CALL FOR PAPERS: Oral sources and Non-traditional legal sources [45th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society] (Christchurch, New Zealand: University of Canterbury, 3-5 DEC 2026) [DEADLINE 20 JUL 2026]

(Image source: University of Canterbury, https://www.canterbury.ac.nz)

Dates:  3 – 5 December 2026

Location: The University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Conference theme: ‘Oral sources and Non-traditional legal sources’

Legal historians have traditionally looked to cases, statutes, and juristic literature. Yet the history of law has never been confined to such conventional legal sources. The use of oral sources and non-traditional materials raise important methodological questions for legal historians: what counts as a legal source? and how might law and history be written differently?

The 2026 conference theme invites consideration of oral sources and non-traditional legal sources, in every sense, in the context of law and history. Some conference streams will focus specifically on oral sources, including oral testimony, oral history, memory, storytelling, folklore, and intergenerational transmission. The theme invites participants to reconsider the sources of law and history.

Oral sources are especially important for histories of Indigenous law. We invite papers on tikanga Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customary law, and practices grounded in kinship, place, obligation, authority, and procedure. Such work may examine how colonial legal systems have misunderstood, appropriated, suppressed, or transformed Indigenous legal knowledge.

The conference also invites engagement with non-traditional legal sources more broadly, including newspapers, petitions, letters, council decisions, archival records, folklore, family histories, demographic material, and socio-economic data. Newspapers, for example, were forums in which trials were reported, in which the reputations of parties could be sensationalised, and by which communities could engage with the law. In essence, newspapers and other non-traditional sources can illuminate how law was experienced in everyday life.

This conference invites participants to explore oral and non-traditional legal sources. Themes may include: the challenges of using oral and non-traditional sources; customary law; the relationship between memory and the law; and the role of non-traditional sources to explore law and society.

Papers are welcome from all periods, jurisdictions, disciplines, and methodological approaches. We also welcome papers that are outside of the conference theme.

This conference is a co-hosted event supported by Monash University and the University of Canterbury.

Call for Paper Guidelines

On behalf of ANZLHS, the Conference Organising Committee cordially invites papers from any period or geographical area, and from all disciplines and fields, including but not limited to law, legal theory, history, political science, indigenous studies, gender studies and law and literature.

Papers are invited on any topic, but the conference organisers particularly welcome abstracts addressing the conference theme of ‘Oral Sources and Non-Traditional Legal Sources’.

Please note presenters must be members of ANZLHS before their papers are presented. You can join or renew here: https://anzlhs.org/join-us/.

An Early Career Researcher (ECR) session will be held on Thursday 3 December 2026. Details will follow.

If you are an ECR, please indicate your interest in attending the session when submitting your abstract. Graduate students may apply for Kercher Scholarships to support their attendance at the conference. Please contact the Organising Committee at anzlhs2026@gmail.com by Monday 6 July 2026 to express interest in this scholarship. Graduate students and other ECRs may also wish to enter for the Forbes Society Prize (see https://anzlhs.org/francis-forbes-society-for-australian-legal-history-annual-prize/). Please notify the conference conveners of your intention to apply for the scholarship at the time of submitting your abstract.

The Society’s peer-reviewed journal law&history (see https://anzlhs.org/journal/) will consider submissions from those who present papers at the conference.

Registration details and accommodation options in Christchurch will follow.

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words and should be accompanied by a short biography (100 words). Panel submissions are also warmly encouraged. Submissions should be sent to anzlhs2026@gmail.com.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts by Monday 20 July 2026. Acceptances will be communicated by 17 August 2026.

AWARD: Honorary Doctorate for Prof. em. dr. Jean-Louis HALPÉRIN (ENS Paris) (Edinburg: University of Edinburgh, 8 JUL 2026)

 

(image: Edinburgh: source: Wikimedia Commons)

The University of Edinburgh decided to award an honorary doctorate to Prof. em. dr. Jean-Louis HALPÉRIN (ENS Paris). The ceremony took place on 8 July 2026.

(source: University of Edinburgh)

CALL FOR PAPERS: „Junge Juristen entlang der Donau" - Rechtsvergleichende Konferenz zwischen den Donauregionen, Győr, 16-18. November 2026, Deadline for applications: 25. August 2026

 

Call for papers – Aufruf zur Einreichung von Beiträgen

„Junge Juristen entlang der Donau“
Rechtsvergleichende Konferenz zwischen den Donauregionen
Győr, 16.–18. November 2026

Veranstaltungsort:
Széchenyi István Universität Győr

Organisatoren:
Deák Ferenc Fakultät für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaften der Széchenyi Universität Győr, Magyar-Német Ifjúságért Egyesület – Deutsch-Ungarisches Jugendwerk e.V., Institut für Ostrecht

Partner:
Universität Regensburg, Universität Passau, Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hof, Universität Augsburg, Universität Wien, Andrássy Universität Budapest, Deutsch-Ungarischer Jugendrat

Das Deutsch-Ungarische Jugendwerk hat letztes Jahr das erste Deutsch-Ungarische Jugendparlament veranstaltet. Dieses Jugendparlament hat sich u.a. die Realisierung eines juristischen Forschungsprojekts für Jugendliche entlang der Donau zum Ziel gesetzt. Das Jugendwerk möchte dieses Vorhaben mit den Partneruniversitäten Regensburg, Augsburg, Passau, Wien, Győr und der Andrássy Universität Budapest sowie der Hochschule Hof und dem vom Jugendwerk gegründeten Deutsch-Ungarischen Jugendrat verwirklichen und so junge Rechtsstudierende zusammenbringen, um gemeinsam ein Verständnis für die verwandten Rechtssysteme zu erarbeiten.

Die Rechtsordnungen Deutschlands, Österreichs und Ungarns teilen gemeinsame europäische Ideen und Wurzeln, weisen jedoch in ihrer Struktur und der aktuellen rechtspolitischen Dynamik deutliche Unterschiede auf. Diese Unterschiede werden in der öffentlichen Debatte häufig diskutiert, während ein direkter fachlicher Austausch zwischen jungen Studierenden bislang nur vereinzelt stattfand. Insbesondere mit Blick auf gesamteuropäische Herausforderungen besteht ein wachsender Bedarf an Verständnis für die jeweiligen Systeme sowie an rechtsvergleichender Expertise. Diese rechtsvergleichende Konferenz bietet eine multilaterale Plattform, um einen strukturierten und wissenschaftlich fundierten Austausch zu ermöglichen.

In diesem Rahmen können unter Anleitung der fachlichen Experten und Expertinnen mehrere Rechtssysteme der Vergleichenden Rechtswissenschaft erarbeitet und nachvollzogen werden. Dadurch sollen außerdem die rechtsvergleichenden Kompetenzen der Teilnehmenden gestärkt sowie eine zukünftige Netzwerk-Plattform geboten werden.

Ziel der Organisatoren ist auch die spätere wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Ergebnisse der Konferenz. Damit dient die Veranstaltung nicht nur als fachliches Treffen, sondern auch als Ausgangspunkt einer längerfristigen wissenschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit und eines jungen Juristennetzwerks.

Die Organisatoren halten es für wichtig, den wissenschaftlichen Dialog durch die Einbeziehung von Vertretern verschiedener wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen und geografischer Regionen, die mit dem breiten Thema in Verbindung stehen, zu stärken. Dabei ist es ein wesentliches Ziel, auch den interdisziplinären Austausch zu fördern und Perspektiven aus verschiedenen Rechtsgebieten, der Politik sowie den benachbarten Disziplinen zu eröffnen.

Das Programm der Konferenz baut auf thematischen Sektionen auf, in denen die jungen Teilnehmenden ihre Forschungen in Form von Kurzvorträgen präsentieren können.

Ausgewählte Schwerpunktthemen – Titel der Sektionen

1. Welchen Rahmen setzen die Verfassungen für die internationale Kooperation entlang der Donau?
   – Prof. Dr. Dr. Herbert Küpper, Andrássy Universität Budapest, Institut für Ostrecht (Regensburg)
2. In der Tradition des ius commune: vom römischen Recht zum heutigen Privatrecht in Europa.
   – Prof. Dr. Sebastian Martens, Universität Passau
3. Die Grenzen der Plattformregulierung in der Europäischen Union – ein ausgewogenes Verhältnis zwischen Meinungsfreiheit, Marktmacht sowie digitaler Verantwortung und Souveränität.
   – Prof. Dr. Beatrix Weber, Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hof
4. Gleiche Regeln, unterschiedliche Gesellschaften: die Umsetzung der UN-völkerrechtlichen Konventionen in verschiedenen Ländern.
   – Dr. László Knapp, Széchenyi István Universität Győr
5. Strafe vs. Entrechtung – Rechte des Gefangenen im Strafvollzug, in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
   – Prof. Dr. Arnd Koch, Universität Augsburg
6. Minderheitenrecht mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Rechtsstatus von Vertriebenen in Ungarn und in Deutschland nach dem II. Weltkrieg.
   – Prof. Dr. Miloš Vec, Universität Wien

Wir sind auf der Suche nach Beiträgen, die sich aus möglichst vielfältigen fachlichen Blickwinkeln heraus den Sektionsthemen nähern. Das geplante Forschungssymposium bietet Gelegenheit, aktuelle Forschungsarbeiten zu den Themenfeldern der jeweiligen Sektionen zu präsentieren und zu diskutieren.

Teilnahmebedingungen

Der Aufruf zur Einreichung von Abstracts richtet sich an Studierende und junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, die am Anfang ihrer akademischen Karriere stehen. So freuen wir uns auf Einreichungen von Studierenden und Promovierenden zwischen 18 und 35 Lebensjahren.

Für die Vorträge sind jeweils Zeitfenster von 15–20 Minuten vorgesehen, den Vorträgen folgt eine fachliche Diskussion. Die Präsentationen finden auf Deutsch statt. (Wir bieten ungarischen Muttersprachlern die Möglichkeit, komplexe Fragen mithilfe eines Übersetzers zu beantworten.)

Anschließend ist eine Publikation in Form einer wissenschaftlichen Studie (25.000–40.000 Zeichen) geplant, die die Konferenzergebnisse zusammenfasst.

Die Veröffentlichungen werden voraussichtlich in den folgenden Fachzeitschriften erscheinen:

• Studien des Instituts für Ostrecht
• Schriftenreihe der Universität Győr
• Hofer Schriften zum Recht in Nachhaltigkeit, Compliance und IT (Sektion 3)

Geplanter Ablauf (Stand 08.07.2026, Änderungen vorbehalten)

Montag, 16.11.2026

• am Nachmittag individuelle Anreise der Teilnehmer
• anschließend Stadtführung und Get-together (VIP-Abendessen)

Dienstag, 17.11.2026

• 10:00–10:30 Uhr: Begrüßung
• 10:30–11:30 Uhr: Keynotes – Eröffnende wissenschaftliche Vorträge
  • Dr. Márta Görög, Justizministerin von Ungarn (angefragt)
  • Georg Eisenreich MdL, Staatsminister der Justiz (angefragt)
• 12:00–13:30 Uhr: Mittagspause
• 13:30–17:30 Uhr: Vorträge der jungen Studierenden und Promovierenden sowie Austausch in den jeweiligen Sektionen

Mittwoch, 18.11.2026

• am Vormittag individuelle Abreise der Teilnehmer

Unterkunft, Verpflegung und Reisekosten

Für Unterkunft und Verpflegung während der Konferenz ist gesorgt. Die Reisekosten werden nach der Konferenz erstattet und können in folgender Höhe übernommen werden:

• Teilnehmende aus Deutschland: bis maximal 250 €
• Teilnehmende aus Österreich: bis maximal 100 €
• Teilnehmende aus Ungarn: bis maximal 25 €

Wir empfehlen ausdrücklich die Anreise mit nachhaltigen Verkehrsmitteln wie Zug oder Fernbus. Wir können leider keine Kostenerstattung bei der Anreise mit dem Auto übernehmen.

Bitte beachten Sie außerdem, dass der Abschluss einer ausreichenden Kranken-, Haftpflicht- und Unfallversicherung sowie die Gültigkeit der benötigten Ausweisdokumente (Personalausweis/Reisepass) in der Verantwortung der Teilnehmenden liegen.

Bewerbung

Bitte senden Sie bis zum 25. August 2026 ein Abstract (max. 500 Wörter, Kurzbeschreibung des Forschungsprojekts und thematische Zuordnung zu einem der genannten Schwerpunkte) sowie eine kurze Biografie (max. 100 Wörter) an die E-Mail-Adresse:

donaukonf@sze.hu

Eine Rückmeldung über die Teilnahme erfolgt bis Mitte September.

Wir freuen uns auf interessante Vortragsideen und darauf, Sie im Herbst 2026 in Győr begrüßen zu können. Bei Rückfragen zur Ausschreibung stehen wir Ihnen unter donaukonf@sze.hu zur Verfügung!

Deák Ferenc Fakultät für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaften der Széchenyi Universität Győr

Magyar-Német Ifjúságért Egyesület – Deutsch-Ungarisches Jugendwerk e.V.

Institut für Ostrecht

 

NEW RESOURCE AND COMMUNITY INVITATION: Oxford Bibliographies in Legal History

 
(image: Chained books in Duke Humfrey’s Library, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Photo: Philip Opher. Source: History of the Bodleian illustrated brochure, p. 8).

Oxford University Press has launched Oxford Bibliographies in Legal History, a new online resource edited by Gautham Rao.

The project aims to provide scholars and students with authoritative guides to the central themes, methods, and literature of legal history. According to Oxford University Press, the field of legal history now encompasses not only courts, lawyers, and doctrine, but also institutions, governance, power relations, social and family relations, identities, ideology, and the lived experiences of social, religious, and cultural minorities.

Oxford Bibliographies in Legal History forms part of the broader Oxford Bibliographies platform, a curated collection of research guides that is continuously updated by a community of scholars and researchers. The Legal History module is intended to offer accessible introductions, selected bibliographies, and guidance on both classic and recent scholarship in the field.

Oxford University Press also invites members of the wider academic community to become involved in the project. Authors, scholars, librarians, and students are encouraged to contribute, provide insights and recommendations, or contact the editorial team with questions and suggestions.

The Editorial Board is headed by Gautham Rao as Editor-in-Chief. The Area Editors are Alison L. Lefkovitz (Rutgers), Keramet Reiter (University of California Irvine), Mattias Åhrén (Lund University), Teri McMurty-Chubb (University of Illinois Chicago), and Tamar Herzog (Harvard University).

Those interested in contributing or contacting the editorial team may write to: LegalHistory.OxBib@oup.com

More information is available on Oxford Academic.

BOOK: Lucien RIGAUX, La solidarité en Belgique. Une histoire des mécanismes juridiques de redistribution entre personnes et territoires (Wavre: Anthémis, 2026), 660 p. ISBN 978-2-8072-1598-6, € 119

(image source: Anthémis)

On the author:

Pourquoi payons-nous des impôts ? Pourquoi la solidarité est-elle devenue un droit… et une obligation ? De la charité volontaire à l’État social, cet ouvrage retrace l’histoire fascinante de la solidarité en Belgique et interroge son avenir à l’heure des crises, du fédéralisme et de la mondialisation. Aux origines de nos impôts, de notre sécurité sociale et des transferts entre territoires : un principe essentiel, celui de la solidarité. Comment la Belgique est-elle passée d’un modèle de charité libre et volontaire à un régime de solidarité structuré, fondé sur des droits et des obligations ? Quels événements, quels choix politiques et économiques ont façonné notre système de redistribution entre personnes et entre territoires ? Issu d’une thèse de doctorat en droit saluée pour son originalité et la richesse de sa documentation historique, juridique et économique, cet ouvrage retrace les grandes transformations de la solidarité en Belgique, des origines aux défis contemporains. Lucien Rigaux explore les moments de ruptures – crises économiques, guerres, montée du libéralisme, revendications nationalistes – qui ont redéfini les contours de la redistribution, tout en mettant en lumière les dynamiques paradoxales qui traversent l’État belge : désintégration fédérale d’un côté, intégration européenne de l’autre. À travers une plongée passionnante dans les mécanismes fiscaux, les dispositifs de sécurité sociale et les transferts interterritoriaux, l’auteur interroge les rapports entre capacités contributives et besoins sociaux, tout en se livrant à l’exercice ambitieux de mettre en perspective la solidarité interpersonnelle et la solidarité interterritoriale. À travers l’étude des régimes de solidarité, il offre ainsi une lecture vivante et nuancée de l’histoire sociale, économique et institutionnelle de la Belgique, et surtout une réflexion plus large sur le rôle de la redistribution dans une économie de marché mondialisée où les interdépendances se renforcent, mais où persistent des défis majeurs : concurrence fiscale, soutenabilité des systèmes sociaux, replis identitaires et quête de justice sociale. Destiné aux juristes, économistes, chercheurs en sciences sociales ainsi qu’à tout lecteur curieux de comprendre les inégalités et les outils dont nos sociétés disposent pour y répondre, ce livre propose des clés précieuses pour appréhender les enjeux actuels de la solidarité et imaginer ses évolutions possibles. Au-delà des chiffres et des normes, il invite à réfléchir sur ce qui, collectivement, nous relie.

On the author:

Lucien Rigaux s'est vu décerner le Prix Joseph Hubert HELSEN en mai 2025. Plus qu'une analyse technique, son étude a été récompensée pour sa vision novatrice et son engagement en faveur du progrès humain, offrant des pistes de réforme audacieuses pour l'évolution de notre société.

Read more with the publisher.

 

 

 

 

BOOKS: Violet SOEN, Wouter DRUWÉ, Wim FRANCOIS & Ralph DECONINCK (eds.), Innovationes Lovanienses: Arts, Law and Theology at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) and Students, Scholars and Their Books at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) [Lectio, ed. Pieter D'HOINE/Studium Lovaniense, ed. Violet SOEN] (Turnhout: Brepols, 2026) [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: Brepols)

Two open access volumes on the University of Leuven/Louvain in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Age have been published recently.

Innovationes Lovanienses: Arts, Law and Theology at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) (eds. Violet Soen, Wouter Druwé, Wim François & Ralph Deconinck)
DOI 10.1484/M.LECTIO-EB.5.145524
Abstract:

Throughout the first centuries of its existence, the University of Louvain functioned as a crossroads for the transmission of texts, ideas, and even images from Antiquity, across the Middle Ages, and through the Renaissance. From its foundational bulls between 1425 and 1432, the university was established as a prototypical studium generale, drawing inspiration from earlier institutions in Paris and Cologne and adopting elements from contemporary universities like Rostock and Geneva. Situated at the heart of Europe, the University of Louvain quickly became a pivotal center for the reception and dissemination of both ancient and contemporary knowledge across the continent, and later, the Habsburg Empire. This volume examines how teachers and students examined old and innovative ideas across various constituent bodies of the university, including the Faculty of Arts or the College of the Three Tongues, or neighboring institutions, like the Jesuit College. Contributions span the Faculties of Law, adopting insights on the newly promulgated Tridentine decrees or novel moral economies, to the Faculty of Theology, a hotbed of the controversies surrounding grace, free will, and salvation in post-Tridentine Catholicism. Of the many scholars that were active in Louvain, special attention is devoted to the philologist Petrus Nannius, the theologians Michael Baius and Jacobus Janssonius, the lawyers Petrus Peckius and Johannes Wamesius, and the Jesuits Robertus Bellarminus and Leonardus Lessius, along with the lectures they gave at the Louvain house of their Order.

Chapters

• Innovationes Lovanienses. What Is New about the ‘Old’ University of Louvain (1425–1797)? (Violet Soen)
• The Old and the New. Scholastic Elements in the Works of Petrus Nannius (1496–1557), Professor of the Collegium Trilingue in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century (Aline Smeesters)
• Diagrammatic Innovations in Louvain Logic Notebooks (Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries) (Lorenz Demey)
• The Role of Legal Practice in Louvain’s Legal Education (c. 1550–1650) (Wouter Druwé)
• What Makes a Legal Commentary? . Louvain Professors on Liber Extra and Liber Sextus (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries) (Piotr Alexandrowicz)
• Teaching Canon Law after Trent. Mapping Juridical Sources in the Lectures of Petrus Peckius (1529–1589) (Ana Luiza Ferreira Gomes Silva)
• When the Sun Stopped Setting. Louvain Lawyers & Theologians on Issues of Monopolies and Competition (1500–1670) (Wout Vandermeulen)
• Knowledge of Nature and Scripture at the Threshold of Modernity. Michael Baius’s (1513–1589) Louvain Lecture on Romans 1 (Jarrik Van Der Biest)
• The Internal Act of Faith in the Commentaries on the Summa theologiae. Produced in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Louvain (with a Comparison with Previous Iberian Commentators) (Lidia Lanza)
• The Jesuit College and Knowledge Transmission: Robert Bellarmine’s Lectiones Louanienses (1570–1576) and the Spanish Scholastic Legal-Economic Thought (Shiri Roelofs)
• Ex nudo Dei beneplacito. On Concord and Discord between Luis de Molina’s Concordia (1588) and Leonardus Lessius’s De gratia efficaci (1610) (C.J. (Niels) De Bruijn)
• Vision, Love, and Joy. The Louvain Jesuit Leonard Lessius (1554–1623) on Beatitude (Patrícia Calvário)

Students, Scholars and Their Books at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) (eds. Violet Soen, Wouter Druwé, Wim François & Ralph Deconinck)
DOI 10.1484/M.LECTIO-EB.5.145522
Abstract:

Integrating prosopographical, cartographical, and book-historical data, this collective volume on the first University of Louvain (1425–1797) contributes to ongoing interdisciplinary inquiries into the intellectual productions of students, scholars, and printers in the Early Modern era. The ten contributions examine the state of the art at the University of Louvain, whose output was supported by the vibrant printing presses of the Low Countries and the continual mobility of its scholars across continental Europe. The essays first unravel the transregional circuits of Louvain’s students, scholars, and printers, built upon their geographical mobility throughout Europe. The second part explores how early modern students at Louvain created their study materials by compiling lecture notes, rearranging the contents, and binding them into codices, often adorned with drawings or printed engravings – a practice that remained prevalent until the eighteenth century. Further contributions trace the introduction of the handpress to the city of Louvain, which, beginning in 1473, brought new opportunities for producing textbooks for broader markets, as typography and physical features transformed handbook production. Louvain’s publication network was especially dense in the sixteenth century, and publication rates remained high through the eighteenth century. This volume offers new insights into the hybrid world of oral teaching, handwritten note-taking, and printed textbook production by students, scholars, and printers at one of Europe’s intellectual crossroads.

Chapters

• From Magister Dixit to STUDIUM.AI. New Perspectives on Students, Scholars and Their Books at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) (Violet Soen)
• Louvain Scholars on the Move. Networks and Mobility Patterns at the Early University of Louvain. An Analysis of Academic Mobility (1425–1797) (David de la Croix & Maria Vitale)
• From Transregional Recruitment to Self-reproduction. Building a Teaching Staff at the University of Louvain in Its First Two Decades (1425–1443) (Christiaan Engberts)
• Who’s Who in STUDIUM.AI. New Linked Data about Students, Scholars and Printers at the Early Modern University of Louvain (1425–1797) (Violet Soen Yann Ryan)
• The Louvain Lecture Halls during Theological Controversy. The Benedictine Student Stephanus Puelincx and His Notes on the Lectures of Jacobus Janssonius (c. 1607) (Linde Van den Eede)
• In the University Classroom. Seventeenth-century Notebooks of Arts Students at the Universities of Louvain and Leiden (1651–1700) (An Smets)
• Drawing Practices as Learning and Recreational Processes in Louvain Student Notebooks (Seventeenth–Eighteenth Centuries) (Gwendoline de Mûelenaere)
• Honesti et probi adolescentes. Pardon Letters and Student Violence at the Early Modern University of Louvain (Sixteenth–Seventeenth Centuries) (Gert Gielis, Luke Giraudet & Quintin Verreycken)
• The Importance of Typography in Knowledge Transfer. The Materiality of Louvain Printed Philosophy Textbooks (1474–1562) (Dieter Cammaerts)
• Shedding (More) Light on Sixteenth-century Mapping Practices. Pieter Pourbus’s Application of Gemma Frisius’s Triangulation Methods (Jan Trachet & Hendrik Hameeuw)
• Integrating Library and Prosopographical Data in the Early Modern Publication Network of the University of Louvain (1501–1797) (Rossana Scebba & Margherita Fantoli)

Both books can be read in open access with Brepols. 

 

REMINDER: Blog submission instructions

(image: stagecoach on the St. Gotthard Pass; source: Wikimedia Commons)

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SYMPOSIUM: Privacy before Privacy Law: Law and Humanities in Dialogue for a Digital Age (Copenhagen: Faculty of Theology/Centre for Privacy Studies, 25-26 JUN 2026)

 

A symposium was held at Copenhagen University on 25 and 26 June. 

Day 1: Thursday 25^th June

Location: Centre for Privacy Studies, University of Copenhagen, South Campus, Karen Blixens Plads, 16, 2300 København S, Room: 6B.1.62

8.30 – 9.00	REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE Centre for Privacy Studies
9.00 – 9.30	OPENING REMARKS   Introducing the Centre for Privacy Studies Mette Birkedal Bruun, University of Copenhagen   Introducing the Symposium  Paolo Astorri & Patrick O’Callaghan
9.30 – 11.00	SESSION I — PRIVACY IN MEDIEVAL AND REINASSANCE IMAGINATIONS Chair: Bastian Felter Vaucanson, University of Copenhagen Privacy as a Condition of Cognitive Liberty in Petrarch’s Writings   Patrick O’Callaghan, University College Cork The Private Autonomous Mind: Female Strategies of Inward Agency in Shakespeare’s Roman tale The Rape of Lucrece Anni Haahr Henriksen, Kaberghus, Copenhagen The Violation of Privacy in Renaissance Texts: A Prefiguration of Modern Challenges Daniela Carpi, University of Verona (Online))

 

Coffee Break

11.00 – 11.15

 

11.15 -12.30

SESSION II — PRIVACY AND THE REFORMATIONS Chair: Søren Frank Jensen, University of Copenhagen   The Space of Interiority and its Regulation in Thomas Bartholin’s Orationes Lars Cyril Nørgaard, University of Copenhagen Privacy in Anglo-American Law: From the Reformation to the Enlightenment Peter Winn, University of Washington

 

Lunch

12.30 – 13.30

 

13.30 – 14.45

SESSION III — PRIVACY BETWEEN JURISDICTION AND CORRESPONDANCE Chair: Ulrike Müssig, University of Passau   Arcana and Curiositas: Ahasver Fritsch and the Boundaries of Knowledge in Early Modern Germany Paolo Astorri, University of Copenhagen ‘His Dearest Property’: Private Papers and Secrets in 18th Century Common Law TT Arvind, University of York

 

Coffee Break

14.45 – 15.15

 

15.15 -16.00   08.15-09.00 (CDT)

SESSION IV — TEMPORAL CROSSINGS: PRIVACY IN TRANSITION Chair: Johannes Ljungberg, University of Linköping Lockean Liberalism, Religious Liberty, and the Foundations of Intellectual Privacy Marc J. Blitz, Oklahoma City University (Online)

 

16.00 -16.45

CONCLUDING DAY 1 Group Discussion

 

Wine Reception

Centre for Privacy Studies

17.00 – 18.00

Day 2: 26^th June

Location: Centre for Privacy Studies, University of Copenhagen, South Campus, Karen Blixens Plads, 16, 2300 København S, Room: 6B.1.62

8.30 – 9.00	ARRIVALS AND WELCOME COFFEE
09.00 – 10.15	SESSION V — PRIVACY AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY IMAGINATION Chair: Lars Cyril Nørgaard, University of Copenhagen   Privacy Spaces in Dutch Nineteenth-Century Society: From Sara Burgerhart to Major Frans Bert-Jaap Koops, Tilburg University   Reserve and Revelation: Modern Conceptions of Privacy in the Novels of Jane Austen Róisín á Costello, Trinity College Dublin

 

Coffee Break

10.15 – 10.45

 

10.45 – 12.00

SESSION VI: PRIVACY, PERSONALITY, AND MODERN LAW Chair: Patrick O’ Callaghan, University College Cork The Rise of the Right to Private Life: Between Civil Liability and Droit D’Auteur Giovanni Chiodi, University of Milan Bicocca (Online)   Dignity Reconsidered: An Analysis of its Inviolability’s Instrumentalization Ulrike Müssig, University of Passau

 

Lunch

12.00 – 13.0

 

13.00 – 15.45

SESSION VII: TAKING STOCK Chair: Natalie P. Koerner, University of Copenhagen   Privacy and Utopian Thinking Bart Van Der Sloot, Tilburg University Privacy Between Past and Present Tamar Herzog, Harvard University General Discussion Moderated By Paolo Astorri & Patrick O’Callaghan

 

Guided Excursion

Regensen Kollegium and Trinitatis Kirke

Store Kannikestræde, 2 Copenhagen

16.00 – 17.30

For more information, contact dr. Paolo Astorri.

BOOK: Dieter GRIMM, Constitutional Effectiveness. The Case of Germany's Basic Law (London: Bloomsbury, 2026), 232 p. ISBN 9781509988891

 

(image source: Bloomsbury)

Abstract:

This book presents a unique account of the social and political impacts of the German Basic Law on the German Republic from 1949 to the present day. It considers the way in which the history of the Federal Republic of Germany has been decisively influenced by its Constitution, the Basic Law of 1949, and by the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court. The book argues that the historiography of the Federal Republic does little to reflect this influence. The Basic Law is mentioned and so occasionally rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court. But the reader does not get the impression that they were of specific importance in Germany before and after reunification. Legal scholars, on the other hand, are concerned about the legal consequences of the Basic Law, but do not analyse its impact in the real world. There is, thus, a gap between the two disciplines – one not being familiar with social reality, the other not familiar with the normativity of the law. The history of the effectiveness of the constitution falls into this gap. In this book, Dieter Grimm, himself a Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court from 1987 to 1999 and an expert on interdisciplinary research in law, history and political science, guides the reader through important developments and events that were determined or influenced by the constitution and its judicial interpretation.

Table of contents:

Preface
Preliminary Remark on the Selection of Historical Literature for Examination
1. Constitutional History and General History
2. Genesis and Content of the Basic Law
3. The Beginnings of Constitutional Adjudication
4. Constitutional Evolution Through Amendments
5. Moves Towards a Total Revision of the Basic Law
6. The Constitutional Question in the Reunification Process
7. The Liberalisation of Society as a Question of Fundamental Rights
8. Influence of the Constitution on the Media System
9. The Social Democratic-Liberal Reforms under Scrutiny
10. The Taming of the Party State
11. Achieving Gender Equality
12. The Basic Law in the Risk Society
13. The Constitution in the East-West Approximation Process
14. The Federal Republic as Member State of the European Union
15. The Underestimated Constitutionalisation of Politics
Appendix: The Significance of Law in the History of Society: A Query

 Read more here.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Imperial Legal Spaces and Transitions: Law, Statehood and Administration in Ukraine between Empire, War and State Formation (~1900-1922), 18-19 March 2027, University of Regensburg/ Institute for East European Law, Deadline for Applications: 31.07.2026

 

Application Deadline: 31 July 2026
Location: University of Regensburg / Institute for East European Law, Germany

Description:

The early 20th century marked a period of profound political, social and legal upheaval for the region
that is now Ukraine. Within a few decades, the region witnessed the collapse of empires, the First World
War, successive occupations and military administrations, competing attempts to establish states, and
the transition to Soviet structures of governance. These developments were accompanied not only by
political and social transformations, but also by a fundamental reorganisation of legal institutions, norms and practices.
While the political history and history of violence of this transitional period have already been researched to some extent, there is still a lack of legal and administrative historical analysis that focuses not only on breaches of the law or the breakdown of legal systems, but also on how the law and institutions function in transitional situations.
The conference therefore focuses on the question: How do legal spaces function when political orders
collapse but institutions (must) continue to operate?
The conference aims to examine the region of present-day Ukraine between approximately 1900 and
1922 as an imperial, or, respectively, post-imperial legal space in which different normative orders, ad-
ministrative traditions and institutional practices did not disappear abruptly, but continued to operate,
overlap, adapt or hybridise.
The conference does not view law merely as a codified norm, but, above all, as a social practice, an
instrument of power and legitimacy, and a resource for stabilising everyday life and administration.

Potential Topics Include:

• Legal transfer and legal pluralism between Habsburg Galicia and the territories oft he Russian
Empire
• Military law and extraordinary justice in the First World War
• Competing legal systems in the years 1917–1921
• Administrative and judicial practice in local borderland spaces
 

The conference adopts a practice- and actor-oriented approach that views law not merely as a normative
system, but as a framework for action. Particular attention is paid to institutional continuities, informal
practices and the role of local decision-makers. At the same time, the conference adopts a transnational
and comparative perspective. The region of present-day Ukraine is not considered in isolation but within its interconnections with Central European, Russian, and later Soviet legal systems. This approach allows for the analysis of regional and local transitions not merely as national anomalies but as part of broader European transformation processes.
The conference seeks to foster an international exchange of perspectives on the region’s history. We
therefore warmly encourage not only scholars from Ukraine but also scholars from other countries, in-
cluding Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, to participate.
We welcome contributions from legal history, history, political science, and related disciplines. Applica-
tions from researchers at all career stages are strongly encouraged.

The conference languages are Ukrainian, German and English.

An application for external funding is currently being prepared. Subject to approval, travel and accom-
modation costs may be covered.

As an outcome of the conference, an edited volume with an internationally renowned publisher is
planned. In addition, selected contributions will be published in an open working paper series.

Application Guidelines:

To participate in the conference, please submit the following application documents by July 31, 2026:

1. Detailed academic CV
2. Topic proposal for the presentation and short abstract (max. 2,000 characters including spaces)
3. List of publications, highlighting the five most relevant to the conference

Please send your application (as a single PDF file) and any inquiries to:
office@ostrecht.de

The results of the selection process will be announced by early September 2026.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and to welcoming you in Regensburg in March
2027!

Find more here. 

BOOK: Fidel J. TAVÁREZ, Assembling an Imperial Machine: Spanish Commercial Reform in the Age of Enlightenment (Oxford: OUP, 2026), ISBN 9780197755051

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

In the eighteenth century, a host of Spanish statesmen compared well-ordered empires to harmonious machines and devised a comprehensive plan to liberalize and integrate the imperial economy. The main initiative of this economic plan was a commercial policy that contemporaries called comercio libre, which entailed replacing the traditional fleets and galleons with a new system of free trade within the empire. The statesmen who designed this new imperial vision became convinced that the pursuit of markets, rather than military power alone, was the key to succeeding in a modern commercial society. But where their European counterparts remained committed to international trade, Spanish ministers focused on integrating Spain’s metropolitan and colonial territories. In fact, Spanish statesmen reasoned that the Hispanic world’s vast territories were a microcosm of the global economy that could become both self-sufficient and impervious to international commercial pressures. They also recognized that the viability of this closed commercial empire depended on synergizing millions of subjects across Spain’s dominions, which is why they insisted on the importance of integrating Indigenous and Afro-descendant wage workers and consumers. Combining intellectual history, Atlantic history, and the history of the Bourbon reforms, Assembling an Imperial Machine shows that, rather than a mercantilist atavism, the Hispanic world’s commercial reforms represented a genuine attempt to solve the dilemmas of early modern globalization, an endeavor that, in turn, inaugurated the enduring fascination with erecting a free trade bloc in Latin America.

Read more here: 10.1093/9780197755082.001.0001.