeudi 8 février : L'obéissance, avec Bruno Cadoré, ancien maître de l'Ordre des Dominicains, et Nicolas Sild, professeur de droit public, université de Toulouse Capitole
• Vendredi 8 mars : Loi et bien commun, avec don Jean-Rémi Lanavère, directeur adjoint de l'Ecole Supérieure de Philosophie et de Théologie de la Communauté Saint-Martin, et Jimmy Meersman, maître de conférences en droit public, université de Lorraine

More information can be found here.

SEMINAR SERIES: La modernité politique en ses textes, études de cas dans la France d’Ancien Régime (Paris: EHESS, DEC 2023 - MAY 2024)

(Image source: Portail Universitaire du Droit)

 

« La modernité politique en ses textes, études de cas dans la France d’Ancien Régime » poursuit à l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales les rencontres consacrées depuis plus d’une quinzaine d’années à la modernité politique. Dans le prolongement du séminaire de l’année précédente, la modernité politique est saisie au travers de l’étude de documents qui présentent des enjeux méthodologiques ou épistémologiques particuliers, éclairant l’ensemble du système monarchique. Consacré aux questions relatives à la modernité politique sous l'Ancien Régime, il traitera des dossiers en cours afin de proposer des séances de réflexion à partir de corpus de sources qui soulèvent des problèmes méthodologiques et d'interprétation. Les recherches présentées à partir des fonds d'archives et de la documentation imprimée concerneront essentiellement les thèmes propres à articuler les perspectives de puissance monarchique et de permanence dynastique. Le travail portera sur plusieurs axes permettant d'aborder les usages locaux du pouvoir royal et les principes monarchiques qui sous-tendent sa mise en œuvre. Entre théories politiques et exploitation du domaine royal, jurisconsultes et documents de la pratique, le séminaire s'attachera à comprendre la manière dont l'assise territoriale du pouvoir alimente ou se heurte à l'évolution de la doctrine. Les séances de lecture des textes se conjugueront à d'autres interventions, plus ponctuelles, sur la construction d'un Etat dit « moderne » saisie au travers de la production de ses sources. Principalement centré sur la période des XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, dans un dialogue constant entre historiens et juristes, le séminaire ne se privera pas d'ouvrir vers d'autres champs de la recherche.

Le séminaire se réunit les premiers, troisièmes et le cas échéant cinquièmes jeudis de chaque mois, hors vacances scolaires, à l’EHESS, dans la salle A-4-47 (4e étage, salle 447), au 54 boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris, de 17 à 19 h, du 16 novembre 2023 au 2 mai 2024.

Programme:

• 7 décembre : Elisabeth Kyriakidis, « Parlement et réforme de l'État sous le règne de Louis XIV, à travers l'étude de mémoires de magistrats parisiens »
• 21 décembre : Blandine Hervouet, « Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil, chancelier de Louis XV, d’après ses archives privées »
• 18 janvier : Romain Dubos, « La continuité d'un genre littéraire : les Miroirs du prince de l'époque des Guerres de religion »
• 1er février : Fanny Cosandey, « Famille royale et domaine : positions théoriques à partir de René Choppin »
• 15 février : Pierre Bonin, « Fonder le droit français contre le droit romain, le cours programmatique de François de Launay à la faculté des droits de Paris »
• 29 février : Pierre Bonin, « Enseigner le droit français en pays de droit écrit, le cours de Louis Astruc (1738 ?) »
• 7 mars : Gauthier Puech, « Au service des cérémonies du roi : analyser l’activité des officiers du protocole à la cour de Louis XIV »
• 21 mars : Fanny Cosandey, « Famille royale et domaine : qui possède quoi ? » (I)
• 4 avril : Fanny Cosandey, « Famille royale et domaine : qui possède quoi ? » (II)
• 2 mai : Pierre Bonin, « Du chef d’œuvre comme modèle, donner des règles pour fonder une tradition :  Les reines de Perse aux pieds d’Alexandre de Le Brun »

More information can be found here.

LECTURE SERIES: Helsinki Legal History Series - Autumn semester 2023

 

 

From the organisers: 

We are thrilled to announce an upcoming lecture as part of the Helsinki Legal History Series, featuring the distinguished speaker, Professor Catharine MacMillan from King's College London.

Professor MacMillan will delve into the fascinating realm of legal biography, showcasing its potential as a powerful tool for analyzing legal transfers, with a particular focus on the intriguing life of the lawyer Judah Benjamin.

26.9.2023, 15:00 - Faculty room, Porthania - University of Helsinki

 

For your convenience, this lecture will be accessible for remote attendance via Zoom. If you are unable to join us in person, you can participate online using the following Zoom Meeting details:

 

Meeting ID: 629 0901 4431

Passcode: 086940

SEMINAR SERIES: Helsinki Legal History Series 2023 (9 lectures)

 

During 2023, the CoCoLaw Project and EuroStorie Centre of Excellence will host the Helsinki Legal History Series. The initiative gathers both established scholars and younger researchers who all work at the intersection of law, society and history. The aim is to promote legal historical research and to illustrate the merits of historical approach in analyzing fundamental questions regarding law's embeddedness in society and the mechanisms of legal change. The seminar series consists of 9 lectures at the University of Helsinki and they are all streamed online, according to the following program:

January 31st

National Styles beyond Boarders. A Travelogue of Migrating Legal Stories in the Nineteenth Century

Cristina Vano (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

February 28th

European Union and its founding values – a legal history autopsy

Tuuli Talvinko (University of Helsinki)

March 28th

From the university-based ius commune to a potentially universal law. A lecture in honour of Mireille Delmas- Marty (1941-2022)

Alain Wijffels (KU Leuven)

April 25th

Homesteading and the American Dream

K-Sue Park (Georgetown University)

May 30th

The English ‘Law of Succession’ as an expression of European Legal Culture: The Story of its Development

Reinhard Zimmermann (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law)

September 26th  

Transnational Legal Transfers: the extraordinary life of JP Benjamin QC (1811-1884)

Catharine MacMillan (Kings College London)

October 31st  

The History of Cultural Heritage in International Law

Pauno Soirila (University of Helsinki)

November 28th

Usus Theologicus Pandectarum: The Civilian Tradition in a Theological Context

Wim Decock (UCLouvain)

December 12th  

Tombos: How registering the Past became Normative and Why it Faltered in the Nineteenth Century

Tamar Herzog (Harvard University)

CoCoLaw Project

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/comparing-early-modern-colonial-laws

EuroStorie Centre of Excellence

https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/law-identity-and-the-european-narratives)

REMINDER, LECTURE SERIES: Société d'Histoire du Droit - Paris, 2022-2023

 

Les séances ont lieu à la Salle des Conseils de l’Université Panthéon-Assas, 12 place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris.

More information is available on the website of the Société d'Histoire du Droit, here.

LECTURE SERIES: Société d'Histoire du Droit - Paris, 2022-2023

 

 

Les séances ont lieu à la Salle des Conseils de l’Université Panthéon-Assas, 12 place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris.

More information is available on the website of the Société d'Histoire du Droit, here.

REMINDER LECTURE SERIES: CoCoLaw Series on Colonial Legal History 2022/2 - University of Helsinki (on Zoom)

We have been informed of the following lecture series:

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce and invite you the Autumn Program for the CoCoLaw Series on Colonial Legal History 2022/2. There will be four lectures, one each month from September to December, to discuss the latest investigations about the law enacted on colonial spaces during the early modern period.

For this semester, we will have the following speakers:

15.09 – Brazilian Colonial Law: Theoretical Framework and Contributions - Gustavo Cabral, Universidade Federal do Ceará

11.10 – Latin American Colonial Household as a Normative Sphere - Romina Zamora, Universidad de Tucumán

8.11 – Lawyering in France’s Early Modern Empire - Laurie Wood, Florida State University

13.12 – The Law of the Dutch East Indies. From Ruling a Trading Post to Ruling Territories - Boudewijn Sirks, University of Oxford

All lectures will take place online via Zoom and everyone are welcome to join (Meeting ID 405 3342976, Password 229973).

Kind regards,

CoCoLaw Project - Comparing Early Modern Colonial Laws

University of Helsinki

LECTURE SERIES: CoCoLaw Series on Colonial Legal History 2022/2 - University of Helsinki (on Zoom)

We have been informed of the following lecture series:

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce and invite you the Autumn Program for the CoCoLaw Series on Colonial Legal History 2022/2. There will be four lectures, one each month from September to December, to discuss the latest investigations about the law enacted on colonial spaces during the early modern period.

For this semester, we will have the following speakers:

15.09 – Brazilian Colonial Law: Theoretical Framework and Contributions - Gustavo Cabral, Universidade Federal do Ceará

11.10 – Latin American Colonial Household as a Normative Sphere - Romina Zamora, Universidad de Tucumán

8.11 – Lawyering in France’s Early Modern Empire - Laurie Wood, Florida State University

13.12 – The Law of the Dutch East Indies. From Ruling a Trading Post to Ruling Territories - Boudewijn Sirks, University of Oxford

All lectures will take place online via Zoom and everyone are welcome to join (Meeting ID 405 3342976, Password 229973).

Kind regards,

CoCoLaw Project - Comparing Early Modern Colonial Laws

University of Helsinki

ONLINE SERIES: Method, methodology and critique in international law (Asser Institute, 2020-2021)

  

(image source: Asser)

Description:

In recent decades, the field of international law has seen a multiplication of methodological approaches, a growing variation in methods and a critical reflection on central epistemological and stylistic registers. Changes in the course of the discipline have thereby often been fueled not by new substantive claims in existing (doctrinal, analytical or political) controversies, but through the emergence of different modes of seeing, thinking and writing. The aim of the new Asser lecture and workshop series is to explore various new ways of ‘doing’ international legal scholarship. This includes a focus on the opportunities, pitfall and politics of varying methodological approaches, their embedded epistemological, sociological or philosophical commitments as well as the particular technical crafts they demand. Researchers participating in the workshops will not only gain a better grasp of how to position themselves in an increasingly complex methodological landscape. They will also enhance their understanding of what is at stake in the various ‘turns’ that are continuously performed in international law (such as the ‘turn’ to practice, history, discourse, political economy, critical sociology, materiality, geography or aesthetics to name but a few).

Program:

Programme: 'Method, methodology and critique in international law' 16 December 2020 – 14.00. Introducing the Asser workshop series on method, methodology and critique in international law – Dimitri Van Den Meerssche and Wouter Werner 20 January 2021 – 11.00. Political economy – John Haskell and Ntina Tzouvala 17 February 2021 – 14.00. Historiography – Rose Parfitt and Nehal Bhuta 17 March 2021 – 14.00. Postcolonialism and critical race theory – Luis Eslava and Ayça Çubukçu 21 April 2021 – 14.00. Critical sociology and discourse analysis – Sara Dezalay and Antoine Vauchez 19 May 2021 – 14.00 STS and ANT – Marieke de Goede and Gavin Sullivan 9 June 2021 – 14.00. Legal anthropology and ethnography – Emma Nyhan and Matt Canfield 22 September 2021 – 14.00. Posthumanism and new materialism – Matilda Arvidsson and Sara Kendall 20 October 2021 – 14.00. Critical geography – Nik Rajkovic and Sofia Stolk 17 November 2021 – 14.00. Architecture, space & design – Renske Vos and Amin Parsa 15 December 2021 – 14.00. Aesthetics, affect & emotion – Emily Kidd White and Rebecca Sutton December 2021 (dates tbc) Concluding two-day workshop with keynote speaker Gerry Simpson 

Full program here. 

(source: ESILHIL)

LECTURE SERIES: E-Lectures program 2019-2020, I-HILT, Institute for the History of International Law - Tilburg Law School

(Source: I-HILT )

I-HILT, Institute for the History of International Law @ Tilburg is a group of researchers from the Department of Public Law and Governance at Tilburg Law School, the Netherlands. The group is responsible for teaching several classes on the subject of the history of international law and relations, next to other legal history subjects. I-HILT organizes a series of lectures on the history of international law at the Tilburg Law School.

In the academic year 2019-2020, the I-HILT institute will continue its series of E-lectures. Please feel welcome to attend any of them in real life. Alternatively, you can watch the recording afterwards on this page. The full program and information about the speakers can be found here. 

A short overview of forthcoming lectures:

27 February 2020, 11:00-12:00, CubeZ 222
Maurits den Hollander, Tilburg University
'Insolvency and Economic Misfortune in 17th Century Amsterdam'

12 March 2020, 11:00 -12:00, CubeZ 222
Dr. Ingo Venzke, University of Amsterdam
'Situating Contingency: How International Law Could Have Been'

26 March 2020, 11:00 to 12:00, CubeZ 222
Remko Mooi, Tilburg University
'Protecting the Foreign Creditor: International Insolvency Procedures in Early Modern Frankfurt am Main'

Each lecture will be 40 minutes accompanied by a question and answer period of 20 minutes. Come to one of the lectures (see program above) or simply stream it here!


More information here