BOOK: Thomas DUVE & Tamar HERZOG (eds.), Historia del Derecho de América Latina en Perspectiva Global [Historia del Derecho en América Latina, 1ª Edición] (México: Tirant lo Blanch, 2026), 680 p., ISBN 9788410959361

(image source: Tirant)

Abstract:

Este libro es el resultado de un esfuerzo colectivo de investigadores de América Latina, Europa y los Estados Unidos que se propusieron escribir una historia del Derecho centrada en las experiencias compartidas de las sociedades latinoamericanas a lo largo de un extenso período histórico, iniciado antes de la invasión europea del continente y que se prolonga hasta nuestros días. Su propósito era construir un relato capaz de identificar tendencias comunes, dar cuenta de las profundas transformaciones ocurridas a lo largo de este recorrido e integrar dichos procesos en una perspectiva más amplia. Esta historia «pan-latinoamericana», abordada desde una perspectiva global, muestra cómo América Latina se enfrentó a desafíos similares a los de otras regiones del mundo y cómo los debates surgidos en la región estuvieron con frecuencia vinculados a discusiones que tenían lugar en otros contextos. Los actores latinoamericanos contribuyeron activamente a estas discusiones y de ellas recibieron influencias, inspiración y nuevos marcos de reflexión.

Desde el punto de vista metodológico, los autores privilegian las preguntas sobre las respuestas, los procesos sobre los resultados y los contextos sobre las meras descripciones de soluciones jurídicas. La obra explora dónde, cómo y por qué se materializa el Derecho, quiénes son sus protagonistas y cuáles son los principales escenarios en los que actúa. Asimismo, pone de relieve los múltiples niveles en que opera el fenómeno jurídico y su profunda interrelación con los procesos sociales, políticos, culturales y económicos.

On the author:

Thomas Duve es director del Instituto Max Planck de Historia y Teoría del Derecho, y catedrático en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Goethe de Fráncfort. Es especialista en historia del derecho y sus relaciones con la religión en los imperios ibérico.

Tamar Herzog ocupa la cátedra Monroe Gutman en la Universidad de Harvard. Su principal área de interés es la historia jurídica y social de la península ibérica y sus territorios de ultramar.

Table of contents:

Introducción       
Thomas Duve
Tamar Herzog
1. ¿En qué consiste la Historia del Derecho de América Latina en perspectiva global?
1.1. ¿Cómo se escribió y se escribe la Historia del Derecho de América Latina?        
Carlos Petit
1.2 ¿Qué es la Historia del Derecho y cómo se relaciona con otras Historias?       
Tamar Herzog
1.3. ¿Cómo se produce el Derecho?        
Thomas Duve
1.4. ¿Qué es la Historia del Derecho global y cómo puede llevarse a cabo?        
Mariana Dias Paes
2. ¿Cómo aproximarse al Derecho indígena?
2. ¿Cómo aproximarse al Derecho indígena?        
Caroline Cunill
3. ¿Cómo abordar el Derecho colonial?
3.1. Un Derecho civil para una sociedad religiosa        
Tamar Herzog
3.2. Normatividad religiosa para imperios coloniales        
Thomas Duve
3.3. La esfera doméstica        
Romina Zamora
4. Independencia(s): ¿Qué es un Derecho revolucionario?
4. Independencia(s): ¿Qué es un Derecho revolucionario?        
Tamar Herzog
5. ¿El advenimiento de los Estados? El siglo XIX
5.1. Constituciones        
José María Portillo
5.2. Codificaciones        
Agustín Parise
5.3. Contestaciones y exclusiones        
Monica Dantas
Roberto Saba
6. ¿La omnipresencia del Estado? El siglo XX
6.1. Hacia el Estado Administrativo        
Eduardo Zimmermann
6.2. Dictaduras       
Cristiano Paixão
6.3. Justicia transicional y derechos humanos        
Ruti Teitel
Valeria Vegh Weis
7. Más allá del Estado: ¿Puede sobrevivir el Derecho estatal en el siglo XXI?
7. Más allá del Estado: ¿Puede sobrevivir el Derecho estatal en el siglo XXI?        
Daniel Bonilla Maldonado

Find more on: Tirant. 

BOOK: Benjamin SCHONTHAL, Courts, Constitutions and Karma. Buddhism, Law and the Practices of Legal Pluralism in Sri Lanka [Cambridge Studies in Law & Society, eds. Mark FATHI MASSOUD & Jens MEIERHENRICH] (Cambridge: CUP, 2026)

(image source: CUP)

 Abstract:

Although rarely acknowledged, Buddhist monastics are among the most active lawmakers and jurists in Asia, operating sophisticated networks of courts and constitutions while also navigating—and shaping—secular legal systems. This book provides the first in-depth study of Buddhist monastic law and its entanglements with state law in Sri Lanka from 1800 to the present. Rather than a top-down account of colliding legal orders, Schonthal draws on nearly a decade of archival, ethnographic and empirical research to document the ways that Buddhist monks, colonial officials and contemporary lawmakers reconcile the laws of the Buddha and the laws of the land using practices of legal pluralism. Comparative in outlook and accessible in style, this book not only offers a portrait of Buddhist monastic law in action, it also yields new insights into how societies manage multi-legality and why legal pluralism leads to conflict in some settings and to compromise in others.

Table of contents:

1. Monastic law, state law and the plurality of legal pluralism in Sri Lanka

Part I:

2. The unity and diversity of Buddhist monastic law

3. Jurisdictionalising Buddhism in colonial Ceylon

4. Practising legal pluralism in the monastery

Part II:

5. Like and unlike 'Law': making a monastic judiciary

6. Law's Karmas: Nirvana, rebirth and the cosmological consequences of monastic law

Part III:

7. Legalising' monastic law: the politics of legal recognition in post-colonial Sri Lanka

8. Constitutionalising Vinaya

Conclusion: pluralising legal pluralism

Glossary

References.

On the author:

Benjamin Schonthal, University of Otago, New Zealand

(source: Legal History Blog)

JOURNAL: Comparative Legal History XIV (2026), nr. 1 (Jun)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

SSRN PAPER: Ross E. DAVIES, "A Wig Without a Home: The Comedic Wisdom of Sir Frederick Pollock" Green Bag 2s XXIX (2025)

(image source: Liberty Fund)

 

Abstract:

Frederick Pollock (1845-1937) was the Green Bag’s kind of scholar. The first half of this paper consists of a sketch of his career and character, followed by a closer look at his sense of humor and the roles it played in his work. The second half of the paper is in two sections. First, there is a full republication of the text of a tiny book — a short story by Pollock titled “Queen Titania’s Chancellor”— that for nearly a century sat unnoticed on a bookshelf in the library of the Queen’s Dolls’ at Windsor Castle, until Elizabeth Clark Ashby (Curator of Books and Manuscripts in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle) gave Pollock’s miniature masterpiece some long-overdue and well-deserved attention in her 2024 book (full-sized), “The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House.” Second, there is a close (but incomplete) reading and analysis of that tiny text. If there are any lessons to be drawn from this paper, perhaps they are that greatness need not always be cloaked in dignity, and that Jack Point was not the only wit who could “teach you with a quip, if I’ve a mind” or “trick you into learning with a laugh.”

Read more here: DOI  10.2139/ssrn.6222058.

(source: Law & Humanities Blog) 

BOOK: Anna O. LAW, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship. African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants (Oxford: OUP, 2026), 304 p. ISBN 9780197660096, 19,99 GBP

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Since the late nineteenth century, the US federal government has enjoyed exclusive authority to decide whether someone has the ability to enter and stay in US territory. But freedom of movement was not guaranteed in the British colonies or early US. By contrast, voluntary migrants were met with strict laws and policies created by colonies and states, which denied free mobility and settlement in their territories to unwanted populations. Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship presents a story of constitutional development that traces the confluence of the logics of slavery and settler colonialism in early legal rulings and public policy about migration and citizenship. The book examines the division of labor between the national and state governments that endured for over a century, reasons why that arrangement changed in the late nineteenth century, and what the transformation meant for people subject to those regimes of control. Drawing into one study the migration policy histories of groups of people that are usually studied separately, and combining the methodologies of political science, history, and law, Anna O. Law reveals the unmistakable effects of slavery and Native American dispossession in modern US immigration policy.

Table of contents:

Introduction
1:Sifting Migrants
2:Belonging
3:Migration and Citizenship at the Founding
4:Regulating International Borders
5:Regulating Interstate Borders
6:Formal Citizenship Defined
7:Historical Antecedents and Legal Precedents

Epilogue: Continuity, Change, and Constitutional Memory

 On the author:

is the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights in the Department of Political Science at CUNY Brooklyn College. She completed her PhD in Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her publications appear in political science, history, and law journals and investigate the interaction between law, legal institutions, and politics. Her first book, The Immigration Battle in American Courts (2010), examined the role of the federal judiciary in U.S. immigration. She teaches and researches in U.S. constitutional law, federal courts, U.S. immigration policy history, federalism, American Political Development, and race/ethnicity.

 Read more here.

BOOK: Pierre ALLORANT & Walter BADIER, La Dissolution. De Napoléon à Macron [Épures, ed. Pierre-Henry FRAGNE] (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2026), 144 p. ISBN 9791041310647, € 10

 

(image source: Presses universitaires de Rennes)

Abstract:

La dissolution a souvent été présentée comme un outil nécessaire au contrôle des parlementaires, un instrument utile à la résolution des crises entre l’exécutif et le législatif, et une arme de dissuasion contre l’instabilité gouvernementale. La dissolution remet au peuple le soin de trancher le différend entre les pouvoirs. Porter un regard de longue durée sur cette histoire apparaît indispensable à la compréhension de la crise politique et institutionnelle que nous vivons aujourd’hui. Dispositif absent des constitutions révolutionnaires, la dissolution apparaît avec Bonaparte, mais n’est utilisée qu’avec les monarchies censitaires du premier XIXe siècle. Longtemps perçue comme incompatible avec la République parlementaire, la dissolution est écartée entre 1877 et 1955. La crise actuelle incite à repenser la Ve République, conçue par Michel Debré pour le général de Gaulle en 1958.

Read more on the publisher's website. 

SSRN PAPER: Alli ORR LARSEN & Thomas MCSWEENEY, "Medieval Treatises and the Judicial Search for a Useable Past" (Willam & Mary Law School Research Paper nr. 09-514)

 

(image source: SSRN)

Abstract:

The Supreme Court’s recent turn to history and tradition has prompted a renewed interest in the far distant past – the laws and customs of the Middle Ages. But medieval treatises are full of traps for the unwary. This article – a joint enterprise between a medieval legal historian and a Supreme Court scholar – carefully explores what makes these treatises uniquely complicated and easy to get wrong. To start, they are written in Latin and, sometimes, Old French. In many instances, the underlying medieval decisions they reference are destroyed and gone forever. Because there was no photocopier or even printing press back then, treatises often come in competing versions reflecting not only multiple authors but also successive copyists who made substantive changes. And legal texts were just different in the thirteenth century. Treatises were used for purposes as diverse as passing on cultural values, advising rulers on how to govern, and even teaching people the ideals of friendship. Put simply: medieval law is hard to find, hard to read, and even harder to put into context. For the American judge or law clerk who is strapped for time but wants to make a point about a long tradition, the understandable temptation is to reach for an authority like a medieval treatise that feels familiar. After all, modern legal treatises (think Wright and Miller) are recognized as trustworthy authorities to cite. And today translated versions of medieval treatises are easy to find digitally. But that ease of access and familiarity of authority are illusory. Often the very things that make these medieval texts feel familiar to modern readers would have made them idiosyncratic to thirteenth century audiences. Our goal in this article is to raise the caution flag for judicial consumption of medieval treatises: a user-friendly useable past can lead modern lawyers and jurists astray and should not be consumed without scrutiny and care.

Read more here: DOI 10.2139/ssrn.6276360.

(source: Law & Humanities Blog)

BOOK: Ignacio DE LA RASILLA, Jiangyu WANG & Congyan CAI (eds.), Histories of International Law in China All Under Heaven? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026), 688 p. ISBN 9780198888345, 170 GBP

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Histories of International Law in China: All Under Heaven? offers a groundbreaking exploration of China's engagement with international law over the past two centuries. Written by an interdisciplinary group of international law scholars and legal historians, it provides a longue durée perspective, revealing both enduring patterns and profound shifts in China's approach to the global legal order. Beginning with China's millennia-old Sino-centric worldview-rooted in the Confucian concept of Tianxia (All under Heaven)-the book traces China's evolving relationship with international law from its period of isolation to its forced entry into the Western legal system during the First Opium War (1839-1842). It examines the transformation of China's legal landscape through the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1911), the Republican era (1912-1949), and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949). The book explores China's relationship with international law from 1949-including through the Cultural Revolution-until the 'reform and opening-up' era and the end of the Cold War. Histories of International Law in China sheds light on often-overlooked historical episodes and key conceptual legacies shaping China's approach to the international legal order. A unique feature is its curated biographies, including multiple long-forgotten or invisible protagonists, such as pioneering women in the history and theory of international law and China. Engagingly written and meticulously researched, this volume offers invaluable insights for legal scholars and researchers interested in understanding China's historical and contemporary role in shaping and making international law.

Table of contents:

I. National Histories of International Law
1.:Histories of International Law in China: An Introduction, Ignacio de la Rasilla, Jiangyu Wang
2.:China and the Turn to the National in the History of International Law, Ignacio de la Rasilla
II. Before and Beyond the Encounter: From Sino-Centric Isolation to Defensive Acculturation to International Law
3.:International Law in China: From Ancient Times to the Encounter, Xinyu Huang
4.:The Opium Wars, Extraterritoriality and International Drug Control, Inge Van Hulle
5.:China's Early Insertion in International Law Through the Protection of its Nationals Abroad: The Rock Springs Massacre, Mimetism and External State Building, Frédéric Mégret & Wanshu Cong
6.:Lost and Found in Translation: How Europeanized International Law Became Universalized in Modern China, Wensheng Qu & Li Wan
7.:'Unequal' Relations between China, Korea, and Japan: The 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki and Extradition Treaties, Masaharu Yanagihara
8.:A History of Italian Colonialism in China at the Turn of the 20th century, Luigi Nuzzo
9.:China, the Western Standard of Civilization and The Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, Mingqian Li
III. International Law in China during the Republican Period
10.:The Republic of China and the League of Nations, Ryan Martinez Mitchell
11.:Professionalizing International Law in China During the Republican, Pasha L. Hsieh
12.:The Introduction of Soviet Theory of International Law to China: How Chinese International Lawyers Turned to Marxism, Congyan Cai and Jie Liu
13.:In the Garden of Gethsemane: US-Sino Relations in the History of International Law during the Republican Period, Christopher R. Rossi
IV. International Law in China from the New China to the Opening-Up and Reform Process
14.:China's International Law and the 'Third World' during the Revolutionary Period (1949-1978), Ignacio de la Rasilla
15.:China, the Cold War and International Law, Jiangyu Wang
16.:Towards a Principle-based International Order? the Origin of China's International Law Vocabulary in the 1950s-1960s, Yifeng Chen
17.:Two Empires: China, Russia and the Soviet Union in the History of International Law, Lauri Mälksoo
18.:China and International Law during the Cultural Revolution and Its Aftermath, Straton Papagianneas
19.:Human Rights and Democracy for All under Heaven in China: Historical Engagements with Two Challenging Principles, Eva Pils
20.:The Decolonization of Hong Kong: from the Unequal Treaties to the Basic Law, Fen Ling
21.:China's Evolving (Re-)Engagement with International Law: From the "Reform and Opening to the Outside World" to Building "Foreign-Related Rule of Law", Jacques deLisle
V. Chinese Historical Portraits in International Law
22.:Wang Chung-hui (1881-1958), Yang Liu
23.:Wellington Koo' (1888-1985), Maria Adele Carrai
24.:Zhou Gengsheng (1889-1971), Chao Wang and Guoqiang Luo
25.:Hsiang Che-chun (1892-1987), Zenghua Zhuo
26.:Li Haopei (1906-1997), Guoyong Zou and Li Jue
27.:Ni Zhengyu (1906-2003), Yayezi Hao & Hong Yu
28.:Han Depei (1911-2009), Yongping Xiao & Jue Li
29.:Wang Tieya (1913-2003), Ken Yang
30.:Qiu Shaoheng (1913-2009), Chao Wang
31.:Zhao Lihai (1916-1996), Ken Yang
32.:Chen Ti-Chiang (1917-1983), Xiaobin Xu
33.:Chinese Women in the Histories of International Law: Forgotten Names and Unfamiliar Paths, Ken Yang

Read more here. 

BOOK: Benoît CARRÉ, Distribuer l’argent du roi au XVIIIe siècle. La monarchie dévoilée (Villeneuve d'Asq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2025), ISBN 978-2-7574-4486-3 [OPEN ACCESS]

(image souce: OpenEdition)

 

Abstract:

Under the Ancien Régime, the finances of the King of France were shrouded in secrecy until the famous Necker decided to publish estimates of the monarchy’s income and, above all, expenditure. The public then discovered the staggering amount of the pensions that Louis XVI was paying to a large proportion of the nobility. At the time of the Revolution, the National Assembly decided to investigate and revealed the way in which public funds derived from tax coercion had been used to subsidise courtiers. This book tells the story both of the investigation and of the object investigated. By describing for the first time, using unpublished archives, the uses of this social practice that linked the king to the nobility, the author casts a new light on the forces behind the final crisis of the Ancien Régime and traces the genesis of the first retirement system for the State civil service.

On the author:

Chercheur en histoire moderne, spécialiste de l’Ancien Régime et de la Révolution. Il est docteur de l’université de Lille depuis 2018. Distribuer l’argent du roi au xviiie siècle. La monarchie dévoilée est son premier livre.

Read the book here: DOI  10.4000/14c77.

CLH ARTICLE: William PARTLETT, Constitutional nationalism and remembered history: the post-Soviet example (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 2 (December), pp. 277-305)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

Abstract:

This article will argue that national history can further the project of constitutional self-government even in formerly authoritarian countries. Examining the former Soviet republics, it will describe how remembering forgotten or suppressed democratic constitutional ideas and arguments from national history can help support the project of constitutional self-government. This form of ‘constitutional nationalism’ counters arguments that constitutional self-government is a project of convergence with western best practices. It instead links it to long-standing national struggles to adapt the balanced constitution of constitutional self-government to the national context. ‘Constitutional nationalism’ therefore relies on a different approach to history. Rather than understanding national history in countries with a long history of authoritarianism as something to ignore or overcome, it views this history as a potential source of (often suppressed) ideas and inspiration for helping the project of constitutional self-government today.

To read the article, please click here. Online access is free for members of the European Society for Comparative Legal History.

DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2579474

BOOK: Domenico DI MICCO, Mario RIBERI & Matteo TRAVERSO (eds.), Puccini in law [Quaderni del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell'Università di Torino] (Torino: Università di Torino & Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2026), p. 440, ISBN: 9788849561777, € 80

(image source: ESI)

Descrizione: 

In occasione del centenario pucciniano, questo volume esplora e ricostruisce il sorprendente intreccio che, tra diritto e melodramma, attraversa le opere di Giacomo Puccini.

Dalla corruzione del potere nella Tosca alle asprezze coloniali di Manon Lescaut, dal conflitto tra ordinamenti in Madama Butterfly all’assenza di istituzioni ne La fanciulla del West, fino alla satira giuridica di Gianni Schicchi e alla crudeltà normativa di Turandot, i saggi qui raccolti – già relazioni al convegno Puccini in Law (2024), organizzato dai curatori del presente volume in collaborazione con il Teatro Regio di Torino e il MAO, Museo di Arti orientali, grazie al sostegno e con il patrocinio del Dipartimento di giurisprudenza dell’Università di Torino – mostrano come il diritto, lungi dall’essere un semplice accessorio della trama, plasmi i destini e le relazioni della società, in un eterno gioco di specchi tra palcoscenico e reale.

I curatori:

Domenico Di Micco, PhD, è docente e ricercatore in diritto privato comparato presso il Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell’Università di Torino.

Mario Riberi, PhD, è uno storico del diritto medievale e moderno, docente presso il Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell’Università degli Studi di Torino.

Matteo Traverso, PhD, è uno storico del diritto medievale e moderno, docente presso il Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell’Università degli Studi di Torino.

Indice:

Introduzione 

Parte I
Puccini, Law, Gender and Society

Giovanni Chiodi
Puccini by Callas: un binomio rivoluzionario

Ida Ferrero
Manon Lescaut e la scuola positiva 

Damigela Hoxha
Una fragile impudicizia. Donne e leggi dell’onore nelle opere pucciniane 

Federico Fornoni
Le conseguenze di un contratto da operetta: la «strana avventura» della Rondine 

Parte II
Puccini tra diritto privato e diritto penale

Geo Magri
Tra codice e pentagramma: il diritto privato come elemento narrativo in Giacomo Puccini 

Valerio Massimo Minale
Asrael (1888) tra Le Villi (1884) ed Edgar (1889): Ferdinando Fontana librettista e il patto giuridico “al soprannaturale” 

Domenico Di Micco
Scarpia. Il suono di un terribile diritto 

Matteo Francisetti Brolin
La fanciulla del West: noterelle semi giuridiche in materia di pena, perdono e redenzione 

Francesco Serpico
Un tragico destino. Classi lavoratrici e “classi pericolose” ne Il tabarro 

Davide Dimodugno
Suor Angelica: il suicidio tra teologia e diritto 

Valerio Gigliotti
Testando e dando al testamento norma (Inf. XXX, 45). La ricezione della figura di Gianni Schicchi nella letteratura e nell’opera buffa 

Filippo Annunziata
Gianni Schicchi: una “fedele” ricostruzione di un “falso” testamento medievale 

Paolo Giani Cei
Mettere in scena Puccini. Tra Vero e Verismo 

Andrea Pennini
Nella storia, con la storia. Puccini autore del suo tempo 

Laura Facchin, Massimo Ferrario
Luigi Morgari e le scenografie delle “prime” pucciniane 

Alberto Maria Tedoldi
“Chi ti ha mandato? Dio?”. Il tenore pucciniano par excellence: Enrico Caruso 

Niccolò Palazzetti
Il lambrusco e lo champagne. Giacomo Puccini e il loggione del Teatro Regio di Parma nel secondo Novecento 

Mario Riberi
Puccini, riflessi sul grande e sul piccolo schermo 

Parte IV
Puccini tra Oriente e globalizzazione

Giorgio Fabio Colombo
Il Giappone di Puccini tra scoperta e Legal Orientalism 

Matteo Traverso
Gli enigmi del diritto: Turandot tra Antigone e Lombroso 

Vittoria Trifiletti
Ultimare l’incompiuta? Da Puccini ai Beatles, da Alfano all’AI 

Alberto Oddenino
Puccini e globalizzazione: un duetto

Find more on ESI.

BOOK SERIES: History, law & legal history (Palermo: Palermo University Press) [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: unipapress)

The University of Palermo Press showcases its open access book series History, law and legal history. Several titles are available:

• Raimondo SANTORO, Per la storia dell’obligatio
• Mario VARVARO (ed.), L’eredità di Salvatore Riccobono
• Antonio LINDINER, Credito immobiliare ai consumatori e obblighi di condotta degli intermediari
• Ulrico AGNATI & Mario VARVARO (eds.), Religion, Ideology, Politics, and Law. A Multidisciplinary Approach in the Frame of European History
• Anna Maria GIOMARO & Maria Luisa BICCARI, Sulle regulae iuris fra I e III secolo: Paolo commenta Plauzio
• Ornella SPATARO, Sindacato di legittimità costituzionale e legalità penale

Read further here.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: “Great Little Ideas” – Corpus Christi Graduate Legal Research Course (Oxford: Corpus Christi College, September 2026)

(image source: Corpus Christi College)

Applications are now open for the Great Little Ideas: Corpus Christi Graduate Legal Research Course, which will take place at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 1 to 27 September 2026.

The research-led course is designed for graduate law students working on a PhD or equivalent legal research project and aims to support participants in developing a “Great Little Idea” — whether a chapter of a thesis, a broader doctoral theme, or another focused legal research question worth pursuing.

The course is a non-degree academic opportunity resulting in a certificate of completion and seeks to foster independent legal research through seminars, discussion, and engagement with Oxford’s intellectual environment.

Participants will benefit from:

• seminars on research methods and the craft of legal scholarship delivered by College Law Fellows;

• extensive access to Oxford library resources;

• access to Corpus Christi College facilities; and

• opportunities to engage with the broader academic atmosphere of Oxford.

The course further aims to strengthen participants’ abilities in:

• analysing and refining abstract legal questions;
• constructing and critically assessing complex arguments;
• advancing significant research and writing projects; and
• developing academic communication and presentation skills.

The participation fee is £375, while accommodation at a College property is available separately for £50.25 per night (inclusive of VAT).

Applications are open to graduate research students working on a PhD or equivalent legal topic. The organisers particularly encourage applications from candidates from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds.

Applicants should submit:

• a short CV (maximum 4 pages), and
• a statement of up to 500 words describing their “Great Little Idea” and explaining why the Oxford course would be an appropriate setting for its development.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 8 June 2026. Applications and informal inquiries should be directed to Professor Matt Dyson (matthew.dyson@law.ox.ac.uk).

More information is available via the official announcement by Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS: 9th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History: Transition and Transfers (Lund: Lund University, 21-23 JUN 2027) [DEADLINE 31 OCT 2026]

 

The organisers and the Executive Council of the European Society for Comparative Legal History are pleased to call for papers and posters for the upcoming European Society for Comparative Legal History 9th Biennial Conference to be held from 21 to 23 June 2027 at Lund University, Sweden.

The conference series started in Valencia (2010), followed by Amsterdam (2012), Macerata (2014), Gdansk (2016), Paris (2018), Lisbon (2022), Augsburg (2023), andSzeged (2025). The 2027 conference is hosted by the Olin Foundation for Legal History and supported by the Faculty of Law at Lund University.

The theme of the conference is ”Transitions and Transfers.” We are living in a time of unpredictability and changes, and this gives reason to pay attention to periods of transition in history. How and why did changes occur, who were the proponents and opponents? Changes in legal history have often had elements of transfer. Sometimes, legal needs have been met through drawing inspiration from other legal systems. On other occasions, legal rules have been imposed on other systems.

The papers, panels, and posters offered should deal with either transitions or transfers, or both. They should engage in dialogue with aspects of law across time and/or space that are of interest for comparative legal historians.

To offer a paper, please submit an abstract of up to 400 words. The abstract should include the title of your proposed paper and your personal data (full name, email address, work affiliation). Please also send a short CV (no more than 400 words). Anyone at any stage in their research career can offer a paper.

Abstracts will be assessed against: (1) the aim to have a diverse conference; (2) the novelty of the work; and (3) a professionally grounded proposal including a description ofthe methodology and most important sources, and a concise description of the expected research results.

It is also possible to submit a proposal for a complete panel. Panels normally consist of three papers. A panel proposal should – in addition to the abstracts and CVs of those who wish to present a paper in that panel – include an abstract for the entire panel, as well as a CV of the panel organizer.

Further, it is possible to submit a proposal for a poster. To offer a proposal for a poster, please submit an abstract of up to 400 words. The abstract should include the title of your project and your personal data (full name, email address, work affiliation). Please also send a short CV (no more than 400 words). 

Anyone at any stage in their research career can propose a poster. Accepted participants will be asked to submit to the organisers a PDF file in size A0 with the poster design, and the posters will be printed in Lund.

One author may only propose to give one paper or present one poster at the conference in order to allow as many people as possible to present their work.

All submissions – for papers, panels, and posters – should be in English and be sent to ESCLH2027@jur.lu.se, no later than 31 October 2026.

The list of accepted papers, panels, and posters will be announced by December 2026.

A conference website will be launched with further details of the conference in the autumn of 2026. The conference website will also contain information on the attendance fee for those not members of the ESCLH, and transport to and from Lund. The conference website will allow registration for the conference, starting early in 2027. Finally, the conference will be preceded by a PhD-workshop on 21 June 2027. Further information about the workshop will also be published in the autumn of 2026.

BOOK: John MARRIOTT, Land, Law and Empire. The Origins of British Territorial Power in India (Cambrige: CUP, 2025), ISBN 9781009602099, € 32,68

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

In this innovative exploration of British rule in India, John Marriott tackles one of the most significant and unanswered questions surrounding the East India Company's success. How and when was an English joint stock company with trading interests in the East Indies transformed into a fully-fledged colonial power with control over large swathes of the Indian subcontinent? The answer, Marriott argues, is to be found much earlier than traditionally acknowledged, in the territorial acquisitions of the seventeenth century secured by small coteries of English factors. Bringing together aspects of cultural, legal and economic theory, he demonstrates the role played by land in the assembly of sovereign power, and how English discourses of land and judicial authority confronted the traditions of indigenous peoples and rival colonial authorities. By 1700, the Company had established the sites of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, providing the practical foothold for further expansion.

Read the book here: DOI 10.1017/9781009602099