FIRST VIEW ARTICLES: Law and History Review [OPEN ACCESS]

(image source: CUP)

 

Female Perseverance in the Courtroom: Gendered Litigation Patterns in Early Modern Brabant and Limburg (Klaas Van Gelder) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101862
Abstract:

This article contributes both methodologically and substantially to the debates on uses of justice in early modern Europe and, more specifically, about how and to what extent women asserted their rights in the courtroom. The approach is quantitative, with an analysis involving three courts in the duchies of Brabant and Limburg during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries: the princely Council of Brabant as well as the local aldermen’s benches of the towns of Vilvoorde and Tienen. Systematically determining the proportion of women at the beginning of court cases (through the court rolls and distribution books) and comparing it to the proportion at the end of the proceedings (through the judgment books) reveals remarkable gender patterns: When women decided to go to court, they were more likely than men to litigate until a final judgment was rendered. Moreover, they sued on a narrower range of issues than men, with a preponderance of cases on inheritance, annuities, and debts. The explanation for this perseverance in court may be that women were less able to use informal forums for conflict resolution, or—more likely based on the sources that form the basis of this contribution—that they experienced a greater need to prove their rights than men.

From Exclusion to Protection: Chinese Merchant Capital in the Philippines Under US Law and Empire, 1921–1926 (Jilene Adelina Chan Chua) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101837
Abstract:

Scholarship about the Chinese Question has largely understood it as a “coolie” question, but what if it was reframed in terms of merchants? Well-studied US anti-Chinese laws like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act targeted working-class rather than elite Chinese, like merchants and students. But in 1921, the US-controlled Insular Government in the Philippines enacted a statute known as the Chinese Bookkeeping Act (Act No. 2972), marking a moment when US Chinese exclusion laws were directed toward businessowners. The act banned Chinese-language record-keeping and affected merchants ranging from small storeowners to multi-millionaire tycoons. A group of Chinese merchants in the Philippines sued the colonial government and appealed their case to the US Supreme Court, which ruled the Bookkeeping Act unconstitutional in 1926. For the “coolie” Chinese question, the US Supreme Court said “yes” to exclusion, but for the merchant Chinese question, the Court said “no.” The Court’s rejection of a merchant Chinese exclusion became part of the Philippines’ transformation into a US colony. In relation to a patriotic Filipino capital and unmarked Euro-American capital, Chinese capital won rights even as it was framed within US law as “alien” by American and Filipino judges and politicians and, surprisingly, by the Chinese merchants themselves.

Keeping It (Too Much) in the Family: Annulment by Reason of Affinity in Eighteenth-Century Venice (Celeste McNamara) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI
Abstract:

Although divorce was increasingly available through religious and civil courts in 18th-century Europe, the Catholic Church still considered marriage indissoluble. Thus, the only legal route out of a marriage was annulment. Historians have noted several strategies for annulments in premodern Europe, most often claims of lack of consent. One less common but interesting way to seek annulment was to claim affinity by fornication, in which one spouse claimed a premarital sexual relationship with a close relative of the other. Couples could also make a similar claim of a violation of public honesty, in which a person was originally betrothed to one person but then married their close relative. Both constituted impediments to marriage according to canon law. In 18th-century Venice, the Patriarchal tribunal heard a steady stream of these cases. Couples, along with their families, friends, and neighbors, provided detailed testimony to the tribunal to attain annulments. This article argues that the narrative structures and testimonies in these cases demonstrate that 18th-century Venetians thought that bad marriages should not be indissoluble, in spite of the Catholic Church’s refusal to allow divorce, and were willing to push the boundaries of truth to work around the legal restrictions they faced.

Love or Law: Viking Foundations of Medieval English Dispute Settlement (Jake A. Stattel) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101850
Abstract:

In prominent legal historical works, Michael Clanchy and Stephen D. White constructed an important paradigm for medieval dispute settlement by adapting the phrase “law and love” from the Anglo-Norman Leges Henrici Primi. Yet, rarely has this aphorism’s background been explored. This article argues that “love or law” has roots in Viking-Age Scandinavia, where this Old Norse terminology represented a unique dynamic of dispute resolution revolving around harsh “law” pressuring parties to make “love” settlements outside of court. Contrasting sharply with Anglo-Saxon disputing norms centered on formal compensation tariffs, “love or law” found its way to England’s tenth-century Danelaw, first recorded in the Wantage Code. This alliterative pair continues in English writings, while “love-days” become a major cultural feature, and more broadly, the dynamic of threateningly punitive “law” inducing “love” agreements appears in action within early common law case records. In ways that recollect Icelandic and Danelaw practices, negotiated compensation occurring “under the shadow of law” may have been a major feature of medieval English dispute as hinted by our surviving sources. Scandinavian dispute concepts, occasionally coined by unique “love or law” vocabulary, may have had a subtle yet profound influence on some of the grounding assumptions of English common law. 

Filling the Legal Void: Missionaries as Legal Actors in Regulating Monogamous Unions in the Congo Free State (1885–1908) (Ilaria Masseroni) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101916
Abstract:

In the Congo Free State, where the administration of Leopold II concentrated on economic exploitation and largely neglected family law, Belgian missionaries assumed functions the state left unattended. This article examines how they became legal actors in the regulation of marriage between 1885 and 1908, imposing monogamy as a condition of Christian and civilized life against the widespread practice of polygamy. Officiating marriages, keeping civil registers, adjudicating disputes over dowry, and organizing Catholic villages where monogamous unions were institutionalized, missionaries operated as intermediaries between the colonial administration and Congolese communities, their authority resting at once on canon law and on the practical demands of governance. Drawing on missionary periodicals, correspondence, decrees, and administrative records, the study reconstructs a legal role that has received little scholarly attention, situating it within debates on legal pluralism and vernacular imperial constitutionalism that treat law as a fluid practice articulated by diverse actors rather than a fixed body of metropolitan rules. By placing missionaries at the center of colonial lawmaking, the article shows how religion and law were interwoven in the making of the colonial state, even as local communities resisted and reshaped the norms imposed upon them. In conclusion, this study reveals the complexities of missionary involvement in colonial governance and offers new insights into the intersection of law, religion, and colonialism in Central Africa.

Law and Justice in the Court of the Marshalsea of the King’s Household, 1509–1547 (Jonathan McGovern)  [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101941
Abstract:

The court of the marshalsea, which originated in the late thirteenth century, exercised jurisdiction over a circular area of twelve miles’ radius centered on the king’s current residence. This article offers the first scholarly discussion of this mysterious court in the reign of Henry VIII. It begins by discussing the court’s criminal jurisdiction and its judicial procedure in felony cases, explaining the significance of a 1542 statute that expanded and clarified its jurisdiction over serious crimes committed within the palace precinct. The article then analyzes the court’s civil jurisdiction and suggests reasons why its officers may have been willing to stretch jurisdictional rules in cases of trespass. Next, the article discusses what is known about the personnel of the court, charting the rise of the under-steward of the marshalsea (referred to as steward from 1539) as its chief controlling officer. I show that by 1542, the court’s jurisdiction had become trifurcated into a plea side, an rdinary criminal side, and a “palace” criminal side. Reforms to the court in the reign of Henry VIII illustrate a general process of judicial regularization that occurred in the early sixteenth century. The regularization of legal institutions during Henry’s reign was a “reformation from within” that promised to be far less destructive than the “reformation from without” forced on the marshalsea and other legal institutions under the Stuarts.

The Founding as Ideology (Aaron Hall) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101886
Abstract:

The “Founding” is a keyword in the United States’ constitutional vocabulary. Across popular politics, public law, and civic culture, it signifies a closed moment of constitutional creation—and often much more. Invocations commonly involve vague yet powerful significations about constitutional authority, memory, and meaning-making. Particularly as “originalist” judicial and academic writing leans on these submerged qualities, it is worth asking: what is the Founding? This Article proposes a conceptual answer in historical context. Through a close study of contours of antebellum constitutionalism, it argues for understanding the Founding as an ideology that committed Americans to venerate and defer to an authoritative, originary constitutional era. Forged as citizens grappled with the politics of slavery, the Founding structured language and perception, motivated action and inaction, and delimited boundaries of political possibility. This Article studies two essential sites of inculcation apart from formal power—civic ceremonies and educational practices—to sketch the structure of the constitutional Founding as ideology. Then, it outlines how that ideology authorized constitutional actions of voting, legislating, judging, protesting, and seceding. In conclusion, the Article suggests that its analysis models a broader framework for interpreting the diffuse materials of constitutional life across periodizations of constitutional history. Approaching the Founding as ideology can allow scholars to better see how its relative authority over time and the purposes to which it has been directed have shaped American constitutional experience.

Writing Women into the Constitution: Gendered Citizenship and Reproductive Autonomy in Republican China (Yu Liu)  [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248026101801
Abstract:

This article reinterprets the constitutional history of Republican China by foregrounding women as active participants in constitution-making and critique. While the Guomindang (KMT) portrayed constitutions as instruments to conclude the Nationalist Revolution, proclaiming gender equality as already achieved and subsuming women’s rights under nationalist and eugenic imperatives, feminist actors engaged constitutional discourse as a strategic arena for political struggle. Drawing on writings, petitions, and debates from the 1930s to the 1940s, the article shows how women transformed reproductive labor, maternal welfare, and birth control into constitutional questions central to the meaning of citizenship. Through birth control clinics, Women’s Constitutional Research Associations, and lobbying for quotas, equal pay, maternity protections, and property rights, feminists treated the constitution not as a fixed text but as an opportunity to reshape institutional design and challenge structures that perpetuated gendered exclusion. Their critiques exposed the biopolitical logics embedded in eugenic policy, marriage regulation, and maternalist ideology, while their proposals articulated a competing vision of constitutionalism that sought to use legal reform as leverage for broader transformation. Situating the Chinese case alongside global examples of bottom-up constitutional engagement, the article argues that women’s activism produced a distinctly gendered form of popular constitutionalism. It highlights both the possibilities and limits of pursuing equality through constitutional reform within an ascendant party-state and underscores the enduring tension between constitutional governance and women’s reproductive autonomy.

Time Out of Joint: Raymond Carré de Malberg and the Referendum in the Public Law of the Third Republic (Amnon Lev) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI  10.1017/S0738248026101783
Abstract: 

The article examines the state theory of French public lawyer Raymond Carrré de Malberg. It argues that he responds in a highly original way to a crisis of public law government that is tied to the emergence of the social sciences and to the democratization of society. The analysis ties Carré de Malberg’s attempt to salvage the idea of public law government to his reflections on the referendum, which he will reject as incompatible with the regime of the Third Republic, only to rehabilitate it in his late work. The analysis brings to light a depletion of the ideological resources of public law government, which speaks to a European-wide crisis of public law. As we shall show, it also speaks to an overarching crisis of a bourgeois society that had channeled its power through the legislature but realized that this organ of government would not continue to be the seat of power in society.

Marjorie CARVALHO DE SOUZA, Punishment, labour and the legitimation of power, eds. Adam S FAGBORE, Nabhojeet SEN and Katherine ROSCOE (Routledge: Abingdon, 2025) (Comparative Legal History, XIV (2026), nr. 1 (June), pp. 169-172)

(image source: Taylor&Francis)

Punishment, Labour and the Legitimation of Power, edited by Adam S. Fagbore, Nabhojeet Sen, and Katherine Roscoe, is the second volume in the series Social History of Punishment and Labour Coercion, initially published by Amsterdam University Press and now under Routledge. The series intends to be a 'platform for expansive understandings' of both punishment and labour coercion. By 'expansive', the series editors mean the analysis of a broad range of forms of punishment, enforced either by state apparatuses or non-state actors, as well as a wide spectrum of labour regimes, from wage labour and enslavement to indenture, tribute, convict, or unpaid labour. 

This collective volume reflects that ambition not only in its thematic range, which includes under the notion of 'punishment' practices such as imprisonment, branding, banishment, convict labour, debt bondage, and penal servitude, but also in its geographical and temporal coverage. Overall, it spans over five millennia across four continents, from ancient Mesopotamia to eighteenth-century Japan, China, and Mongolia, and from Merovingian Gaul to nineteenth-century Portuguese Africa. 

A rich introductory essay by the volume's three editors provides the framing for these diverse themes, geographies, and temporalities. They establish theoretical unity via a ‘Trans-cultural and Trans-epochal Perspective on Labour Mobility,’ defining the term not only as the capacity to move but also as the mobilisation into coerced labour. 

The essays are organised into three clearly defined analytical axes, each comprising three chapters, which together trace three distinct temporal arcs from antiquity to the contemporary period. 

Part I examines the relationship between punishment and the production of labour relations, both in its role of sustaining existing labour regimes and also in generating new ones. It includes contributions that explore punishment as a means of facilitating well-known shifts between labour systems, such as the end of slavery in the Atlantic world, but also as a mechanism for managing the workforce in less familiar contexts of heightened labour demand, such as ancient Egypt. 

It is from this latter historical context that the section opens, with Adam Simon Fagbore's study of Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt. This contribution examines the central government's attempts to immobilise personnel within protected royal and temple endowments through a broad range of punitive practices, which targeted not only field labourers but also local officials who failed to […]

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

DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671638

Book: Assaf LIKHOVSKI, Legal Theory in the Colonies: Hindu and Jewish Scholars under British Rule [Studies in Legal History, eds. Lisa FORD, Thomas MCSWEENEY, Reuel SCHILLER & Taisu ZHANG] (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026), 442 p. ISBN 9781009699907, £32 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

Abstract:

In colonial India and Mandatory Palestine, early-twentieth-century legal scholars made important contributions to the study of the nature of law, particularly by analyzing Hindu and Jewish law – their ancient religious systems. This book reconstructs the lives and ideas of these scholars, revealing a forgotten global wave of jurisprudential innovation that appeared across many territories in the non-Western world. The book challenges the view that non-Western legal scholars working in the colonies were passive recipients of Western ideas. It argues that Indian and Jewish thinkers used Western historical and sociological approaches to law to reimagine Hindu and Jewish law, and to assert their relevance to modern legal and constitutional debates. Though historical in scope, the story this book tells is also relevant to contemporary tensions between Western liberal law and non-Western religious legal traditions.

On the author:

Assaf Likhovski is the Danielle Rubinstein Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law. He is the author of Law and Identity in Mandate Palestine and Tax, Law, and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. 

 Read more about the book here. Read the book in open access here.

BOOK: Artur SIMONYAN, Development of Regional International Law. Lessons from Russia and Eurasia (London: Routledge, 2026), 230 p; ISBN 9781003599173, € 168

 

(image source: Routledge)

Abstract:

This book explores the evolution and internalisation of regional international law in the Eurasian Russian context, covering historical, contemporary, and future perspectives. Providing a forward-looking analysis, the book makes predictions as to how emerging geopolitical and geoeconomic trends will influence the development of regional international law and the balance of power within the Eurasian region. Analysing perceptions of universalism and regionalism across various historical periods in Eurasia, the book focuses on what now encompasses the post-Soviet states, with wider lessons for the international legal community. The book discusses Russia's use of international law to sustain its geopolitical objectives and the subsequent responses from neighbouring states. Evaluating Soviet international law and its relationship with regionalism and universality, the book also explores post-Soviet Russia's efforts to redefine international law by creating its own vision of regional (Eurasian) international law through regional organizations such as the CIS, CSTO, and EAEU in the post-Soviet Eurasian space. Within the current context of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it explores how the post-Soviet Eurasian states have navigated their legal and political landscapes amidst competing pressures from both regional and global actors. The book will be of interest to researchers in the field of international law, alongside Eurasian Russian politics.

Table of contents:

Part I: Russia, International Law, and The French Revolution: A Universalist Counter-project and Its Regional Uses

1. The French Revolution and the Remaking of International Law

2. Counter-revolutionary Responses to Revolutionary International Law: The Russian Empire’s View

3. Territorial Expansion and Intervention: Russia’s Departure from the Byzantine-centred Regional Conception of International Law

 

Part II: Two Socialist International Laws: Between Universalism and Regionalism

4. Constructing Socialist International Law: An Early Attempt       

5. Socialist International Law Reasserted: The Brezhnev Doctrine 

6. The Union Republics and International Law: From Socialist Self-Determination to grossraum (dis)ordering

 

Part III: Post-Soviet Eurasia: Between Multipolarity and Regional Legal Ordering

7. Russia’s Dual Position vis-à-vis Contemporary International Law: A Weak Universal Guardian and a Regional Hegemon

8. Consolidating Regional International Law in Post-Soviet Eurasia

 

Conclusion: Universality as a Form of Regional Ordering   

On the author:

Artur Simonyan is an Assistant Professor of International Law at the American University of Armenia. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg and a senior fellow at the Berlin-Potsdam research group “International Rule of Law: Rise or Decline?” at the Free University of Berlin. He holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Tartu. His articles have appeared in the European Journal of International Law, the Chinese Journal of International Law, and the Hague Yearbook of International Law and the Baltic Yearbook of International Law, among others. His research and teaching focus on the history and theory of international law and critical approaches to international law.

Read the book here: DOI 10.4324/9781003599173.

ONLINE SEMINAR: History and Law Seminar: Meet the editors of legal history journals (30 NOV, 4pm GMT)

 Abstract:

Join Allison Tirres, Craig Green and David Schorr for a discussion about publishing research in law and history. This session offers an opportunity to hear editors’ perspectives on developing an article, choosing a journal and navigating submission, peer review and revisions. Whether you are preparing your first submission or developing your next publication, come along to ask questions and gain practical insights into the publishing process. Postgraduate researchers, early career scholars and colleagues at all career stages are welcome.

More information here. 

(source: Dr Victoria Barnes)

📝 Join the ESCLH Blog Team

 

The blog of the European Society for Comparative Legal History is looking for new colleagues to join the team of bloggers.

The ESCLH Blog has become an international resource for announcements of new publications, calls for papers, funding opportunities, and other scholarly news at the intersection of law, history, and the wider humanities and social sciences, across Europe and beyond.

Joining the team of bloggers is an opportunity to contribute to a vibrant scholarly community and help bring research and opportunities to an international readership. Bloggers are expected to contribute three to four posts per month.

We welcome applications from scholars across all jurisdictions and legal traditions, and particularly encourage those whose backgrounds or perspectives are currently underrepresented within the team to apply. The position of blogger is not paid.

Interested in joining us? Please send your CV and a brief motivation letter to esclh blog at gmail dot com by 15 November 2026.

REMINDER CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Transitions and Transfers [9th ESCLH Biennial Conference 2027] (Lund: Lund University, 21-23 JUN 2027) [DEADLINE: 31 OCT 2026]

  

(image source: olinconferences)

As announced in June, the call for papers for the 9th ESCLH Biennial Conference in Lund (21-23 June 2027) is open until 31 October 2026.

The conference now has its dedicated website at https://olinconferences.com.

JOURNAL: Právněhistorické studie / Legal History Studies LVI (2026), Nr. 2 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: Charles University Karolinum Press)

On the journal:

Právněhistorické studie / Legal History Studies (Charles University journal; below referred to as PHS or Journal) is a scientific journal listed in the international prestigious database SCOPUS. The journal is published by Charles University in Prague under the guarantee of the Department of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. It is published by the Karolinum Press. The journal focuses on the field of legal history and related topics. Issue 1 of the Journal was published by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Publishing in June 1955. The Journal was initially published by the Cabinet of Legal History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (CSAV), later by the Institute of State and Law (CSAV) and then by the Institute of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. PHS is issued three times a year in April, August, and December and it presents original scientific works/papers as well as reviews, annotations and news from the scientific field of legal history. It also introduces annotated texts of a legal history nature. PHS accepts manuscripts from domestic as well as foreign authors. Manuscripts submitted by foreign authors are published in original language, namely in English, Slovak, German, French, Italian or Polish. PHS (ISSN 0079-4929) is registered in the Czech national ISSN centre (supervised by the State Technical Library). The Journal is registered by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic according to Act No. 46/2000 Sb., on Rights and Liabilities for the Publishing of Periodicals and Change of Some Acts (Press Act), and it is allocated with registration number of periodical press MK E 18813. PHS is an open journal and ensures open access to scientific data (Open Access). The entire content is released as open to the public on the web pages of the journal.

Table of contents (with links to the articles):

Editorial
Petra Skřejpková

• Od rituálov k alimentácii: Náčrt raného vývoja fideikomisov v prospech familia libertorum
  Timotej Práznovský
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.550
  Abstract:
  
  The paper explores the early development of the Roman legal institution known as the fideicommissum familiae relictum, with a particular focus on its application in favour of groups of freedmen (familia libertorum). It argues that the phrase ne de nomine suo exiret – commonly found in testamentary dispositions and funerary inscriptions – reflects a concern with ensuring the continuity of burial rites and private cults (sacra privata). Drawing on epigraphic evidence and legal sources, particularly the Digest of Justinian and fragments from jurists such as Aburnius Valens and Scaevola, the paper examines how land bequests to freedmen were structured to guarantee the upkeep of tombs and the perpetuation of ancestral worship. The analysis reveals that over time, particularly from the mid-2nd century CE onward, the institution appears to have shifted towards a more alimentary function, providing support for freedmen in the absence of biological heirs. Legislative developments, such as Hadrian’s ban on dispositions to uncertain persons (personae incertae), curtailed the long-term application of such fideicommissa, leading to alternative legal mechanisms, including transfers to municipalities. The development of fideicommissa in favour of freedmen thus illustrates broader transformations in Roman private law and social practice, including the decline of traditional religion and the rise of new forms of property management and welfare provision in the Roman world.
  
  
• K vplyvu provinčných práv a východorímskych právnických škôl na zavedenie pojmu dos adventicia do justiniánskej kodifikácie
  Róbert Brtko
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.551
  Abstract:
  
  The article examines the origin and legal significance of the concept of dos adventicia in Roman law. Although Justinianic sources and post-classical legal texts distinguish between dos profecticia and dos adventicia, the article proceeds from the thesis that this distinction was not originally formulated by classical Roman jurists. On the basis of an analysis of Ulpian’s fragment D. 23, 3, 5, the relevant scholia to the Basilica, the post-classical Regulae Ulpiani, and imperial constitutions preserved in Justinian’s Code, it is shown that classical law primarily operated with the category of dos profecticia, whereas other forms of dowry were defined only negatively, that is, as dowry not originating from the father of the family or from his property. Particular attention is paid to the interpolated passages in D. 23, 3, 5, 9 and D. 23, 3, 5, 11, as well as to the rescript of Emperor Gordian III preserved in C. I. 6, 20, 4. The article further examines the influence of provincial legal traditions, Hellenistic legal culture, and the pedagogical activity of Eastern Roman law schools, especially those in Berytus and Constantinople, on the terminology and systematics of the legal regulation of dowry. It concludes that dos adventicia should be understood not as an authentic classical concept, but rather as a product of post-classical legal development that was later incorporated into Justinian’s codification.
• Between Custom and Sanction: Theft in the Vinodol Code and the Poljica Statute
  Fuad-Meša Čičić
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.552
  Abstract:
  
  This paper addresses the regulation of theft as an illicit act in two major medieval Croatian legal monuments: the Vinodol Code (1288) and the Statute of Poljica. Rather than offering a systematic comparison of legal systems, the study concentrates on the legal nature, normative structure, and penal treatment of theft within these statutory frameworks, situating the offence in its broader social and institutional context. The central premise is that, although medieval law did not articulate theft through modern criminal-law categories, both statutes treated it as conduct attracting distinctly criminal sanctions rather than as a purely civil wrong. Attention is directed to the criteria shaping liability and punishment, including the manner of commission, the value of the stolen property, the status of the parties, and the communal or territorial context of the offence. In the Vinodol Code, theft is predominantly addressed through graded pecuniary sanctions and restitution, reflecting a compensatory model. By contrast, the Statute of Poljica adopts a markedly stricter penal regime, frequently prescribing corporal punishment, capital sanctions, and social exclusion, thereby emphasizing deterrence and collective self-protection within a customary legal order. Both legal monuments place considerable emphasis on communal participation in adjudication, including compurgation and character-based proof, illustrating a legal culture in which property offences were regulated through collective responsibility and social control. While certain conceptual parallels with Roman law may be observed, the regulation of theft in both texts is primarily rooted in native legal traditions shaped by local social structures and customary norms. The paper situates theft as a key indicator of the criminal dimension of medieval Croatian statutory law and its role in preserving social order and communal cohesion.
  
  
• Autokratické tendence německého císaře Viléma II. ve vztahu k legislativnímu procesu Říšského sněmu (1888–1900)
  František Stellner, Kristina Kaiserová
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.553
  Abstract:
  
  The study “Autocratic Tendencies of German Emperor Wilhelm II in Relation to the Legislative Process of the Reichstag (1888–1900)” analyzes the constitutional and political framework of the German Empire during the reign of Wilhelm II, focusing on his approach to the legislative process and interaction with the Reichstag. It examines whether the emperor’s attitude toward parliament evolved in connection with personnel changes in the highest German and Prussian offices and how the dual identity of “emperor-king” influenced governance. The paper discusses mechanisms of pressure and circumvention applied by Wilhelm II toward the Reichstag, including rhetoric, court networks, and personnel policy, and evaluates their limits within the federal structure. It also addresses the concept of “personal rule” and its historiographical interpretations, contrasting rhetorical antiparliamentarism with practical dependence on parliamentary majorities. The analysis combines micro- and macro-historical perspectives, using constitutional texts, parliamentary records, and correspondence of key actors. The conclusion emphasizes that despite autocratic impulses, the emperor’s power was structurally constrained, and legislative outcomes depended on negotiation and compromise, contributing to the gradual parliamentarization of decision-making in the German Empire.
• Výzva svědomí a hledání spravedlnosti – Tolstého „Vzkříšení“ z pohledu práva
  Radim Seltenreich
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.554
  Abstract:
  
  In his article, the author discusses Tolstoy’s work Resurrection, which is often characterized as a distinctly “legal novel”. For a better understanding of the context, he first introduces us to Tolstoy’s life and work, in which law played an important role, if only because he studied law, even though he did not complete his studies. In this context, for example, he showed a lifelong interest in the issue of the death penalty. The novel Resurrection is based on a real case that Tolstoy learned about from the famous Russian lawyer Koni. Tolstoy changed the facts somewhat, but it is interesting to note that in the novel he makes precise references to specific legal provisions during the court proceedings. The work is a strong criticism of criminal law and the prison system in Russia at the time, with Tolstoy also addressing the philosophy of crime and punishment, rejecting the punishment of one person by another as part of his “Christian anarchism”.
  
  
• Veřejní notáři na meziválečné Podkarpatské Rusi
  David Hubený
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.555
  Abstract:
  
  As in many other areas of the administration of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, in the area of justice, a number of temporary measures persisted, which proved to be long-term, but mainly functional, even if they did not fully satisfy the call for the fulfillment of autonomous status. In the case of public notaries, this was also mostly due to the fact that an independent organizational arrangement would not be practical and viable, considering the size and population of the given territory. Therefore, the public notaries of Subcarpathia were initially administered by the Košice judicial board, or rather by the local high court, and later joined the organization of Slovak public notaries. Looking at the biographies of many public notaries, one cannot help but get the impression that in the case of appointment to the position, it was a reward for previous political or official activity in favor of Czechoslovakia or the promotion of Slavic reciprocity, sometimes, on the contrary, it could be a saturation of a not entirely reliable public figure. Although, considering the very small number of notaries, it might seem that in the conditions of Subcarpathian Ruthenia it was a lucrative position ensuring more than a decent income, most of the public notaries there got into financial problems in the first half of the thirties, and even in times of boom not all positions were economically advantageous enough to ensure their holders a sufficient livelihood. Knowing this fact, it is clear how very poor Subcarpathian Ruthenia was and how desperate the situation of the vast majority of the local population was.
  
  
• Německé vojenské soudnictví a vojenské trestní právo se zvláštním zřetelem k Protektorátu Čechy a Morava
  Jaromír Tauchen
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.556
  Abstract:
  
  The article deals with the activities of the German military judiciary (Wehrmachtjustiz) in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during the period of Nazi occupation. Despite its significance, this issue has so far been neglected in Czech legal historiography. The study presents a systematic analysis of the structure, legal basis and operation of German military courts, whose jurisdiction extended beyond German military personnel to include Czech civilians. Particular attention is paid to the legal foundations of military criminal law, the specific features of court proceedings, and the ideological instrumentalization of military justice as a tool of repression. The functioning of military courts is illustrated through selected institutional examples, especially the military court of the 193rd Division stationed in Prague. The study demonstrates how military criminal law and procedure, especially after 1939, gradually developed into an instrument of terror used to suppress resistance, discipline soldiers and enforce ideological conformity. The text is based on original archival materials, including directives, military court rulings and legal regulations of the Third Reich.
• Kodifizierung vertraglicher Rechtsgeschäfte zwischen natürlichen Personen im V. Teil des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches von 1964 in der Tschechoslowakei. Allgemeine Definition, politischer und internationaler Kontext und konzeptionelle Fragen
  Jiří Šouša, Vít Mužík
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.557
  Abstract:
  
  Following the recent anniversary of the Czechoslovak Civil Code of 1964, this article contributes to the legal-historical and civil law scientific discourse on this legal regulation. The article is the first of two articles focusing on contractual obligations between natural persons. These obligations were intended to be supplementary to the services provided mainly by legal entities. It focuses primarily on codification work concerning contractual obligation law, its conceptualization, and the legal institution of civil assistance, all in the context of the preparation of the 1964 Civil Code, or rather in the context of the recodification of law in Czechoslovakia and other Eastern Bloc countries in the 1960s. The article also reflects specific cases and points out the similarities and specific features that distinguished the Civil Code of 1964 from a historical and international perspective. The article shows the extent to which the examined regulation of Part V of the Civil Code of 1964 was an expression of the political doctrine of the 1960s in the context of other innovations, or in relation to the traditional Marxist-Leninist doctrine. The article shows whether, and to what extent, similar to the later International Trade Code, it followed (or rather suffered from) traditional elements of obligations, albeit in a modified and truncated form and using the terminology of the time, in contrast to the rest of the 1964 Civil Code. The article highlights the differences between law in books and law in action. It therefore also addresses issues of continuity and discontinuity, autonomy of the parties’ free will, and the scope for judicial discretion with regard to the topic under examination. The article also reflects the finding that experience with the Civil Code of 1964 shows that the political utilitarianism of law does not necessarily limit its adaptability and functionality. On the contrary, even such regulations can be very adaptable to social and legal evolution. The most important general findings and insights from the research are clearly summarized in the conclusion. The article will be followed by another article by the same authors, which will focus on specific legal institutions of contractual law between natural persons according to the original wording of Part V of the Czechoslovak Civil Code of 1964.
  
  
• „V krvi důkaz, ztratíš průkaz!“ aneb k trestnému činu opilství v socialistickém Československu
  Milan Dobeš
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.558
  Abstract:
  
  The article focuses on the offence of drunkenness, understood as an endangerment offence, with particular emphasis on drink-driving. It combines a doctrinal legal analysis with an examination of criminal files from the District Court for Prague 1 and surveys the interpretation of the statutory elements, investigative and evidentiary practice, and sanctioning policy. In the sanctioning dimension, a central role is played by disqualification from activity – most notably disqualification from driving – conceived as an instrument of both special and general prevention and as a means of the immediate protection of public safety. The imposition and duration of disqualification reflected the degree of intoxication, the nature and circumstances of the driving, recidivism, and the offender’s professional responsibility; in more serious cases it was supplemented by a custodial sentence. The article also addresses practical issues in the enforcement of disqualification and their implications. The individualisation of punishment was further shaped by assessments and guarantees issued by workplace collectives and other socialist organisations, which could support the choice of a more lenient sanction or the early remission of the remainder of the disqualification.
  
  
• The Concept of Possession in Roman Law and Common Law
  Barbora Hniličková
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.559
  Abstract:
  
  This article examines the legal regulation of possession in Roman law and in contemporary common law. Its objective is to identify and assess the key similarities and differences between these two legal traditions and to demonstrate that, despite their fundamental systematic distinctions, the influence of Roman law on the development of common law has been more substantial than often assumed. The analysis shows that, notwithstanding divergent historical developments and systematic characteristics, both systems articulate conceptually comparable understandings of possession. The findings further confirm that Roman law contributed, at least to some degree, to the shaping of common law, underscoring the enduring reach of Roman law not only within continental legal systems but also within modern common law jurisdictions.
• Crimen maiestatis: Symbolism and Ritual Protection of Authority in Roman Criminal Law
  Marie Neumann
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.560
  Abstract:
  
  This article focuses on the development of the crime of high treason throughout the era of the Roman Empire, focusing on symbolism and ritual protection of authority in Roman criminal law. Using legal sources and historical cases, it illustrates the changes of this offence, with an emphasis on the changing perceptions of authority. The article draws on legal sources, especially the Code of Justinian and Theodosius and the Digest of Justinian, but also on non-legal sources, especially the work of Titus Livy, as well as other ancient historians. Furthermore, the article works with a variety of domestic and foreign secondary sources, especially monographs and scholarly articles.
• Herbert David: Justice v říšské župě Sudety optikou vzpomínek jejího hlavního představitele
  Adam Šplíchal
  DOI  10.14712/2464689X.2026.561
  Abstract:
  
  This study examines the fate of justice in the Reichsgau Sudetenland through the recollections of its leading representative, Dr. Herbert David (1900–1987). Drawing on archival research in German repositories and David’s own memoirs, the article reconstructs the transformation of the legal system in the Sudetenland after its annexation to the Third Reich in 1938. David’s memories, written decades later, represent a unique and hitherto underexplored source that illuminates the personnel challenges, institutional restructuring, and ideological pressures faced by the judiciary in this border region. His testimony reveals both the practical functioning of courts under Nazi rule and the tensions between local actors and central Reich authorities. By contextualizing David’s narrative with secondary literature on Nazi law and Sudeten German politics, the article highlights the interplay between law, ideology, and power in a newly established Reichsgau. It also addresses the limitations and biases of David’s recollections, while emphasizing their value as the only surviving insider account of judicial administration in the Sudetenland during the years 1938–1945.
  
  
• Právní aspekty reorganizace československého divadelnictví po druhé světové válce
  Kateřina Šustová
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.562
  Abstract: 
  
  After World War II (in May 1945), Czechoslovakian theaters were reopened. The so-called theater revolution began, during which the theater industry in Czechoslovakia experienced fundamental changes in organizational structure. Despite the efforts of Austria-Hungary and the First Czechoslovak Republic, this space was still regulated by the Theater Act of November 25, 1850 (Ministry of the Interior law No. 454/1850). There were also plans to consolidate the regulation of the theater industry in Czechoslovakia, as Hungarian legal article XXXI had been in effect since 1848 in Slovakia. This was a different (and even older) legal regulation than the one in Bohemia. This work explores the legal considerations of the aforementioned reorganization of theaters. The main goal of the research is to describe how the pre-World War regulatory environment affected the evolution of theater industry regulation thereafter, including mapping out any significant path dependencies. This work subsequently addresses the regulatory changes that occurred in the theater industry after the adoption of the Theater Act in 1948. This author found that the adoption of the Theater Act in 1948 capped a long-term effort by theaters to modify the legal regulation of the theater industry. However, this impeded entrepreneurship and gave monopoly to government-designated theater operators, who were allowed to use the property of the previously private theaters. On the other hand, there were some positive changes, particularly in the field of theater education and puppet theater, which came to be seen as on equal footing with other types of theater arts. However, even the Theater Act of 1948 was not sufficient, and new theater regulation, Act No. 55/1957, on theater activities (Theatre Act), emerged shortly thereafter and came into effect on November 16, 1957.
  
  
• That’s What Should Be Done! Reflections on the Margins of the Monograph of Peter Candy, Ancient Maritime Loan Contracts
  Maciej Jońca
  DOI 10.14712/2464689X.2026.563
  Abstract:
  
  In 2025, Dr. Peter Candy (University of Cambridge) published a monograph titled “Ancient Maritime Loan Contracts”. In it, he challenged many of the findings that had been firmly established in the study of Roman law since the 19th century. In his examination of Roman maritime law, he first undertook a “democratization” of the ancient sources. This led him to a surprising conclusion. Namely, the Romans (like the Greeks) did not recognize a separate maritime loan contract. They used a single, consistent loan structure that could be adapted for various purposes – including conducting business at sea. This work deserves attention among legal historians because the author not only debunked a (seemingly) unshakable dogma but also demonstrated how ancient sources remain a flexible and forward-looking subject for research. There are no topics about which nothing more can be written, as long as there are people who are not afraid to ask old sources new questions.
  
  
• Ve službě právní historii – za profesorem JUDr. Karlem Malým, DrSc., dr.h.c.mult.
  Vladimír Kindl
  
• Zemřel doc. JUDr. Karel Schelle, CSc., spiritus rector Encyklopedie českých právních dějin
  Ladislav Vojáček
• BALOGH, E. (ed.). Golden Bulls and Chartas: European Medieval Documents of Liberties
  Jan Marčík
• VYŠNÝ, P. – MARTIŠKOVÁ, M. Praktikum zo svetových dejín štátu a práva
  Ingrid Lanczová
• POLLÁK, A. – KOLUMBER, D. – GAJARSKÝ, A. Keď zákony tvorí vláda a parlament mlčí. Zmocňovacia normotvorba na česko-slovenskom príklade v rokoch 1918–1945
  Jan Kabát
• TAUCHEN, J. (ed.) – KUBEŠ, V. Dějiny filozofie práva
  Vojtěch Jarkovský
• LACLAVÍKOVÁ, M. – DOMANICKÝ, M. Počiatky zľudovenia súdnictva a etablovanie funkcie sudcov z ľudu na Slovensku v rokoch 1948 – 1953 (normatívna báza a prvotné problémy)
  Ingrid Lanczová

Read the full issue here.