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

PRIZE: Jean Stengers Prize 2023-2025 to Dave DE RUYSSCHER (Brussels: Académie Royale, 22 MAY 2026)

(image source: Académie royale de Belgique)

Prof. Dr. Dave De ruysscher has been awarded the Jean Stengers Prize of the Académie Royale de Belgique for the triennial period 2023–2025. 

He received this distinction in recognition of his study A Political Economy Imparted: Trade, Law, and Institutions in Antwerp c. 1400–1680, a work that sheds new light on the interplay between legal frameworks and economic development in the early modern Low Countries. 

More information at VUB CORE.   

YOUTUBE: Guillaume QUERNET, "1919 : l’invention des dommages de guerre ?" [Les Lois de l'Histoire, Paul CHAUVIN] (Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, 20 MAR 2026)

Abstract:

Imaginons que la France entre demain en guerre… Et que votre maison secondaire du Cap Ferret soit détruite par un missile… Que faire ?! Il est peu probable que l’ennemi paye les dégâts ; et presque impossible que votre assurance vous couvre… Que faire alors ?! Vous tournez vers l’État… oui mais rien ne l’y oblige ! Encore faut-il qu’une loi soit votée ! Telle est la solution adoptée depuis la Première Guerre mondiale. Pourquoi les choses ont-elles seulement évolué à ce moment tardif de l’histoire de France ? Que se passait-il auparavant ? Quels dommages furent ensuite indemnisés : seulement les destructions ou d’autres sortes de pertes ? Y avait-il des conditions à remplir pour l’être ? Fallait-il, par exemple, prouver une faute militaire ? Voilà quelques-unes des questions posées à l’historien du droit Guillaume Quernet que j’ai eu le plaisir de recevoir le lundi 9 mars 2026 dans les studios des Lois de l’Histoire.

 Watch the episode above or on Youtube.

CONFERENCE: L’antiesclavagisme : un idéal cosmopolite ? (1730-1830) (Paris: Collège de France, 18-19 JUN 2026)

 

(image source: Georges Morland, Slave Trade (Execrable Human Traffick, or The Affectionate Slaves) c. 1788. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Domaine public/Initiative Europe/Sorbonne)

Abstract:

liée à la mondialisation des échanges commerciaux et à l’expansion des empires coloniaux, la diffusion de l’esclavage colonial a contribué à remettre en question la pertinence du cadre national dans les débats politiques. Qu’il s’agisse de la révolution haïtienne ou de l’appel au boycott des produits coloniaux, la plupart des événements et des décisions politiques étaient pensés en fonction de leurs répercussions à l’échelle mondiale. Longtemps centrée sur le cas britannique, l’historiographie s’est progressivement ouverte à la dimension transnationale de la lutte contre l’esclavage colonial. Aujourd’hui, l’antiesclavagisme apparaît comme un mouvement d’ampleur mondiale, qui s’est diffusé non seulement en Europe et aux États-Unis, mais aussi dans les Caraïbes, en Amérique latine et en Afrique. La conscience et la dimension mondiale du combat contre l’esclavage sont-elles liées à la défense d’un idéal cosmopolite ? La question se pose d’autant plus que l’esclavage colonial et la traite, qui atteignent un point culminant à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, incarnent plus que tout autre phénomène les contradictions de l’expansion de l’horizon du monde. En effet, la domination et l’exploitation d’une partie de l’humanité par une autre semblent rendre impossible l’émergence d’une communauté mondiale, morale et politique, enracinée dans l’idée d’une commune humanité, qui est au coeur de l’idéal cosmopolite. Le colloque international, qui se tiendra les jeudi 18 et vendredi 19 juin 2026 (respectivement à la Bibliothèque nationale de France, site Richelieu, et au Collège de France), poursuit trois objectifs principaux. Il s’agira, premièrement, d’évaluer la place et les enjeux de la mobilisation de l’idéal cosmopolite dans les débats sur l’esclavage colonial. Deuxièmement, il conviendra d’analyser les contradictions internes de l’antiesclavagisme, entre la revendication de l’égale dignité de tous les êtres humains et une approche différenciée des processus d’émancipation, fondée sur une vision hiérarchisée du monde. Enfin, nous montrerons comment l’étude de la diversité des mouvements antiesclavagistes à travers le monde permet de défendre une approche plurielle du cosmopolitisme, qui rompt avec son identification exclusive à la tradition philosophique occidentale.

Speakers:

ACKERMANN-KOENIGS Mathilde, Bielefeld University | EHESS | IHA Paris BESSONE Magali, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne CABOT Andy, Université Polytechnique Hauts de France – Valenciennes DARRIULAT Gabriel, Collège de France | Bibliothèque nationale de France FERRADOU Matthieu, Université Paris Nanterre HOQUET Thierry, Université Paris Nanterre PITTS Jennifer, Université de Chicago RENARD Nils, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne ROSSI Benedetta, University College de Londres SPIELER Miranda, The American University of Paris TUCCILLO Alessandro, Université de Turin VIDAL Cécile, EHESS 

See here for further details. 

SEMINAR: “Le rite réalise le droit“? – Rituals and the Law in the Ancient World (Marburg: Universität Marburg, 12–13 JUN 2026)

(image source: Universität Marburg)

“Le rite réalise le droit“? – Rituals and the Law in the Ancient World

Marburg University&Marburg Center for the Ancient World (MCAW)

In person participation: Marburg University, Room 00A26, Deutschhausstraße 12, 35032 Marburg

12–13 June 2026 (Friday–Saturday)

Program:

Friday, 12 June 2026

14:00. Introduction: Nils Heeßel (Marburg) and Constantin Willems (Marburg)

14:30. The Legal Value of Contractual Rites in Mesopotamia: Sophie Démare Lafont (Paris)

16:00. The Performative Nature of Sealing Clay Tablets: Steffen Jauß (Frankfurt)

17:00. In Search of the Lost Ritual. Ritual(s) and the implementation of Assyrian adê: Lionel Marti (Paris)

Saturday, 13 June 2026

09:00. The Role of Ritual in the Roman Legal Process: Grzegorz Blicharz (Cracow)

10:30. Formal Contracts in Roman Law and in the New Belgian Civil Code: Jean-François Gerkens (Liège)

11:30. Final Discussion, Conclusions: Nils Heeßel (Marburg) and Constantin Willems (Marburg)

The full Program is available in PDF format here: ProgramMCAW.

ADVANCE ARTICLE: Roxana BANU, "Constructing Imperial Authority: The Intersection of British Imperial Constitutional Law and Private International Law" (Oxford Journal of Legal Studies) [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Historians and constitutional law scholars are starting to uncover the imperial dimensions of the British constitution. But our accounts of the nature of authority in the British imperial context remain incomplete without an engagement with private international law, which played a significant role in conceptualising imperial authority. This article focuses on the forgotten interplay between imperial constitutional law and private international law. It shows how key doctrinal principles of private international law were referenced either as alternatives to or counterparts of key imperial constitutional law principles. Imperial actors would appeal to one or another image of imperial authority constructed by either imperial constitutional law or private international law to gain more autonomy or to tighten control. Far from being a relic of the past, the significance of this history can be traced in contemporary cases and debates about the nature of authority in the UK and its overseas territories.

Read the article here: DOI 10.1093/ojls/gqag012.

BOOK: Luigi NUZZO, Simulacri di sovranità. Una storia del diritto internazionale a Tianjin (Milano: Lefebvre Giuffrè, 2026). ISBN: 8828884312, pp. 394, € 57,00

(Source: Lefebvre Giuffrè)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Collana: Per la storia pensiero giuridico moderno.

Attraverso l'analisi delle costruzioni giuridiche, delle strategie diplomatiche e delle pratiche di governo mediante le quali, tra Otto e Novecento, Gran Bretagna, Francia, Stati Uniti, Germania e Italia ottennero e amministrarono le rispettive concessioni nei pressi della città di Tianjin, il volume ricostruisce una delle possibili storie del diritto internazionale. È una storia 'fangosa', come i territori occupati dalle potenze occidentali. Una storia che prende forma nella trama dei rapporti tra consolati, legazioni e ministeri, nelle negoziazioni con il governo e i funzionari cinesi, negli atti di espropriazione, nelle speculazioni degli imprenditori commerciali, nei progetti militari di governance internazionale e nei tentativi di riforma del sistema giurisdizionale. Oggetto di una molteplicità di discorsi giuridici e di pratiche sociali, le concessioni di Tianjin costituirono un vero e proprio laboratorio per sperimentazione di nuove forme giuridiche. Esse spinsero i giuristi a interrogarsi sui limiti del diritto internazionale e a immaginare nuove categorie interpretative per comprendere spazialità inedite, non riconducibili alle forme tradizionali di Stato, nazione o città. Lo studio dei lease agreements che ne costituirono il fondamento consente, pertanto, di cogliere come pratiche di governo e ardite costruzioni giuridiche abbiano spezzato il nesso tra potere governamentale, territorio e sudditi, modificando profondamente il concetto di sovranità e dando origine a nuovi spazi sociali. Al tempo stesso, gli atti appropriativi all'origine di quegli accordi consentono di guardare in modo più consapevole alla storia del diritto internazionale e al rapporto tra diritto e violenza, e permettono, ancora una volta, di identificare nell'occupazione l'atto fondativo di un nuovo ordine giuridico.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Luigi Nuzzo è professore ordinario di Storia del diritto medievale e moderno e Storia del diritto internazionale presso l'Università del Salento.

More information with the publisher.

BOOK: Marietta AUER, Ralf SEINECKE & Stefan VOGENAUER (Hrsg.), Jan Schröder: Recht als Wissenschaft. Ein Kommentar (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2026), 353 p. ISBN 978-3-16-163653-0, €49

 

(image source: Mohr Siebeck)

Abstract:

Jan Schröders Recht als Wissenschaft ist schon wenige Jahre nach seinem Erscheinen ein neuer Klassiker zur Geschichte der juristischen Methodenlehre in der Neuzeit. In seiner dritten Auflage von 2020 handelt es von der Topik des 16. Jahrhunderts über die Historische Rechtsschule und das Kaiserreich bis zu den Methodenlehren der Deutschen Diktaturen und Demokratien des 20. Jahrhunderts. Der vorliegende Kommentar widmet sich in zehn Aufsätzen der kritischen Untersuchung von Jan Schröders gebildeten Epochen sowie der von ihm verwendeten Narrative und großen Linien. Zudem versammelt der Band alle zu den verschiedenen Auflagen erschienenen Rezensionen. Dadurch soll künftigen Forschungen zur Geschichte der juristischen Methodenlehre eine Grundlage geboten und zu alternativen Erzählungen angeregt werden.

Table of contents:

Vorwort
Verzeichnis der abgekürzt zitierten Zeitschriften
Querschnitte
Miloš Vec: Keine unpolitische Erzählung. Die vielen Kontexte von Recht als Wissenschaft - Daniel Damler: Redlicher Wandel ohne Fortschritt. Eine formale Analyse von Jan Schröders Recht als Wissenschaft - Arndt Kiehnle: Dogmatik - Geschichte - Methode. Recht als Wissenschaft und die gegenwärtige Dogmatik
Kommentare
Andreas Thier: Perspektivische Askese als Programm. Fortsetzung der mittelalterlichen Tradition und erste Neuerungen (1500-1650) - Wolfgang Forster: Vernunft und Geschichte, Wille und Erfahrung. Die Entdeckung der konstruktiven Vernunft und der Geschichte (1650-1800) - Bernd Mertens: Die Rechtsquellenlehre in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die Begründung der positiven Rechtswissenschaft (1800-1850) - Hans-Peter Haferkamp: Methodenlehre an den Marionettenfäden des Rechtsbegriffs. Der Aufstieg der Rechtsprechung (1850-1933) - Thorsten Keiser: Ganzheitliche Umformung des liberalen Rechtskörpers. Die deutschen Diktaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts: Die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft (1933-1945) - Adrian Schmidt-Recla: Gesetzlichkeitswissenschaft in „Ostdeutschland". Die deutschen Diktaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts: Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik (1945-1990) - Susanne Paas: Perspektiven auf eine Zeitgeschichte der juristischen Methodenlehre. An den Grenzen des Rechtspositivismus. Westdeutschland (1945-1990)
Replik
Jan Schröder: Methodenprobleme der Methodengeschichte. Eine Replik
Rezensionen
1. Rezensionen zur ersten Auflage von Recht als Wissenschaft (2001)
2. Rezensionen zur zweiten Auflage von Recht als Wissenschaft (2012)
3. Rezensionen zu Rechtswissenschaft in Diktaturen (2016)

4. Rezensionen zur dritten Auflage von Recht als Wissenschaft (2 Bände, 2020)

Read more here. 

 

CLH ARTICLE: Jan WITTLIN, Coverage of the Jewish people by legal solutions granting compensation related to population transfers in twentieth century Europe (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 2 (December), pp. 252-276)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

Abstract:

While population transfers were an inseparable part of European policy in the twentieth century, providing compensation for immovable property left behind faced formidable legal, political and economic challenges. Compensation schemes frequently failed to be implemented or left claims of significant groups of migrants or their descendants unsettled, often for several decades. The Jewish minorities, present in most European countries for many centuries and featuring a unique combination of ethnic, religious and nationality related factors were often amongst the most severely impacted. A comparative analysis of the legal frameworks of prominent cases in twentieth century Europe – the population exchanges between Greece and Türkiye in 1923, the post-war border shifts of Poland and the resulting Bug River claims, expulsions from former German territories after World War II and the loss of Carpathian Ruthenia by Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union – focuses on finding factors impacting Jewish communities, common solutions and evolutionary trends.

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.2025.2579473

CHAPTER: Lieven D'HULST, "Oeuvrer à la gloire nationale de la Belgique au 19e siècle. Traductions interlinguales et intralinguales des anciennes lois flamandes", in: Hilla KARAS & Hava BAT-ZEEV SHYLDKROT (eds.), Intralingual Translation. Beyond language and text (Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins, 2026), pp. 31-48 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: Benjamins)

Abstract:

Les politiques culturelles des nations européennes ont, au long du 19e siècle, encouragé et facilité l’accès aux sources écrites de leur histoire, moyennant des éditions savantes et populaires, ainsi que des transpositions en langue moderne. La Belgique, nation plurilingue née en 1830, possède un immense patrimoine en plusieurs langues et en plusieurs genres: des chansons populaires, des romans en vers, des légendes, ainsi que des lois et ordonnances rédigées en latin, en français et en flamand. Ces dernières forment un legs historique parallèlement nanti d’une valeur d’actualité: de nombreuses lois de l’Ancien régime comblent des lacunes juridiques du droit belge entièrement redevable au droit français. Or, ces lois sont souvent composées en flamand, une langue alors privée du statut de langue officielle réservé au français. Comment gérer ce legs à la fois historique et contemporain? Cette question fait débat au milieu du siècle; elle suscite un ensemble de réflexions d’une richesse insoupçonnée sur les enjeux de la traduction intralinguale et interlinguale: faut-il procurer des éditions des textes originaux composés en flamand historique et assortis de résumés ou commentaires en français contemporain, ou plutôt des traductions interlinguales en français historique, ou encore des traductions intralinguales en flamand contemporain? Bref, comment œuvrer à la gloire nationale sans perturber les subtils équilibres linguistiques en Belgique?

On the author, Lieven D'hulst (KULeuven): ORCID.

Read the chapter in open access here: DOI 10.1075/btl.168.02dhu.

BOOK: Nicolas HUTEN, Basile MÉRAND & Nicolas SILD (eds.), Droit administratif et droit naturel. Premier regard (Paris: LexisNexis, 2026), ISBN 9782711943729, € 29

 

(image source: LexisNexis)

Abstract:

Le droit naturel classique n’a longtemps suscité d’intérêt que de la part des historiens du droit et des idées, convaincus à juste titre de son utilité pour la compréhension du droit contemporain. Après avoir récemment fait l’objet d’une certaine attention de la doctrine privatiste, le moment est venu pour la doctrine publiciste d’apporter sa contribution à ce renouveau. Telle est la finalité de cet ouvrage, qui envisage le droit administratif à l’aune des catégories du droit naturel classique. L’objet de ces pages pourra légitimement surprendre. À première vue, en effet, le droit administratif est un droit de la puissance publique, certes modéré par le contrôle du juge, mais qui semble exclure par principe toute approche sous l’angle de la justice ou de l’équité. Ce premier regard, qui en appelle d’autres à l’avenir, propose de revenir sur cette idée fort répandue. Sans nier la dimension politique du droit administratif, les contributions réunies dans le présent ouvrage montrent que ce droit est souvent marqué par la présence discrète d’une conception classique, c’est-à-dire gréco-romaine, du droit naturel, tant dans sa construction historique que dans l’application qu’en fait aujourd’hui le juge administratif dans les domaines les plus variés.

Contributiors:

 Miguel Ayuso, Henri Bouillon, Nicolas Huten, Alice Lassale, Basile Mérand, David Mongoin, Marjolaine Monot Fouletier, Jean Claude Ricci, Nicolas Sild.

Read more here. 

CONFERENCE: Droit de l'art, du patrimoine et des biens culturels: histoires, normes circulations [Journées internationales de la Société d'Histoire du Droit 2026] (Torino: Università di Torino, 4-7 JUN 2026)

 

(image source: SHD Torino)

The program for this year's Journées internationales of the Société d'Histoire du Droit, dedicated to the theme "Droit de l'art, du patrimoine et des biens culturels: histoires, normes circulations", has been published (cf. call earlier on this blog). 

More information here.

SEMINAR: Diritto Romano e mestiere del giurista. Esperienze, confronti, prospettive [Associazione Italiana di Diritto Romano] (Università degli Studi di Milano, 4–5 JUN 2026)

(image source: AIDR & Università degli Studi di Milano)

Diritto Romano e mestiere del giurista. Esperienze, confronti, prospettive

Associazione Italiana di Diritto Romano

Convegno: in presenza

Luogo: Aula 431, Università degli Studi di Milano — Via Festa del Perdono 3, Milano

4–5 giugno 2026

Contatti: Segreteria organizzativa (aidrmilano2026@unimi.it)

Per il programma completo del convegno (PDF): UniMil

Programma:

Giovedì 4 giugno 2026

Ore 14.30

Saluti istituzionali

Stefano Simonetta — Prorettore

Giuseppe Ondei — Presidente Corte d’Appello di Milano

Angela Santangelo — Direttore Dipartimento di diritto privato e storia del diritto

Carla Masi Doria — Presidente AIDR

Prima sessione. Il diritto come scienza per l’uomo. Omne ius hominum causa constitutum

Presiede Chiara Tenella Sillani

Francesco Fasolino — Ordinario di Diritto romano, Università degli Studi di Salerno

Alberto Venturelli — Ordinario di Diritto civile, Università degli Studi di Brescia

Discussione

Ore 17.00

Seconda sessione. Diritto romano e teoria generale del diritto

Presiede Claudio Luzzati

Luigi Garofalo — Ordinario di Diritto romano, Università degli Studi di Padova

Carlo Nitsch — Ordinario di Filosofia del diritto, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Discussione

Cena sociale

Venerdì 5 giugno 2026

Ore 9.30

Terza sessione. Il metodo esegetico al vaglio della contemporaneità

Presiede Sandro Schipani

Pietro Sirena — Ordinario di Diritto civile, Università Commerciale “Luigi Bocconi”

Discussione

Ore 11.00

Tavola rotonda

Presiede Patrizia Giunti

Giovanni Canzio — Già primo Presidente di Cassazione

Francesco Della Rocca — Notaio, Consigliere e Coordinatore delle Commissioni scientifiche del CNN

Antonio Genovese — Già Presidente di Sezione di Cassazione

C. Orisel Hernández Aguilar — “Titular” di Diritto romano, Università di Pinar del Río (Cuba)

Thomas Rüfner — Ordinario di Diritto romano e Diritto civile, Università di Treviri (Germania); Giudice presso la Corte d’Appello di Coblenza

Aldo Schiavone — Emerito di Diritto romano, Scuola Normale Superiore

Discussione

Ore 14.30
Assemblea dei soci
Elezione dei rappresentanti nel Direttivo

BOOK: Dominika UCKIEWICZ, Accountability for War Crimes in the Policy of the Polish Government-in-Exile. A Legal and Historical Analysis (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2026), ISBN 9789004759015, OPEN ACCESS

 

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This book excavates the often neglected role of the Polish government-in-exile within the Allied war crimes trial programme and post-1945 international law. Drawing on newly examined archival sources and biographies of key émigré lawyers, it reveals how Polish and other Eastern European jurists helped define the concept of accountability for wartime atrocities long before the Allies convened at Nuremberg. Combining legal and historical approaches, this book traces the Central and Eastern European influence on the UN War Crimes Commission and Allied policy, showing how their ideas about justice, responsibility, victim’s perspective, and law continue to resonate in modern interpretations of the legacy of Nuremberg.

Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004759015.

FORMATION DOCTORALE : Ma thèse à l’ère de l’intelligence artificielle générative: enjeux, outils et pratiques situées [2e journée de formation commune de l’ED4 HiSTAR] (Louvain-la-Neuve, 5 JUN 2026)

(image source: UCLouvain)

ED4 HiSTAR

Journée de formation doctorale : en présentiel

Lieu : Louvain-la-Neuve

Date : vendredi 5 juin 2026

Inscription obligatoire avant le 22 mai 2026 à midi via le formulaire disponible sur le site HiSTAR:

HiSTAR – inscription et informations

Programme complet (PDF) :

Télécharger le programme PDF

Programme:

1e partie. Introduction théorique à l’IA, aperçu exploratoire de la diversité des applications possibles
9h45 – 12h15
Collège Erasme, salle polyvalente

Pascal Vangrunderbeeck — Conseiller pédagogique numérique et IA au Louvain Learning Lab
Comprendre l’effet Woaw des interfaces d’IAg et perspectives pour développer l’esprit critique

Nicolás Marín Bayona — UCLouvain
Voir sans regarder : analyse critique des dispositifs computationnels d’analyse d’image en Digital Art History

Camille Berny — UCLouvain
Analyser le risque ferroviaire dans les annales parlementaires avec l’IA : contraintes matérielles, protocoles de dépouillement et enjeux épistémologiques

12h15 – 13h30
Lunch

2e partie. Formation pratique
13h30 – 17h
Pool informatique Socrate 31-32

Jonathan Dedonder — Logisticien de recherches en sciences humaines, UCLouvain – IACCHOS
De l’outil au corpus : IA générative, art du prompting et posture épistémologique

Cet atelier propose une entrée à la fois pratique et critique dans l’usage de l’IA générative pour le traitement de corpus textuels. Il s’organise en trois temps : réflexion sur les enjeux liés à l’usage de l’IA dans la recherche (protection des données, acceptabilité disciplinaire, traçabilité méthodologique), panorama des outils disponibles et initiation au prompt engineering, suivis d’exercices pratiques et d’un retour réflexif collectif sur les enjeux épistémologiques liés à l’intégration de ces outils dans la recherche scientifique.

BOOK: Clifford ANDO, Mirko CANEVARO & Benjamin STRAUMANN (eds.), The Cambridge History of Rights, vol.I: The Ancient World [The Cambridge History of Rights, eds. Nehal BHUTA, Anthony PAGDEN & Mira L. SIEGELBERG] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), ISBN 9781108837354, 120 GBP

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

The ancient world existed before the modern conceptual and linguistic apparatus of rights, and any attempts to understand its place in history must be undertaken with care. This volume covers not only Greco-Roman antiquity, but ranges from the ancient Near East to early Confucian China; Deuteronomic Judaism to Ptolemaic Egypt; and rabbinic Judaism to Sasanian law. It describes ancient normative conceptions of personhood and practices of law in a way that respects their historical and linguistic particularity, appreciating the distinctiveness of the cultures under study whilst clarifying their salience for comparative study. Through thirteen expertly researched essays, volume one of The Cambridge History of Rights is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the history of rights in the global ancient world and highlights societies that the field has long neglected.

Table of contents:

Introduction Clifford Ando, Mirko Canevaro and Benjamin Straumann

• 1. To claim to protect claims: the generative discourse of Mesopotamian legal rights Seth Richardson
• 2. The individual and the communal: early Confucian resources for human rights May Sim
• 3. human rights in the Hebrew Bible? Sandra Jacobs
• 4. Greek subjective rights? Justice, legal discourse, and legal institutions Mirko Canevaro and Linda Rocchi
• 5. Aristotle on subjective rights Pia Campeggiani
• 6. Do rights exist in Hellenistic philosophy? Jon Miller
• 7. Rights in Ptolemaic Egypt Nadine Grotkamp
• 8. Rights in Roman Republican thought Valentina Arena
• 9. Ius in the subjective sense in classical Roman law Charles Donahue, Jr
• 10. Rights and dignity in late ancient thought Kyle Harper
• 11. Rights in late ancient law? Noel Lenski
• 12. Rabbinic Judaism Alyssa M. Gray
• 13. Sasanian law Maria Macuch.

Read more here: DOI 10.1017/9781108938938

 

BOOK: Ville KARI, The Classical Doctrine of Civil War in International Law [Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, eds. Larissa VAN DEN HERIK, &Jean D'ASPREMONT] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), ISBN 9781009218665

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

In the classical law of nations there was a doctrine of civil war. This book sets out to recover the forgotten legal tradition that shaped the modern world from 1575-1975. The result is an autonomous reassessment of four hundred years of the law of insurgencies and revolutions, both in state practice and in legal scholarship. Its journey through centuries of rebellion and the rule of law touches some of the most basic questions of international law across ages. What does it mean to stand among the nations of the world? Who should be welcomed among the subjects of international law, who should not, and who should decide? Its findings not only help make the classical doctrine understandable again, but also offer potential new insights for present-day lawyers about the origins, aspirations and vulnerabilities of the legal tradition with which they work today.

Rad more here.

CHAIR: Chaire Villey 2026, James Q. WHITMAN, « La transformation du rang social » (Paris: Université Paris II, Salle des Conseils, 21-22 MAY 2026)

 

(image source: Institut Villey)

Description of the chair:

La Chaire Villey – Paris Jurisprudence Chair – est une conférence annuelle organisée à l’Université Panthéon-Assas par l’Institut Michel Villey. Elle est prononcée par un universitaire dont les travaux dans le domaine de la philosophie du droit et de l’histoire de la pensée juridique sont particulièrement remarquables.

On the chair holder:

James Q. Whitman is the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. He earned his B.A. and J.D. from Yale University and Law School and also holds an M.A. in European History from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Intellectual History from the University of Chicago. From 1988-1989, Professor Whitman clerked for the Hon. Ralph K. Winter of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, then began his teaching career at Stanford University Law School. He has taught as a visiting professor at universities in France and Italy and has been a professor at Yale Law School since 1994. In 1996 he became the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law. Professor Whitman’s many articles have been published internationally and across disciplines. He has also been awarded numerous prizes and fellowships throughout his career. In 2008 he published The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial, which received an honorable mention, Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association, 2009. His book The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War appeared in 2012. He was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2010-2011. His other scholarship includes an article, « The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty » published in the 2004 volume of The Yale Law Journal. His 2003 book, Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe, published by the Oxford University Press, won the 2004 Distinguished Book Award of the Division of International Criminology of the American Society of Criminology.

Read more here. 

CLH ARTICLE: Mehmed BECIC, The Commercial Law for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1883: A legal transplant debate perspective (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 2 (December), pp. 222-251)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

Abstract: 

The subject of this article is the Commercial Law for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1883. This law represented a legal transplant of German commercial law. At the time of its adoption in 1883, the Commercial Law did not represent a mirror of society. However, archival sources point to the fact that the government did not actually aim to impose a law that reflected the socio-economic conditions or business and commercial practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The imposition of this legal transplant was aimed at unifying commercial law in a unified customs territory. A contextual analysis, based on archival sources, economic policies and economic history, confirmed that the government was interested in imposing precisely this kind of legal solution (legal transplant) to achieve specific legal, social and economic effects and transform the existing socio-legal and economic system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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.2025.2579472