BOOK: Bram VAN HOFSTRAETEN, Het vennootschapswezen in vroegmodern Antwerpen (1480-1620) [Iuris Scripta Historica; 33] (Leuven: Peeters, 2025), VIII + 480 p. ISBN 9789042955356, € 85

(image source: Peeters)

Abstract:

In 1608 werd in Antwerpen de Consuetudines compilatae voltooid. Deze vierde en laatste redactiepoging van het Antwerpse gewoonterecht bevat maar liefst 27 artikels van vennootschapsrechtelijke aard. Kort na het verschijnen van de compilatie weerklonk echter de kritiek dat de redacteuren tal van nieuwe, niet-costumiere normen hadden ingevoerd. Dit boek onderzoekt de houdbaarheid van deze kritiek, in het bijzonder met betrekking tot het geredigeerde vennootschapsrecht. Enerzijds wordt de juridische oorsprong van de vennootschapsrechtelijke bepalingen in de Consuetudines compilatae onderzocht; anderzijds wordt hun inhoud getoetst aan de vennootschappelijke gebruiken zoals die in de zestiende-eeuwse handelspraktijk geobserveerd werden. Als dusdanig zal blijken dat de redacteuren in de eerste plaats remedies wensten te formuleren voor de meest voorkomende oorzaken van vennootschapsgerelateerde onenigheden. Dat zij zich hierbij vaak lieten inspireren door niet-Antwerpse en niet-costumiere rechtsbronnen beïnvloedde de verhouding tussen het geredigeerde vennootschapsrecht en de Antwerpse ondernemers. Men had immers een juridisch kader gecreëerd dat niet noodzakelijk strookte met de gangbare zestiende-eeuwse vennootschappelijke gebruiken in de Scheldestad.

See table of contents here.

More information with the publisher.

 

WORKSHOP: Saskia LETTMAIER, "Marriage and Madness: The Origins of the Marriage of Lunatics Act of 1742" [Stanford Center for Law and History Workshop] (Stanford: Stanford University, 5 MAY 2026) (9:45 PM - 10:45 PM CET) [HYBRID]

 (image source: Stanford Center for Law and History - Programs and Centers - Stanford Law School) 

Saskia Lettmaier, Professor of Law and Global Legal History at the University of Hamburg, will present her paper, "Marriage and Madness: The Origins of the Marriage of Lunatics Act of 1742"

Abstract:

In 2021, the Parliament of the Irish Republic—as the last legislature in Great Britain and Ireland—abolished an Act to Prevent the Marriage of Lunatics. This Act had its origins in a British statute of 1742, which was subsequently extended to Ireland and was in force in all parts of the British isles from 1811 until 1959, when it was abolished for England and Wales. The Act has been almost completely ignored by (legal) history. Quite undeservedly so, for it may claim to be the first English general act since the Elizabethan settlement to interfere with the traditional canon law of marriage, predating the much more famous Hardwicke Marriage Act by more than a decade. It rendered absolutely void the marriages of persons who had been found lunatic by commission under the Great Seal or whose persons and estates had been placed under trustees by Act of Parliament. Such persons could no longer contract a valid marriage after 24 June 1742, not even during a lucid interval, unless they had first been declared of sound mind by the Lord Chancellor or other competent authority. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that unsuitable marriages by lunatics constituted a widespread social problem in mid-eighteenth-century England. Given the English reluctance to pass general acts in this period, why was the esoteric topic of lunatics’ marriage singled out for general legislative treatment, rather than being dealt with—like the thorny issue of divorce—through private acts on a case-by-case basis? This paper seeks to answer that puzzle. In doing so, it explores the intersection of marriage law, property protection, elite family strategy, and parliamentary power, taking us into the worlds of high society and high politics in eighteenth-century Britain.

 Pratical information:

                             Tuesday, May 5

                         12:45-1:45 PM (PT)
          Room 320D, Stanford Law School

                              and via Zoom 

To RSVP, click here. 

SEMINAR: Disabilities and Women in Ancient Rome: Legal, social and cultural perspectives (Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 4 MAY 2026) [HYBRID]

 

(image source: UH)

Disabilities and Women in Ancient Rome: Legal, social and cultural perspectives 

 University of Helsinki

Workshop: In-person&Online

In person participation: University of Helsinki, Main Building (Unioninkatu 34), Room U3039 (3rd floor)

Registration through this form

Remote participation: via Zoom (https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/69089076203)

 Monday, 4 May 2026, from 10:00 to 17:30 EEST

Program:

10:00–11:15 keynote: Prof. Christian Laes: Women and disabilities in Antiquity: between presentism and daily life 

11:30–13:00 session 1: Disabled Women in the Roman Narratives 

Sofia Vierula: The case of Harpaste: Lived experience of disability in Seneca’s letter to Lucilius 

Mathilde Chartrand: The Daily Life of a Furiosa: On the Gendered Consequences of Mental Illness

Fran Geldard: Enslavement and Disability in Eusebian Martyr Narrative

[Lunch] 

14:00–15:30 session 2: Women, Disability and Roman Law

Arnaud Paturet: Some Reflections on the Status of Deaf People by Roman Jurists 

Kaius Tuori: Infirmity and monstrosity: on the legal construction of female disability in law

Jana Mauri Marlborough: Against All Odds: The Legal Position of Wet Nurses in Roman Law

[Coffee]

16:00–17:30 session 3: Intersections of Gender and Disability in Late Antiquity 

Gaetana Balestra: Muta puella fuit: The Mute Woman between tutela mulierum and Justinian's Legislation.

Elena Pezzato Heck: Mental Illness as Grounds for Repudiation in Late Antiquity and the Justinian Era

Arttu Alaranta: Vulnerable Life-Cycle Moments and Disabilities in Women’s Asceticism during Late Antiquity 

More information is available on UH website. 

 

BOOK: Violet SOEN, Wouter DRUWÉ, Wim FRANCOIS & Ralph DECONINCK (eds.), Innovationes Lovanienses: Arts, Law and Theology at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) [Lectio; 18] (Turnhout: Brepols, 2026)

 

(image source: TRN)

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.

Table of contents: 

Introduction
Innovationes Lovanienses: What Is New about the ‘Old’ University of Louvain (1425–1797)? (Violet Soen)
Part I. The Faculty of Arts and the Collegium Trilingue
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)
Part II. The Faculties of Canon and Civil Law
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 and Theologians on Issues of Monopolies and Competition (1500–1670) (Wout Vandermeulen)
Part III. The Faculty of Theology and the Jesuit College
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 Lovanienses (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’ De gratia efficaci (1610) (C. J. (Niels) de Bruijn)
Vision, Love, and Joy: The Louvain Jesuit Leonard Lessius (1554–1623) on Beatitude (Patrícia Calvário)
Index

(source: Theology Research News)

BOOK: Sebastian SPITRA, Kolonialismus und Recht. Eine Globalgeschichte (Wien: Campus Verlag, 2026), 156 p. ISBN 9783593521831, € 28

 

(image source: Campus Verlag)

Abstract:

Rechtsordnungen stehen heute unter Druck. Die globalen Krisen der Gegenwart bilden schwerwiegende Herausforderungen für eine normenbasierte Ordnung der Welt mit einer langen Liste an Brenn- und Kipppunkten, seien es der völkerrechtswidrige Angriffskrieg Russlands, weltweite Pandemien, Fluchtbewegungen oder die Klimakrise. Viele dieser Probleme sind Ausdruck der bis heute spürbaren Folgen des Kolonialismus und Imperialismus, die seit der Neuzeit die Welt prägten. Kolonialismus war dabei nicht nur Eroberung, Gewalt und Unterdrückung – er war zugleich auch ein Projekt des Rechts. Doch wie nutzten Staaten und Gesellschaften das Recht? Wie wurde Recht zum zentralen Austragungsort kolonialer Ordnung? Wie kamen Herrschaft, Kooperation und Widerstand zusammen? Sebastian M. Spitra geht diesen Fragen von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Dekolonisierung im 20. Jahrhundert nach und bezieht gegenwärtige Fragestellungen mit ein, etwa die Reparationen für koloniales Unrecht oder die Restitution von Kulturgütern mit kolonialer Provenienz. Das Buch bringt erstmals die Geschichte des Rechts und die Geschichte des Kolonialismus in einer kompakten Monografie zusammen. Sein globalgeschichtlicher Ansatz bezieht auch die Normen und Rechtsvorstellungen indigener und nicht-europäischer Gesellschaften mit ein und eröffnet dadurch eine ganz neue Perspektive auf die Geschichte des Kolonialismus.

On the author:

Dr. Sebastian M. Spitra ist Postdoc-Forscher am Institut für Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte der Universität Wien sowie Mitglied der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur | Mainz. Als Experte war er für das Österreichische Bundeskanzleramt und ICOM Austria im Rahmen des Projekts »Das Museum im kolonialen Kontext« tätig. 

Read more with the publisher. 

BOOK: Elena PEZZATO HECK, Le leggi di Costantino, l’eletto e il santo, Teodosio e Leone: Un’indagine sulle costituzioni imperiali loro attribuite nel Libro siro-romano di diritto [Seminario giuridico della Università di Bologna CCCLIII] (Bologna: Bologna University Press, 2026), 428 p., ISBN 9791254777749

 

(image source: BUP)

Abstract:

Il volume propone un’innovativa analisi della normativa imperiale richiamata nei paragrafi del Libro siro-romano di diritto, esaminati nel testo originale siriaco secondo l’edizione di Selb e Kaufhold, di cui si offre un’accurata esegesi corredata di traduzione. L’indagine si concentra, in particolare, sulle innovazioni legislative attribuite a Costantino, Teodosio II e Leone, poste a confronto con le constitutiones imperiali trasmesse dal Codex Theodosianus e dal Codex Iustinianus, nonché con le ulteriori fonti disponibili. Attraverso un’analisi puntuale e metodologicamente rigorosa, lo studio contribuisce a ridefinire, sotto molteplici profili, la fisionomia e la funzione del Libro siro-romano di diritto e, più in generale, ad approfondire la nostra conoscenza della legislazione imperiale tardoantica e dei suoi processi di trasmissione e rielaborazione.

Table of contents:

Parte I: Le attribuzioni normative a Costantino nel Libro siro-romano di diritto
          Capitolo 1: Costantino e la manumissio in ecclesia
          Capitolo 2: Costantino e la normativa a favore del clero
Parte II: Le attribuzioni normative a Teodosio II nel Libro siro-romano di diritto
          Capitolo 3: Teodosio II e la prescrizione trentennale delle azioni
          Capitolo 4: Teodosio II e la destinazione dei lucri nuziali
Parte III: Le attribuzioni normative a Leone nel Libro siro-romano di diritto
          Capitolo 5: Leone, la dote e la donazione nuziale

          Capitolo 6: Leone, gli eretici, la festività domenicale e l'esecuzione forzata dei clerici

Find more on BUP. 

BOOK: Marek NOVÁK, Glossators and Commentators at the Strahov Library (Prague: Karolinum Press, 2025), 334 p., ISBN 978-80-246-6043-1

 

(image source: KP)

Abstract:

Private law in the Czech Republic, as in many countries, has its roots in Roman law, which reached its peak through codification by Emperor Justinian. However, modern civil codes are not directly based on Roman law source texts but on their later reception by medieval and modern jurists. This study aims to identify writings by authors belonging to the earliest stages of Roman law reception in the as-of-yet unsorted collection of the library of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov. It discovers the works of glossators and commentators, analyses manuscripts, incunabula, and old prints and supplements the related data with examples of the used working methods. In addition, one of the results of the research was a set of proposals for correcting the library catalogue, which has already been implemented. The study therefore offers current shelf marks in alignment with the actual state of the collection and aims to serve as a practical guide for researchers interested in studying this segment of legal history.

Table of contents:

1. The beginnings of the reception of Roman law
2. Glossators
          2.1 Legal school
          2.2 Literary forms
                    2.2.1 Glossae
                    2.2.2 Summae
                    2.2.3 Tractatus
                    2.2.4 Quaestiones
                    2.2.5 Lecturae
                    2.2.6 Other forms
          2.3 Authors and writings at the Strahov Library
                    2.3.1 Accursius
                    2.3.2 Azo
                    2.3.3 Odofredus
                    2.3.4 Placentinus
                    2.3.5 Roffredus
 3. Commentators
          3.1 Legal school
          3.2 Literary forms
                    3.2.1 Commentaria
                    3.2.2 Tractatus
                    3.2.3 Consilia
                    3.2.4 Quaestiones disputatae
                    3.2.5 Repetitiones
                    3.2.6 Other forms
          3.3 Authors and writings at the Strahov Library
                    3.3.1 Accoltis Aretinus, Franciscus de
                    3.3.2 Bologninus, Ludovicus
                    3.3.3 Castro, Paulus de
                    3.3.4 Cumanus, Raphael Raymundus
                    3.3.5 Decius, Philippus
                    3.3.6 Fulgosius, Raphael
                    3.3.7 Gambilionibus, Angelus Aretinus de
                    3.3.8 Laudensis, Martinus Garratus
                    3.3.9 Mayno, Jason de
                    3.3.10 Mugellanus, Dinus de Rossonis
                    3.3.11 Penna, Lucas de
                    3.3.12 Pistorio, Cinus de Sigibuldis de
                    3.3.13 Pontanus, Ludovicus
                    3.3.14 Rosate, Albericus de
                    3.3.15 Salyceto, Bartholomaeus de
                    3.3.16 Sancto Petro, Florianus de
                    3.3.17 Saxoferrato, Bartolus de
                    3.3.18 Socinus, Bartholomaeus
                    3.3.19 Tartagnus, Alexander
                    3.3.20 Ubaldis, Angelus de

                    3.3.21 Ubaldis, Baldus de

Find more on Karolinum Press&The Chicago University Press.

LECTURE: David ARMITAGE, ""Poland was but a breakfast": or, why 1772 helps us to understand 1776" [2026 Annual George Rousseau Lecture] (Oxford: Magdalen College, 13 MAY 2026)

 

(image source: Oxford)

Description:

The American Revolution is now widely accepted to have been the last civil war within the British Empire of the Atlantic world. However, British, imperial, and Atlantic contexts do not exhaust the historical frames essential to understand the Revolution or, more specifically, 1776. For contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, Europe—particularly the European balance of power—was the most important setting for the fears raised by the American War. The greatest assault on that balance of power had occurred only four years before 1776 in 1772 with the first Partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia and Russia. This lecture shows how fears of partition, "Poland like", drove the decision for American independence and how the Polish response to partition shaped the British counterblast to the Declaration of Independence. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.

On the speaker:

David Armitage is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History and former Chair of the Department of History at Harvard University, where he teaches intellectual history and international history. He is also an Affiliated Professor in the Harvard Department of Government, an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School, and an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Sydney. Before coming to Harvard in 2004, he taught for eleven years at Columbia University. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, among them The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000), The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (2007), Foundations of Modern International Thought (2013), The History Manifesto (co-auth., 2014), and Civil Wars: A History in Ideas (2017). Among his edited works are Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (co-ed., 2009), The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, c. 1760-1840 (co-ed., 2010), and Pacific Histories: Ocean, Land, People (co-ed., 2014).

More information here. 

 

ARTICLE: Ignacio DE LA RASILLA DEL MORAL, "The Rise, Relative Fall and Globalisation of Transnational Law Journals (1964-2024)" (Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht/Heidelberg Journal of International Law LXXXV (2025), 803-835) [OPEN ACCESS]

Abstract:

This article represents the first attempt to retrace and map the historical and contemporary evolution of transnational law journals, thereby unveiling a blind spot in the history of scientific periodicals in international law. Section I provides a contextualised overview of the emergence of the first generation of transnational law journals, a subset of student-edited interna- tional law journals published in the United States between 1964 and 1984. Section II situates the relative decline of transnational law journals in the United States (US) and the early stages of their globalisation within the broader context of the significant transformations experienced by interna- tional law journals worldwide between 1984 and 2004. Section III examines the decisive contemporary globalisation of transnational law journals in light of key drivers that have reshaped the landscape of international legal publish- ing during this period, including increased specialisation, the widespread adoption of blind peer review, legal hybridisation, and inter-disciplinarisa- tion. The conclusion summarises the article’s main findings and outlines the promising prospects for transnational law journals in light of historical patterns, particularly amid growing doubts about the problem-solving capac- ity of traditional state-centred international law.

Read the article here: DOI 10.17104/0044-2348-2025-3-803.

BOOK: Claudia FEDERICO, La proprietà collettiva in Italia, con particolare attenzione ai territori dell'ex Stato pontificio, e in Spagna (Milano: Giuffrè, 2026), 457 p., ISBN 9788828882527

 

(image source: Giuffrè)

Abstract:

Nel presente lavoro l’Autrice analizza una forma di appartenenza fondiaria antichissima, la proprietà collettiva, nella sua evoluzione storico-giuridica sia in Italia, e in particolar modo nei territori dell’ex Stato Pontificio, sia in Spagna, attraverso uno studio comparato condotto mediante l’esame della dottrina, della giurisprudenza e della legislazione, anche antiche, sia italiane che spagnole, e l’analisi critica delle fonti consultate, comprese quelle inedite rinvenute in numerosi archivi.
Si fornisce così una visione ampia del fenomeno proprietario collettivo, dalle prime testimonianze scritte medievali fino alla realtà attuale, quale epilogo della strenua difesa da parte delle comunità alle usurpazioni e agli attacchi statali iniziati progressivamente dal XV secolo e culminati nel 1800, mettendo in luce le affascinanti analogie esistenti nei due Paesi e il ruolo che in entrambi ha avuto e ha tutt’ora la collettività titolare anche a fronte dei nuovi recenti interventi legislativi.

Table of contents:

Capitolo I: La proprietà collettiva nella attuale realtà italiana e spagnola

Capitolo II: La proprietà collettiva nelle fonti normative locali medievali nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio e in Spagna

          Sezione 1: La proprietà collettiva nelle fonti normative locali medievali nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio

          Sezione 2: La proprietà collettiva nelle fonti normative locali medievali in Spagna

Capitolo III: Il grande attacco statale alla proprietà collettiva nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio e in Spagna

          Sezione 1: Nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio

          Sezione 2: In Spagna

Capitolo IV: Il recupero della proprietà collettiva e della gestione diretta da parte della comunità nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio e in Spagna

          Sezione 1: Il recupero della proprietà collettiva nei territori dell'ex Stato Pontificio

          Sezione 2: Il recupero della proprietà collettiva in Spagna

Epilogo: Nuovi attacchi alla proprietà collettiva

Find more here.

BOOK: Andrew FITZMAURICE & Rachel HAMMERSLEY (eds.), The Cambridge HIstory of Rights, vol. III: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries [The Cambridge History of Rights, ed. Nehal BHUTA, Anthony PAGDEN & Mira L. SIEGELBERG] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), ISBN 9781108938853, 120 GBP

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemporary authors explored the myriad ways in which the concept of rights could be understood but almost always arrived at the same conclusion: It was vital that rights should never be conflated with power. Through twenty-six expertly written essays, Volume III of The Cambridge History of Rights focuses on the language of rights, exploring its use in contexts as diverse as the English family, trading relations, and Asian powers. This was a period in which rights came to the forefront of political discourse, making it crucial to the longer history of rights reflected in this series. By foregrounding the idea of rights in action, the volume considers the relationship between the ways in which rights were articulated – by individuals, institutions, and states – and how they were enacted in practice. In doing so, it uncovers the complexities inherent in the development of the language of rights during this formative period.

Table of contents:

Introduction Andrew Fitzmaurice and Rachel Hammersley

1. Roman law: the science of right Daniel Lee

2. Natural rights Mads Langballe Jensen

3. Historic rights in sixteenth-century France Sophie Nicholls

4. Common law rights Alan Cromartie

5. The rights of states to self-preservation Simone Zurbuchen

6. The Right of natural persons to self-preservation Rosemarie Wagner

7. Divine right in early modern political thought Cesare Cuttica

8. The right to punish Signey Gutnick Allen

9. The rights of war and peace Peter Schröder

10. The right of navigation: claiming and challenging the free sea in theory and practice Arthur Westeijn

11. The right to trade, 1500 –1700 Mark Somos

12. The right to property Andrew Fitzmaurice

13. Fair trials in law: imagining the rights of the accused Paul D. Halliday

14. Freedom of religion Stefania Tutino

15. The right of resistance Kajo Kubala

16. The Right to Political participation and representation Markku Peltonen

17. Rights and power in early modern feminism Hannah Dawson

18. Gender and rights Anna Becker

19. The rights of women Sharon Achinstein

20. The rights of the insane Angus Gowland

21. The rights of asylum Gaby Mahlberg

22. The rights of peoples in Spain and its empire Tamar Herzog

23. The rights of people in the English empire Ken Macmillan

24. Rights in the seventeenth-century French empire Saliha Belmessous

25. Rights, authority, and autonomy: the VOC in seventeenth century Southeast Asia Peter Borschberg.

Read more here: DOI 10.1017/9781108938853

BOOK: Michael REYNOLDS, Instruments of Peacemaking 1918-1941. The Failure of Diplomacy (London: Bloomsbury, 2026), 328 p. ISBN 9781509976287

 

(image source: Hart)

Abstract:

This book is a sequel to Instruments of Peacemaking 1870-1914 in that it considers how attempts were made to settle disputes between states without recourse to war after 'the war to end all wars'. It considers the idealism of President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points which formed the basis for the Armistice in 1918, and his scheme for a League of Nations providing for self-determination of nations and 'collective security' for European states. It goes on to analyse the key challenges that faced statesmen and jurists in attempting to resolve disputes under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. It considers the consequences of the Peace Conference of 1919 as well as defects in the treaty as an instrument for resolving future disputes and tensions between the victors and the vanquished. Cases referred to the Reparations Commission and to arbitration under the Treaty of Versailles regarding boundary, industrial property, and shipping including the Lusitania claims are considered. More importantly, it analyses the diplomatic challenges faced by statesmen after 1919. The decline and failure of Wilsonian idealism, the League of Nations, collective security, and diplomacy are traced through the various diplomatic exchanges that took place between governments from official records and contemporaneous accounts of the times as well as academic sources. Mr Chamberlain's private diplomacy to appease Hitler is critically analysed. The final chapter briefly considers aspects of America's isolationism resulting in the attack on Pearl Harbor and her peacetime state of unreadiness.

Table of contents:

Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of Cases
Table of Legal and Related Instruments

1. A New International Order or a Precarious Armistice
2. Arbitration as an Instrument of Dispute Resolution
3. Diplomacy as an Instrument of Prevention
4. The Crisis that Led to War and Why Diplomacy Failed

5. American and Japanese Relations

On the author:

Michael Reynolds is a lawyer, arbitrator and Professor of Dispute Resolution and Arbitration at BPP University Law School, UK. He is also a member of The Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). 

Read more here.

 (source: Legal History Blog)

BOOK: Anastasia HAMMERSCHMIED, Empörung und Tabu. Sexuelle Kriegsgewalt im Völkerrecht des späten 19. Jahrhunderts [Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts, eds. Jochen VON BERNSTORFF, Bardo FASSBENDER, Anne PETERS, Milos VEC] (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2025), 467 p. ISBN 9783756036219, € 154,

 

(image source: Nomos)

Abstract:

Dieses Buch dekonstruiert das verbreitete Narrativ, sexuelle Kriegsgewalt sei erst in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts völkerrechtlich verboten worden. Anhand von Fallstudien zu Kriegen im 19. Jahrhundert – im europäischen Zentrum und auf dem Balkan – zeigt es, dass sexuelle Gewalt damals bereits untersagt war. Die Debatten darüber fanden jedoch fast ausschließlich in (semi-)kolonialen Kontexten statt, wo solche Gewalt als Zeichen „unzivilisierter“ Kriegsführung galt. In europäischen Kriegen hingegen wurde sie als überwunden betrachtet und tabuisiert. Analysiert werden neben völkerrechtlichen Quellen auch journalistische, diplomatische und aktivistische Diskurse, um Völkerrecht als diskursive Praxis zu verstehen.

Read more here.

BOOK: José María BENEYTO & Ignacio DE LA RASILLA (eds.), Carl Schmitt and Francisco de Vitoria. The Paradox of Universalism in International Law [Legal History Library, eds. Dirk HEIRBAUT, Michelle McKINLEY, Matthew C. MIROW, C.H. VAN RHEE, 84; Studies in the History of International Law, 31] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2026), ISBN 9789004757448, € 214,17

 

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

What could the critically-labelled 'crown jurist of the Third Reich' and a 16th-century Dominican friar at Salamanca University—long revered as the founding father of international law during the age of discovery—possibly share? This pioneering multi-author volume is the first to examine the Vitoria–Schmitt nexus in the history and theory of international law, bringing together two classic thinkers whose radically different yet profoundly influential ideas continue to shape international law and political thought well into the 21st century.

Contributors:

Contributors are: Paolo Amorosa, André Azevedo Alves, Joseph W. Bendersky, José María Beneyto, Ignacio de la Rasilla, Lauren Benton, Leonor Durão Barroso, Maximiliano Hernández Marcos, Ryan Martinez Mitchell, David Pan, Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín, Juan Pablo Scarfi, Ville Suurone, Christopher Rossi, David Roth-Isigkeit, Johannes Thumfart, Jochen Von Bernstorff, Valentina Vadi, and Miguel Vatter. 

On the editors:

José María Beneyto, Ph.D. (1982) & Ph.D. (1986), Münster University, is Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of International Law, European Law, and International Relations at CEU San Pablo University in Madrid, as well as Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard University. Ignacio de la Rasilla, Ph.D. (2011), University of Geneva, is Han Depei Chair in International Law and ‘One Thousand Talents Plan Professor’ at the Wuhan University Institute of International Law and the Wuhan Academy of International Law and Global Governance in China. 

 Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004757448.

 

 

BOOK: Kai Uwe Rober BERRER, Der Einfirmenvertreter im deutschen Recht. Eine rechtshistorische Untersuchung [Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte; 233] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2026), 247 p., ISBN 978-3-428-19626-5

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 

Von der Entstehung des Handelsvertreterberufes bis in die Gegenwart hinein zeichnet die Arbeit den rechtshistorischen Weg nach, auf dem der Einfirmenvertreter Eingang in das deutsche Recht gefunden hat. Sie widmet sich dabei besonders den mehrfachen Versuchen des Gesetzgebers, diesem arbeitnehmerähnlichen Vertretertypus sowohl prozessual als auch materiell-rechtlich einen besonderen arbeitsrechtlichen Schutz zukommen zu lassen, und beleuchtet die Hintergründe, an denen dieses Vorhaben bis heute gescheitert ist. Mit Blick auf die spezifische prozessuale Situation von geringverdienenden Einfirmenvertretern veranschaulicht die Arbeit schließlich, auf welche Weise und in welchem Umfang deren arbeitsgerichtliche Klagebefugnis systematisch leergelaufen ist, so dass diese Gruppe von besonders schutzwürdigen Einfirmenvertretern aus Sicht des Autors mittlerweile in ihrem grundrechtsgleichen Anspruch auf wirkungsvollen Rechtsschutz nach Art. 2 Abs. 1 i.V.m. Art. 20 Abs. 3 GG verletzt ist.

 

TABLE OF CONTENT:

 

A. Der Handelsagent als Vorstufe des Handelsvertreters

B. Der Handelsagent im Rahmen des ADHGB

C. Der Handelsagent zwischen ADHGB und HGB

D. Der Handlungsagent im HGB vom 10. Mai 1897

E. Der Handlungsagent zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts

F. Der Einfirmenvertreter im Entwurf eines Handelsvertretergesetzes der Akademie für Deutsches Recht von 1940

G. Der Handelsvertreter während der Besatzungs- und Nachkriegszeit

H. Der Einfirmenvertreter nach der HGB-Novelle vom 6. Aug. 1953

I. Der Einfirmenvertreter als arbeitnehmerähnliche Person

J. Der Einfirmenvertreter als Scheinselbständiger 

 

Find more here. 

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Iustoria 2026: In the Shadow of Empires (Belgrade: University of Belgrade, 11-13 MAY 2026) [DEADLINE 30 APR 2026]

  

Iustoria 2026: In the Shadow of Empires

The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law is now receiving paper proposals for the Sixth student conference on legal history – the Iustoria 2026, to be held on May 11^th-13^th, 2026, its topic being “In the Shadow of Empires”.

In 2026, we mark the 1,550th anniversary of the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 – an event that reshaped the map and destiny of Europe at the time. Nevertheless, this political collapse could not erase a thousand years of the development of Roman law, which later returned to Western Europe through the rediscovery of the Digest and the work of numerous schools that studied and applied Roman law, from the glossators to the pandectists. By contrast, in the Eastern Roman – Rhomaian – Byzantine Empire, Roman law, increasingly enriched with Greek and Christian components, continued to develop for another thousand years, exerting a significant influence on many neighbouring lands, above all the Slavic countries. In order to commemorate this important anniversary, we seek to invite discussion on the emergence, development, dissemination, and influence of the legal systems of empires and imperial polities – from the Roman Empire and other great empires of antiquity, through their successors in the medieval and modern periods, up to today’s informal empires that extend their influence through an order that formally proclaims the equality of peoples and democracy.

Research may focus on the legal organization of empires themselves from various perspectives – or on their relations with other states (including numerous issues of international law and the use of force), as well as on transplants from their laws into other legal systems, whether imposed or voluntarily adopted. It is also legitimate to pose the question – either at a theoretical level or through concrete case studies – which characteristics distinguish the law of an empire from the law of a small nation-state. Across different empires throughout history, we can find examples of both cosmopolitanism and discrimination, making it particularly interesting to consider whether an empire tends to view its inhabitants primarily as citizens endowed with rights or as subjects who chiefly owe it obligations, what is required to acquire citizenship, and how its legal system treats those who do not possess it. Whatever constitutes the principal basis of power of a given empire – whether military conquest, slavery, or “soft power” – will inevitably be reflected in its legal system, allowing us to trace the emergence and development of many specific legal institutions.

All students of undergraduate and post-graduate studies pertaining to law or other humanities are eligible to apply for the conference. The applications should contain basic personal information (name and surname, faculty, department, level and year of study), along with an extended abstract containing between 500 and 1000 words. Applications are accepted in either Serbian or English.

The applications should be e-mailed to iustoria@ius.bg.ac.rs before April 15^th, 2026. The students will be informed by April 20^th whether or not their application has been accepted. For any additional information you may enquire at the same e-mail address, and important news will also be published at the official Facebook page of the conference – https://www.facebook.com/iustoria

Just like on our previous conferences, apart from the presentations given by their colleagues, the students at the conference will have an opportunity to attend several lectures given by renowned experts – more details on this will be available in the final version of the programme.

The conference will be held in a hybrid format: both in-person and online participation will be possible. We'll do our best to secure accommodations either in student dormitories or with student host families for participants who don’t reside in Belgrade and who wish to participate in person. These arrangements will depend on the number of available spots. 

The final versions of the papers presented at the conference, with final changes and corrections submitted within a reasonable time after the conference, will be submitted for publication in the journal „Vesnik pravne istorije / Herald of Legal History“ (http://epub.ius.bg.ac.rs/index.php/Vesnik/index). The deadline for the submission of papers is July 15th 2026.

BOOK: Daniel STAHL, Bedrohliches Geschäft. Waffenhandel und Völkerrecht in Zeiten imperialer Expansion (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2025), 439 p., ISBN 9783111239392

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Die völkerrechtliche Regulierung des Waffenhandels war während der ersten Jahrzehnte des 20. Jahrhunderts ein zentrales Thema internationaler Abrüstungspolitik. Die Studie untersucht, warum das internationale Geschäft mit Rüstungsgütern zum Gegenstand gesellschaftlicher Debatten und internationaler Verhandlungen wurde, was die Regulierungsbemühungen und -forderungen über die internationale Politik des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts aussagen und inwiefern sie sie veränderten. Dabei nimmt sie die Regierungen sowohl der Großmächte als auch mindermächtiger Staaten, Experten beim Völkerbund, Friedensaktivist*innen und Gewerkschaften in den Blick. Sie zeigt, dass in den Auseinandersetzungen um Waffenhandelsregulierungen zweierlei verhandelt wurde: Erstens ging es darum, imperiale Hierarchien durchzusetzen, aufrechtzuerhalten oder infrage zu stellen. Zweitens ging es um das Machtgefüge in den Gesellschaften der industrialisierten Staaten, das sich im Zuge der imperialen Expansion veränderte. Der Aufstieg privater Rüstungsunternehmen fachte Debatten darüber an, wie kapitalistische Wertschöpfung die Gestaltung internationaler Politik prägte und welchen Einfluss sie auf Fragen nach Krieg und Frieden hatte.

Find more here. 

BOOK TALK: Lauri MÄLKSOO, Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law (Ghent: UGent, 27 APR 2026)

(image source: LinkedIn)

Abstract:

To what extent do imperial and Soviet legal traditions still shape today’s international legal order? And how do these historical frameworks continue to influence ideas of statehood and sovereignty? These questions are central to the latest book by Professor Lauri Mälksoo (University of Tartu), 'Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law' (Oxford University Press 2025). On 27 April 2026, Mälksoo will present his work during an expert seminar at Ghent University, within the framework of the FWO Senior Research Project 'Soviet Approaches to Emergency'. This seminar is organised by the Ghent Legal History Institute and the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI). Dr Alina Cherviatsova will moderate.

Registration here. 

BOOK: Martin LÖHNIG, Kamila STAUDIGL-CIECHOWICZ (eds.), Das Burgenland als rechtlicher Zwischenraum [Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte; 235] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2026), 454 p., ISBN 978-3-428-19600-5

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 

Mit der Eingliederung Deutsch-Westungarns als Burgenland in die Republik Österreich im Jahr 1921 entstand ein einzigartiger rechtlicher Übergangsraum. Über Jahre hinweg galt in der neuen österreichischen Region weiterhin ungarisches Recht, während zugleich eine schrittweise Angleichung an die österreichische Rechtsordnung erfolgte. Der Band beleuchtet diese außergewöhnliche Konstellation aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven der Rechts- und Zeitgeschichte. Die Beiträge untersuchen unter anderem die internationalen Friedensverträge nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, die politischen und rechtlichen Auseinandersetzungen um die Zugehörigkeit Westungarns sowie die praktischen Herausforderungen der Rechtsübernahme und der erstrebten Rechtsangleichung. Auf der Grundlage aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und bislang wenig erschlossener Quellen entsteht ein facettenreiches Bild einer Region zwischen zwei Rechtsordnungen und politischen Systemen.

 

TABLE OF CONTENT:

 

Thomas Olechowski
Das Burgenland, die Pariser Vorortverträge und das Venediger Protokoll

Kamila Staudigl-Ciechowicz
Ungarisches Recht – Burgenländisches Recht – Österreichisches Recht? Zwischen Rechtspartikularismus und Rechtsübernahme

Kinga Beliznai
»Vielleicht die einzige gute Sache«. Die Fortgeltung des ungarischen Eherechts im Burgenland nach 1921

Christian Neschwara
Ungarisches Eherecht im österreichischen Burgenland

Gerald Kohl und Raphael Kaplan
Probleme des Grundbuchsrechts im Burgenland

Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal
Heimatrecht und Staatsbürgerschaft im Burgenland in der Zeit des Übergangs von Ungarn an Österreich. Rechtsgrundlagen und Rechtspraxis

Christian Neschwara
Ungarisches und österreichisches Notariatsrecht. Die ehemals ungarischen und die ersten österreichischen Notare im Burgenland

Ondřej Horák und Bence Zsolt Kovács
Die Rolle des ungarischen Zivilrechts bei der Rechtsvereinheitlichung in der Tschechoslowakei in den Jahren 1918 – 1948. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Erbrechts

Herbert Küpper
Jenseits des Burgenlands. Rechtliche Zwischenräume und gemischte Rechtsordnungen in weiteren Staaten der Region

Martin Löhnig
Die jüngere Rechtsgeschichte des Burgenlands als Teil einer alternativen europäischen Rechtsgeschichte der Moderne

Gebhard Klötzl
Wiener Bibliographie zum ungarischen Recht 1800 – 1918 (judizielle Fächer)

 

Find more here.