CALL FOR PAPERS: 2020 Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop (Los Angeles, 7-8 June 2020) (DEADLINE: 2 December 2019)

(Source: H-Announce)

Via H-Announce, we learned of the 2020 Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop.

2020 LAW AND HUMANITIES JUNIOR SCHOLARS WORKSHOP

Call for Papers

Columbia Law School, Georgetown University Law School, Stanford Law School, UCLA School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California Center for Law, History, and Culture invite submissions for the nineteenth meeting of the Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop, to be held at UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, June 7, and Monday, June 8, 2020. 

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

The paper competition is open to untenured professors, advanced graduate students, and post-doctoral scholars in law and the humanities. In addition to drawing from numerous humanistic fields, we welcome critical, qualitative work in the social sciences. We are especially interested in submissions from members of traditionally underrepresented groups.  We welcome submissions from those working at regional and teaching-intensive institutions.

Based on anonymous evaluation by an interdisciplinary selection committee, between five and ten papers will be chosen for presentation at the June Workshop. At the Workshop, two senior scholars will comment on each paper. Commentators and other Workshop participants will be asked to focus specifically on the strengths and weaknesses of the selected scholarly projects, with respect to subject and methodology. The selected papers will then serve as the basis for a larger conversation among all the participants about the evolving standards by which we judge excellence and creativity in interdisciplinary scholarship, as well as about the nature of interdisciplinarity itself.

The selected papers will appear in a special issue of the Legal Scholarship Network; there is no other publication commitment. (We will accommodate the wishes of chosen authors who prefer not to have their paper posted publicly with us because of publication commitments to other journals.)

The Workshop will pay the domestic travel and hotel expenses of authors whose papers are selected for presentation. For authors requiring airline travel from outside the United States, the Workshop will cover such travel expenses up to a maximum of $1000.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Papers must be works-in-progress that do not exceed 15,000 words in length (including footnotes/ endnotes); most papers selected for inclusion in recent years have been at least 10,000 words long. An abstract of no more than 200 words must also be included with the paper submission. A dissertation chapter may be submitted, but we strongly suggest that it be edited so as to stand alone as a piece of work with its own integrity. A paper that has been submitted for publication is eligible for selection so long as it will not be in galley proofs or in print at the time of the Workshop; it is important that authors still be in a position at the time of the Workshop to consider comments they receive there and to incorporate them as they think appropriate in their revisions.

We ask that those submitting papers be careful to omit or redact any information in the body of the paper that might serve to identify them, as we adhere to an anonymous or “blind” selection process.

Submissions (in Microsoft Word—no pdf files, please) will be accepted until December 2, 2019, and should be sent by e-mail to: juniorscholarsworkshop@sas.upenn.edu. Please be sure to include your name, institutional affiliation (if any), and phone and e-mail contact information in your covering email, not in the paper itself.

For more information, please send an email inquiry to juniorscholarsworkshop@sas.upenn.edu.

To see selected papers from some previous years’ workshops, go to:

http://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/law_culture/lh_workshop.

Anne Dailey, University of Connecticut Law School

Katherine Franke, Columbia Law School
Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania

Nan Goodman, University of Colorado
Ariela Gross, University of Southern California
Martha Jones, Johns Hopkins University

Naomi Mezey, Georgetown University Law Center
Paul Saint-Amour, University of Pennsylvania

Hilary Schor, University of Southern California
Norman Spaulding, Stanford Law School

Clyde Spillenger, UCLA School of Law
Nomi Stolzenberg, University of Southern California

Martha Umphrey, Amherst College

Conveners, 2020 Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop

Contact Email: 

juniorscholarsworkshop@sas.upenn.edu

More info here

SEMINAR SERIES: Cycle 2020 de conférences d'histoire de la pensée juridique moderne (Paris, February-April 2020)

(Source: Portail universitaire du droit)

Via the Portail universitaire du droit, we learned of the annual seminar series organized at Université Paris Descartes.

Présentation

Cycle de conférences sous la direction scientifique du Professeur Arnaud Vergne, Directeur de l'Institut d'Histoire du Droit, et du Professeur Anne Rousselet-Pimont de l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Programme

Vendredi 14 février 2020

14h00 : Qu'est-ce qu'une école de droit à l'époque contemporaine ?
M. Frédéric Audren, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, CEE - École de droit de Sciences Po

Mardi 3 mars 2020

14h00 : La séparation des pouvoirs dans la constitution norvégienne de 1814 et son interprétation au XIXe siècle
M. Eirik Holmøyvik, Professeur à l’Université de Bergen

Vendredi 3 avril 2020

11h30 : La genèse du modèle autrichien de juridiction constitutionnelle
M. Ewald Wiederin, Professeur à l'Université de Vienne

Vendredi 24 avril 2020

11h30 : Le particulier face à l'administration publique : citoyen ou sujet ? La conception française et sa réception équivoque en doctrine allemande au XIXe siècle
M. Stefan Hammer, Professeur à l'Université de Vienne

More info here

CALL FOR ENGAGED LISTENERS: The Individual in International Law – History and Theory (Berlin, 25-26 June 2020) (DEADLINE: 30 November 2019)

(Source: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law)

The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law has a call for engaged listeners.

WORKSHOP CONVENED BY PROFESSOR ANNE PETERS AND DR TOM SPARKS

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Harnack-Haus, Berlin

25th– 26th June 2020

Call for Engaged Listeners

Deadline: 30th November 2019

The interrelationship between international law and the individual has been the subject of a great

and growing interest by scholars in recent years. In many or most of international law’s subfields

and specialisms, the appropriate relationship between the interests of individuals and those of

other actors is the subject of important debates. On the other hand, we are currently witnessing a

return to statist principles in the debate and practice of international law, with an emphasis on

sovereignty, territory, and boundaries. Human rights and the idea of rights more generally are

under attack. Yet the analyses conducted of the individual’s position remain, in the main,

examinations of the positive law. A number of questions thus remain to be answered which go

beyond the individual’s treatment by various fields of international law in the present moment, in

particular from the perspectives of history and theory.

On the 25th-26th June 2020, an international workshop will be convened by Professor Anne

Peters and Dr Tom Sparks at the Max Planck Society’s premier conference venue, Berlin’s

Harnack-Haus. Selected scholars will present and discuss their papers on topics relating to the

individual in the history and theory of international law (a draft list of topics and speakers is

included below). These papers will subsequently be published as an edited volume under the

same title.

The Individual in International Law: History and Theory

Call for Engaged Listeners

A limited number of places are available for engaged listeners, who will participate in the

workshop as audience members and commentators (not as speakers). The organisers would like

to extend a warm invitation to participate to all those with an interest in the topics to be

discussed, in particular history of law, history of ideas, jurisprudence and legal theory, and critical

approaches to (international) law.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop as an engaged listener and thus in

contributing to our discussions, please send an application with a short letter of motivation

(maximum 400 words) explaining your interest in the conference and any links to your current

research, together with an up-to-date CV, to Ms Anette Kreutzfeld and Dr Tom Sparks, c/o

apeters-office@mpil.de. We particularly welcome applications from early-career scholars,

including current doctoral students, and from scholars working in institutions in the

global south.

The deadline for applications is 30th November 2019. Successful applicants will be notified

before 20th December 2019.

Participation in the workshop is free of charge, but will in general be at the expense of the

participant. Admitted engaged listeners will need to cover the costs of their own accommodation

and to arrange their own travel, and are strongly advised to do this early.

Thanks to the generous support of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsföderung we have a

small amount of funding available to contribute to the travel and accommodation costs of a

strictly limited number of scholars taking part in the workshop as engaged listeners. Due to our

intention to facilitate the attendance of early-career scholars and those without access to

funding, we kindly ask those that are able to do so to cover their own costs.

Date and Time: The workshop will take place from 09.00-18.00 on the 25th-26th June, 2020.

There will be an informal pre-conference get-together for speakers and engaged listeners on 24th

June.

Venue:Harnack-Haus, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany

http://www.harnackhaus-berlin.mpg.de/2316/en

For updated information on the workshop, see:

https://www.mpil.de/en/pub/research/areas/public-international-law/the-individual-in-

internationa.cfm

Anne Peters and Tom Sparks

Contact: apeters-office@mpil.de

The Individual in International Law: History and Theory

Call for Engaged Listeners

3

Provisional list of Topics and Speakers

(note: a confirmed programme with speakers and titles will be available online ahead of the workshop)

The Individual and International Law in Historical Perspective:

▪ International Law in Antiquity – Dr Eleanor Cowan, University of Sydney

▪ International Law 500-1500 – Dr Dante Fedele, KU Leuven/Professor Alain Wijffels,

KU Leuven

▪ International Law 1500-1648 – Dr Francesca Iurlaro, University of Milan

▪ International Law 1648-1789 – Dr Mark Somos, MPIL Heidelberg

▪ International Law 1789-1914 – Dr Inge Van Hulle, University of Tilburg

▪ International Law 1918-1945 – Professor Umut Özsu, Carleton University

The Individual in the Theory of International Law:

▪ The Individual in Contemporary International Legal Positivism – Professor Gleider

Hernández, KU Leuven

▪ The Individual in Contemporary Natural Law: Sacred Natural Law – Professor Rafael

Domingo, Emory University

▪ The Individual in Contemporary Natural Law: Secular Natural Law – Dr Tom Sparks,

MPIL Heidelberg

▪ The Individual in Third World Approaches to International Law – Professor B.S.

Chimni, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Emeritus)

▪ The Individual in Feminist Approaches to International Law – Dr Ruth Houghton,

Newcastle University

▪ The Individual in Marxist Approaches to International Law – Dr Ntina Tzouvala,

University of Melbourne

▪ The Individual in Global Law – Professor Ludovic Hennebel, Aix-Marseille/Ms Alice

Monicat, Aix-Marseille

▪ The Individual in the Constitutionalisation of International Law – Professor Başak Çalı,

Hertie School of Governance

▪ The Individual in Law and Economics – Professor Anne van Aaken, University of

Hamburg

▪ The Individual in Anthropological Approaches to International Law – Professor Miia

Halme-Tuomisaari, University of Helsinki

CONFERENCE: Early Modern Natural Law in Eastern Europe (Erfurt, 21-23 November 2019)

(Source: Uni Erfurt)

We learned of a conference on early modern natural law in Eastern Europe at the Universität Erfurt.

“Early-Modern Natural Law in Eastern Europe”

Conference of the Network on Natural Law 1625-1850

Research Centre for Early-Modern Natural Law

Max Weber Centre, Erfurt

21-23 November 2019

In 2019, the Network’s conference is being organised by Gábor Gángó and Knud Haakonssen. The theme is the reception of natural law during the early-modern period in the political cultures to the east of the German Empire. In keeping with the programme of the Network, the conference is inter-disciplinary in its approach and is mainly, but not exclusively, focussed on academic natural law. Natural law in Eastern Europe has only be explored to a limited degree, and the conference will open up for new research by  papers devoted to natural law teaching in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Elbląg, Toruń, Prague, Vienna, Tyrnau (Trnava), Sárospatak and Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca). The particular character of natural law discussions in the different religious and political contexts of Eastern Europe will be highlighted, as indicated by the titles in the programme.

Venue: Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Steinplatz 2, Erfurt.

Registration: The meeting is free and open for all interested, but we ask you to register by e-mail to Dr. Mikkel Munthe Jensen: mikkel.jensen@uni-erfurt.de

The program can be found here

More info here

SEMINAR SERIES: Domination politico-juridique et Antiquité (Unversité La Rochelle)

(Source: Hi-D)

Via Hi-D, we learned of a seminar series on the theme of “Domination politico-juridique et Antiquité” at the Université La Rochelle.

5 décembre 2019
Frédéric Payraudeau, maître de conférences en égyptologie, Sorbonne Université :
Les dynasties libyennes en Egypte antique et la question de l’exercice du pouvoir

16 janvier 2020
Kevin Henocq, doctorant en histoire du droit, CEIR La Rochelle Université :
L’Antiquité dans la pensée contre-révolutionnaire d’Edmund Burke

20 février 2020
Hadrien Chino, maître de conférences en histoire du droit, université de Reims-Champagne-Ardenne :La dominatio dans le Panégyrique de Trajan de Pline le Jeune

19 mars 2020
Michael Guichard, directeur d’études à l’EPHE :
Le discours du roi : comment un pays légitime sa politique de domination sur ses voisins, d’après des archives inédites du palais de Mari au XVIIIe siècle av. n. è.

23 avril 2020
Emilia Ndiaye, maître de conférences de langue et de littérature latines, Université d’Orléans : Qui est le barbare de qui ? L’imperator et les barbares gaulois, de La Guerre des Gaules de César à La Guerre civile de Lucain

(Source: Hi-D)

PODCAST: Jack Goldsmith and John Fabian Witt on 'To Save the Country' at the Lawfare Podcast

(Source: Lawfare Podcast)

The Lawfare Podcast discusses the recently published book "To Save the Country: A Lost Treatise on Martial Law", about which we blogged at the beginning of this month.

Jack Goldsmith sat down with John Fabian Witt, professor of law at Yale Law School, to talk about Witt’s new book, "To Save the Country: A Lost Treatise on Martial Law," which features a previously undiscovered manuscript written by Francis Lieber, a legal adviser to Lincoln’s White House and key thinker in the development of American laws of war. Witt explained Lieber’s impact on the development of American war-time law and talked about what the manuscript has to say about Lieber’s views of martial law and his unorthodox understanding of military necessity. The two also discussed the famous Reconstruction-era military commissions precedent Ex parte Milligan, Lieber’s anxieties about congressional power, and more. 

(Source: Lawfare Podcast)

CALL FOR PAPERS: 100 Jahre allgemeines Wahlrecht in Luxemburg und Europa (28-29 February 2020, Luxembourg) (DEADLINE: 3 November 2019)

(Source: Hsozkult)

Via Hsozkult, we learned of a call for papers for a conference in Luxemburg on the history of universal suffrage in Luxemburgish and European perspective.

“2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of universal suffrage in Luxembourg. On this occasion, the Chamber of Deputies and the National Museum of History and Art (MNHA) will organise a major exhibition on the historical background, the establishment of universal suffrage in 1919 and the consequences of the democratisation process of Luxembourg’s society. The exhibition will run at the MNHA from the 26th September 2019 until the 6th September 2020. A number of publications, conferences as well as educational activities are planned. […]”

The full call can be found here

BOOK REVIEW: Michael KAISER Reviews Kaspar VON GREYERZ, André HOLENSTEIN & Andreas WÜRGLER (Hgg.): Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit. Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext [Herrschaft und soziale Systeme in der Frühen Neuzeit; Bd. 25], (Göttingen: V&R unipress 2018), 289 p., ISBN 978-3-8471-0859-7, € 45

(image source: Sehepunkte)

First paragraph:

In der Vormoderne lag die Organisation des Kriegs zu weiten Teilen in den Händen von Kriegsunternehmern. Dank ihrer Professionalität wurde der Krieg mehr denn je als profitables Geschäft etabliert. Besonders im Reich sieht die Forschung dabei auf einzelne Protagonisten, die in dieser Weise sehr erfolgreich agierten. Der Blick auf die Schweiz zeigt nun, wie sehr sich das Geschäft mit dem Krieg in der Hand einiger Familien konzentrierte (wobei die Rolle der Kantone nicht zu unterschätzen ist), die daraus ein über Generationen hinweg funktionierendes Geschäftsmodell etablierten.

Read more in Sehepunkte 2019/9.

BOOK REVIEW: Helga SCHNABEL-SCHÜLE reviews André KRISCHER, Die Macht des Verfahrens: Englische Hochverratsprozesse 1554-1848, Verhandeln, Verfahren, Entscheiden. Historische Perspektiven; Bd. 3), Münster: Aschendorff 2017, VII + 720 p., ISBN 978-3-402-14659-0, € 79 (Sehepunkte 2019/9)

(image source: Sehepunkte)

First paragraph:

André Krischer untersucht in seiner Habilitationsschrift englische Hochverratsprozesse über einen Zeitraum von 300 Jahren. Zwischen 1554 und 1848 fanden 491 Hochverratsprozesse statt, von denen der Verfasser 30 einer genaueren Analyse unterzieht. Quellengrundlage seiner Analysen sind nicht die durch die Verfahren generierten Akten, sondern publizierte Prozessdokumentationen sowie Zeitungsberichte, Selbstzeugnisse, Pamphlete, Flugschriften und anderes mehr (30-35). Von welchem Erkenntnisinteresse der Verfasser geleitet ist, bleibt vage. Es geht im Kern um die "Formierung des modernen Verfahrens", für die der Verfasser bis zum ersten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts den Hochverratsprozessen eine "Schrittmacherfunktion" zuschreibt (423), gleichzeitig aber auch festhält, dass für die Entwicklung des modernen Verfahrens die Hochverratsprozesse nicht die entscheidende Rolle gespielt hätten (500). Die normative Grundlage streift Krischer nur kurz (14-16), interessieren tut sie ihn wenig, denn "was jeweils unter Hochverrat verstanden und angeklagt wurde, lässt sich viel besser am konkreten Fall zeigen als generalisierend und abstrakt" (16). Dennoch kommt er im Verlauf der Arbeit immer wieder auf das Hochverratsgesetz unter Edward III. von 1352 zurück, das die Anklagevertreter bis ins 19. Jahrhundert zur Argumentation nutzten und viele nachfolgende Gesetze wurden nur als Auslegungshilfen dieses Statuts gesehen. Dass der Verfasser darauf verzichtet, die Entwicklung der Gesetzgebung zum Delikt des Hochverrats wie auch die normative Regelung der gerichtlichen Verfahren in seinem Untersuchungszeitraum systematisch zu erörtern, halte ich für einen Schwachpunkt der Arbeit. Denn so erscheint manches doch allzu beliebig.

Read more in Sehepunkte 2019/9.

COLLOQIUM: La mémoire du droit dans la lutte contre les formes d’esclavage (Paris, 11 October 2019)

(Source: Université de Versailles - Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines)

We learned of a colloquium organized by the Association française pour l’histoire de la justice on the theme of “La justice et la mémoire de l’esclavage ancient et moderne”.

Cette journée d’étude représente le 3e temps d’un colloque plurisite organisé sous l’égide de l’Association française pour l’histoire de la justice (AFHJ), sur le thème : La justice et la mémoire de l’esclavage ancien et moderne.

Les deux premiers actes se sont déroulés aux Antilles de la manière suivante :
I. Mémoire passée et réparations, Laboratoire CREDDI (Faculté des Sciences juridiques et économiques de la Guadeloupe, Université des Antilles), 7 novembre 2018 ;
II. Mémoire à travers la littérature et regard sur l’esclavage moderne, Cour d’appel de la Martinique, 9 novembre 2018.

L’esclavage stricto sensu et les autres formes d’exploitation des êtres humains qui lui sont associées (servitude, servage, travail forcé, traite,…) constituent un phénomène présent dans la grande majorité des sociétés à travers le monde depuis l’Antiquité. Or, si les phases des « sociétés esclavagistes », jusqu’au XVe siècle environ, et des « traites légales », jusqu’au XIXe siècle, ont laissé place, au niveau international et à celui d’une partie des États, à celles d’abolitionnisme puis de répression des formes d’esclavage officielles ou généralisées, ce fléau a échoué à être éradiqué. Prenant un aspect souvent plus diffus, d’anciennes formes se sont maintenues et de nouvelles sont apparues, la fondation australienne Walk Free faisant état de 40 millions de victimes à l’échelle de la planète dans la dernière édition de son Global Slavery Index (GSI 2018).

La France, progressivement présentée comme le pays du « sol franc » à partir de la fin de l’époque médiévale, n’est pas demeurée en marge de cette histoire mondiale. Notamment restée une terre de servage jusqu’à la fin de l’Ancien Régime et devenue entre le XVIIe et le XIXe siècle un acteur majeur de la traite négrière en vue du recours à une main d’œuvre d’esclaves dans les « anciennes » colonies, elle enregistrait, cent-soixante-cinq ans après la seconde abolition de l’esclavage en 1848, 8 500 victimes de l’esclavage moderne (GSI 2013)…, 129 000 cinq ans plus tard (GSI 2018).
Comme l’a souligné avec raison l’actuelle présidente du Comité contre l’esclavage moderne (CCEM), association à l’origine de la première condamnation de la France par la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme en raison de l’insuffisance de son dispositif de lutte contre ce phénomène en 2005, cette situation appelle à « lutter contre l’indifférence [des gens] ». Tel est l’un des objectifs poursuivi par le Comité national pour la mémoire et l’histoire de l’esclavage (CNMHE) depuis 2004 et par le projet de Fondation pour la mémoire de l’esclavage, à partir d’un travail d’éclairage sur le passé. Or, parce qu’il se construit dans le temps et laisse une trace tangible, le droit constitue également un utile instrument de la mémoire des formes d’esclavage et de leur évolution, ainsi qu’un important vecteur du « Plus jamais ça ! »

L’objet de la présente journée d’étude est ainsi de rendre compte de ce rôle de mémoire du droit tourné vers l’action contre les formes d’esclavage depuis le début du XIXe siècle, même si son effectivité et son amélioration se heurtent encore (ou surtout) aujourd’hui à une difficile « prise de conscience » de la réalité et de l’ampleur du phénomène.

More info, as well as the full programme, can be found here

BOOK: Eric D. WEITZ, A World Divided : The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). ISBN 9780691145440, 35.00 USD

(Source: Princeton University Press)

Princeton University Press has published a new global history of human rights in a world of nation-states.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A global history of human rights in a world of nation-states that grant rights to some while denying them to others

Once dominated by vast empires, the world is now divided into close to 200 independent countries with laws and constitutions proclaiming human rights—a transformation that suggests that nations and human rights inevitably developed together. But the reality is far more problematic, as Eric Weitz shows in this compelling global history of the fate of human rights in a world of nation-states.

Through vivid histories drawn from virtually every continent, A World Divided describes how, since the eighteenth century, nationalists have struggled to establish their own states that grant human rights to some people. At the same time, they have excluded others through forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing, or even genocide. From Greek rebels, American settlers, and Brazilian abolitionists in the nineteenth century to anticolonial Africans and Zionists in the twentieth, nationalists have confronted a crucial question: Who has the "right to have rights?" A World Divided tells these stories in colorful accounts focusing on people who were at the center of events. And it shows that rights are dynamic. Proclaimed originally for propertied white men, rights were quickly demanded by others, including women, American Indians, and black slaves.

A World Divided also explains the origins of many of today's crises, from the existence of more than 65 million refugees and migrants worldwide to the growth of right-wing nationalism. The book argues that only the continual advance of international human rights will move us beyond the quandary of a world divided between those who have rights and those who don't.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric D. Weitz is Distinguished Professor of History at City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His books include Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy and A Century of Genocide (both Princeton). He lives in Princeton and New York City.

More info here

CALL FOR PAPERS: Beloved Enemy – United Kingdom and Spain in the 18th century (24-25 February 2020, University College London) (DEADLINE: 31 October 2019)

(Source: Society for Nautical Research)

We learned of a call for papers on Anglo-Spanish relations, including political relations and consular activities, during the 18^th century.

Throughout the eighteenth century, relations between Spain and the United Kingdom were both complex and tense. Its territorial losses in the Indies and on the Iberian Peninsula itself at the hands of the British Crown were a huge moral blow and further evidence of the new role that Spain had begun to play on the international stage, now subordinated to France. The country did not only have to keep a close eye on the actions of its ally, which were always in its own interests, but also on Great Britain’s expansionist policy whose waves were already being felt on its coasts. Eighteenth-century French Europe was incapable of concealing the intense but fickle relations between Spain and Great Britain, from the moment that the Bourbons ascended to the throne until the demise of the Ancien Régime, after which these two former enemies set aside their differences to become allies during the Peninsula War.

The intention here is not to analyse the complexity of foreign policy at the time, but to determine the intensity of the contacts between both countries and the influence that they exerted on one another. For the wars, which were always followed by peace accords and commercial treaties—leading in turn to the presence of merchants and consuls, technological espionage, the intellectual corpus of the Enlightenment, the translation of literature, admiration and suspicion, maritime couriers, etc.—show that, beyond the enmity, open confrontation and hostility, between the coasts of Spain and the United Kingdom there was always some degree of contact. This ebbed and flowed with the tides of war and peace, but persisted in that shared ocean, the best channel of communication at the time and also the best way of isolating and blockading the enemy.

The symposium’s organisers welcome proposals for papers covering all aspects of relations between Spain and the United Kingdom during the eighteenth century, including (but not limited to) the following:

– Maritime history

– Naval warfare

– Economic history

– Foreign relations

– Political and policy history

– Scientific and technological influence – Cultural and intellectual history

– Propaganda: the image of the other

– Consular activities

– Living and working in hostile territory – Privateers

– Smuggling

Authors are kindly requested to send the title and abstract (200-300-word) of their proposals for papers, plus a brief CV (no more than one page), to reyes@udc.es or manuel-reyes.hurtado@ucl.ac.uk, before the deadline on 31 October 2019

More information on the conference website

BOOK: Susan BARTIE, Free Hands and Minds Pioneering Australian Legal Scholars (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2019). ISBN 9781509922611, £70.00

(Source: Bloomsbury)

Bloomsbury is publishing a new book on Peter Brett (1918–1975), Alice Erh-Soon Tay (1934–2004) and Geoffrey Sawer (1910–1996) (three Australian, 20^th century legal scholars).

ABOUT THE BOOK

Peter Brett (1918–1975), Alice Erh-Soon Tay (1934–2004) and Geoffrey Sawer (1910–1996) are key, yet largely overlooked, members of Australia's first community of legal scholars. This book is a critical study of how their ideas and endeavours contributed to Australia's discipline of law and the first Australian legal theories. It examines how three marginal figures – a Jewish man (Brett), a Chinese woman (Tay), and a war orphan (Sawer) – rose to prominence during a transformative period for Australian legal education and scholarship.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with former colleagues and students, extensive archival research, and an appraisal of their contributions to scholarship and teaching, this book explores the three professors' international networks and broader social and historical milieux. Their pivotal leadership roles in law departments at the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, and the Australian National University are also critically assessed.

Ranging from local experiences and the concerns of a nascent Australian legal academy to the complex transnational phenomena of legal scholarship and theory, Free Hands and Minds makes a compelling case for contextualising law and legal culture within society. At a time of renewed crisis in legal education and research in the common law world, it also offers a vivid, nuanced and critical account of the enduring liberal foundations of Australia's discipline of law.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan Bartie is Lecturer in Law at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

More information here

BOOK: Carlotta LATINI, Storia di un giurista eretico. Diritto e processo penale nel pensiero di Enrico Ferri (Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica, 2018), ISBN 978-88-9391-417-8 202 pp., € 14

Book presentation:

The book traces the main issues of scientific reflection and the experience of Enrico Ferri, a famous criminal lawyer and socialist professor who lived between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on relations with the university and academic milieu and the political environment. Ferri was not only a good criminal lawyer, but also dedicated himself to the academic career with some success. Linked to Cesare Lombroso, whome was a scholar, he led the Positive school, convinced of the importance of the dictates of the School especially in the context of penal reforms (penal Code Projects). Ferri had also a little part (at the end of his life) in making Rocco penal Code. He also was Violet Gibson lawyer, the famous woman who shot Mussolini. The book thus deals with central issues in the debate at that historic moment, such as imputability, free will, jury, suicide and the right to die, etc.

On the author:

Carlotta Latini, Full Professor of Medievale and Modern History of Law, University of Camerino, Law School, Italy 

(read more with the publisher)

BOOK: Coleman A. DENNEHY, Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2019). ISBN 978-1-84682-813-3, €49.50

(Source: Four Courts Press)

Four Courts Press is publishing a book on law and revolution in 17^th century Ireland.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In October 1641, violence erupted in mid-Ulster that spread throughout the whole kingdom and lasted for more than a decade. The war was neither unpredictable nor was it out of step with the rest of the Stuart kingdoms, or indeed Europe generally. As with all wars, particularly the multi-national and multi-denominational, the Irish wars of the 1640s and 1650s had many complex and interrelated causes. Law, the legal system and the legal community played a vital role in the origins and the development of the conflict in Ireland that took it from a dependent kingdom to becoming part of a republican commonwealth. Lawyers also played a fundamental part in the return of the legal and political ‘normality’ in the 1660s. This collection of essays considers how the law was part of this process and to what extent it was shaped by the revolutionary developments of the period. These essays arise from a conference held in 2014 in the House of Lords at the Bank of Ireland, Dublin, under the auspices of the Irish Legal History Society.

Contributors: Andrew Carpenter, Stephen Carroll, John Cunningham, Coleman A. Dennehy, Neil Johnston, Colum Kenny, Neasa Malone, Aran McArdle, Bríd McGrath, Jess Velona, Philip Walsh and Jennifer Wells.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Coleman A. Dennehy is a Humanities Institute (University College Dublin) research associate and a former IRC Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow, having taught at University College London and University of Vienna. In addition to many articles and chapters, he published an edited collection, Restoration Ireland (London, 2008) and also a monograph The Irish parliament, 1613–89 (Manchester, forthcoming).

More info here

BOOK: Marc BERGÈRE, Jonas CAMPION, Emmanuel DROIT, Dominik RIGOLL & Marie-Bénédicte VINCENT (dir.), Pour une histoire connectée et transnationale des épurations en Europe après 1945 [Convergences] (Bruxelles: PIE Peter Lang, 2019), 400 p., ISBN 978-2-8076-0689-0

(image source: Peter Lang)

On the authors:

Marc Bergère, Professeur en histoire contemporaine à l’université Rennes 2/EA Tempora 7468, est spécialiste de l’histoire de l’épuration en France. Jonas Campion est Docteur en histoire (UCLouvain, U. Sorbonne – Paris IV), actuellement ATER à l’U. Lille (Irhis, UMR CNRS 8529) et chercheur associé au Centre d’histoire du droit et de la justice (UCLouvain).

More information with the publisher.

SEMINAR SERIES: Legal History Workshop (Tel Aviv University)

(Source: TAU)

Via Legal History blog, we learned of the schedule for this year’s legal history workshop at Tel Aviv University.

November 7, 2019

Pnina Lahav (Boston University School of Law), The End of the Shalit Case: The Government, Parliament and Opposition, or: How We Missed the Female Perspective [Hebrew]

November 21, 2019

Maoz Kahana (Tel Aviv University Department of Jewish History), Humanists and Law: The Jewish Case in Europe [Hebrew]

November 28, 2019

Leora Bilsky and Rachel Klagsborn (Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law), Genocide and Cultural Restitution: Comparing the Jewish and Polish Approaches [Hebrew]

December 12, 2019

Kellen R. Funk (Columbia Law School), The Making of Modern Law: Digital Computation and Anglo-American Legal History

December 19, 2019

Yair Sagy (Haifa University Faculty of Law) (with Yoram Shachar and Eyal Katvan), Law Reporting in the British Empire: A View from Mandatory Palestine

December 26, 2019

Guy Keinan (Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law), The Rootian Moment: Recasting International Lawmaking

January 1, 2020

Taisu Zhang (Yale Law School), The Ideological Foundations of the Qing Fiscal State

January 9, 2020

Tamar M. Menashe (Columbia University History Department), Genizah in the Case: Using and Perceiving Jewish Evidentiary and Judiciary Materials during Germany‘s “Reception“ of Roman Law, 1495-1689

January 16, 2020

Debjani Bhattacharyya (Drexel University History Department), The Wreck of Warren Hastings: Salvage, Weather and Insurance in the Indian Ocean

More info with TAU

(Source: Legal History Blog)

CALL FOR PAPERS: Flashpoints – Human Rights, Law & Religion (Nottingham, 14 December 2019) (DEADLINE: 1 November 2019)

(Source: NTU)

We learned of a call for papers for a conference in the field of law, human rights and religion at Nottingham Trent University. Here the call:

On Monday 16th December 2019, for the fourth year running, Nottingham Law School’s Centre for Rights and Justice will be holding its one day Flashpoints conference exploring themes which ignite debate in the field of Law, Human Rights and Religion.

The year 1620 saw the voyage of the Mayflower, an event which has come to have iconic significance. At the cusp of the four-hundredth anniversary, issues of religious intolerance, displacement, emigration and persecution continue to be extremely prominent in legal and public discourse. With this in mind, proposals are particularly welcomed on the following themes:

• Conscientious objection
• Freedom of religious expression
• Emigration, displacement and asylum on the grounds of conscience and religion
• Historical Papers

As always however, we will be pleased to receive proposed papers relating to the wider theme of Law, Human Rights and Religion. For further details, please follow this link to our website, or email helen.hall@ntu.ac.uk.

Guidance for Submissions

• Submissions should be emailed to helen.hall@ntu.ac.uk
• The following information must be contained within your submission email: Your name, the proposed title and an abstract of no more than 200 words.
• You are not required to submit a paper with your presentation.
• Submissions must be received by 5pm on Friday 1st November 2019.

Format for Presentations and Papers

• Presentations should be approximately 20 minutes in length.
• You are very welcome to use Powerpoint slides if you wish, but there is no requirement to do so.
• Please note that only PowerPoint presentations can be accommodated.  For technical reasons, we regret that alternative software (such as Prezi) cannot be used.

More info here

CALL FOR PUBLICATIONS: Special Issue, Journal of Contemporary History "The UN and the Colonial World. New Questions and New Directions" (DEADLINE: 1 November 2019)

(Source: H-Announce)

We learned of a call for publications by the Journal of Contemporary History on the UN and the colonial world. Here the call:

Description 

Onek Adyanga and Giusi Russo, guest editors, are seeking abstract submissions; a selection of papers based on the abstracts will be considered by the Journal of Contemporary History for potential publication in a special issue on the United Nations, its agencies, and the colonial world across the spectrum of colonialism, the era of decolonization, and its legacy. 

Historians are still debating whether the UN promoted or discouraged imperialism. The guest editors contend that the UN did both – condoned and condemned colonialism – and it is important to trace the historical forces that allowed for an apparently contradictory dynamic. The UN is expressive of both nationhood and transnational organizing. It is an entity that includes its own personnel as well as official representatives of member states and NGOs. Within these multiple roles, it might be argued that the UN contested traditional imperial power in a sphere of symbolic legitimacy. Simultaneously, the UN used the typical language of the civilizing mission, made more complex then by the technocratic approach. 

The UN sanitized the colonial language, inserted tropes of human rights, sex equality, and other measurements of progress along with theories of modernization and technocracy that dominated internationalism in the postwar. The creation of the Trusteeship Council gave voice to both traditional colonizer and colonized groups. Petitions, for example, reveal a microcosm of everyday life that highlight the individual experience within the larger dimension of internationalism. Moreover, the UN inserted de facto colonies within international provisions by defining them "non-self-governing territory" which challenged the national sovereignty of colonial powers.  

The guest editors aim to explore whether the UN in itself, and more broadly internationalism, can represent an unexplored way to look at the history of empires. The United Nations has been the source of critique for its inefficiency and for having promoted a strict geopolitical order that has remained somewhat unchallenged. Historians have looked at measurements of success, signs of coherence, and the effectiveness of international legal instruments. Few accounts encourage scholars to move beyond the traditional understanding of success and failure in favor of an approach that looks at the UN as a reflection of postwar narratives of internationalism, new standards, and a new language. The guest editors are especially keen to explore the extent to, and manner by which, traditional imperial tropes and logics were changed.   

Themes 

• The encounters between the United Nations and traditional imperial powers, and the manner by which these two negotiated the contours of a new international system. 
• The shaping influence of specialized UN agencies, such as the WHO, ILO, UNICEF, and UNESCO, and the internal alignments and conflict in matters of colonialism/decolonization and the UN. 
• Race, gender, and sexuality as mediated by the UN. 
• Technocracy, colonialism, and the UN. 
• Internationalism, empires, and pan-regional organizations and the UN.
• Human rights, local dimensions, and international standards in the colonial sphere.
• Petitions and the microcosm of the colonial world.
• The UN and imagining the post-colonial nation. 
• The UN and the representations of the colonial world. 
• Memory and the United Nations in the post-colonial world. 
• The UN Seminars and the production and legitimation of various kinds of specialized legal, administrative, and cultural practices.
• UN Advisory Projects, and the refiguration of older colonial languages of control into newer, and contested, forms of knowledge.

Submission Procedures 

An abstract of 500 words should be submitted by November 1^st, 2019 to both guest editors, Dr. Onek Adyanga at onek.adyanga@millersville.edu and Dr. Giusi Russo at grusso@mc3.edu.

(Source: H-Announce)

CALL FOR PAPERS: Constituting Boundaries - Identities, Polities, and Colonial and Postcolonial Constitution-Making, 1776-2019 (University of Oxford, 20-21 April 2020) (DEADLINE: 17 November 2019)

(Source: TORCH)

We learned of a call for papers for a conference at Oxford on the process and effects of constitution-making in colonial and postcolonial polities across the world since the American Revolution. Here the call:

Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st April 2020

Pembroke College, Oxford

In their function as frames of government, constitutions draw boundaries of belonging. The act of making a constitution makes a claim for the existence of a political community, and their texts define the terms of citizenship and of political participation in that community, including and excluding individuals based on race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, and religion.

After 1776, the rebellious states of British North America strove to create ‘government[s] of laws, not of men.’ To achieve their goal, they composed new systems of government on paper, culminating in the creation of the US Constitution in 1787. Countless other nations and empires have followed suit. Constitution-making — successful or otherwise — is a common feature of moments of social and political upheaval in modern global history. Some constitution-makers have eradicated slavery, thrown off empire, and legislated for social justice, as in Haiti in 1805, the Cherokee Nation in 1827, India in 1950 and South Africa in 1996. Others have consolidated imperial dominion and codified racial discrimination and exploitation, as in the settler nations of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Rhodesia.

With the support of TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Quill Project at Pembroke College, this interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars with a common interest in the process and effects of constitution-making in colonial and postcolonial polities across the world since the American Revolution. The principal focus of discussion will be on the intersection between constitution-making and identity formation.

The convenors invite proposals for individual papers and panels from scholars working in history, literature, the arts, law, area studies, political science, philosophy, and digital humanities. We are looking for papers and panels on topics related to the conference theme. These may include, but are not limited to:

· The influence of Western and non-Western political thought on global constitution-making

· Settler colonies, constitutions, and empire

· Constitution-making among indigenous nations

· Imperial constitutions in European empires

· Resistance to colonial/noncolonial constitutions and constitution-making

· Decolonization and constituting new nations

· Constitutional amendment and the inclusion of Othered groups

· Artistic, literary, and cultural responses to constitution-making

· How constitutional provisions have been used to control indigenous peoples

· Gender and constitution-making

· Sexuality, LGBT+ rights, and constitutional law

· Mental and physical health and constitutions

· Violence, warfare, and coercion in the creation of constitutional settlements

· The role of public opinion and popular ratification in establishing the authority of constitutions

· The social and economic effects of constitutional change

· Crime, criminals, and constitutional rights

· Constitutions and social hierarchy

· Rights and constitutions – consideration of social, economic, religious, and civil rights in constitution-making

· National identity and the colonial/postcolonial constitution

· Constitutions and voting qualifications, for example property, literacy, and gender

· Religious influences on constitutions and their makers

· Modes and processes of constitution-making across time and space

· Constitutional Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism

· Radical constitutionalism and redefining imperial polities

Registration

The conference is open to doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers from the UK or abroad, working in any field which addresses the central theme.

The registration fee will be £50 per person. There will be an optional conference dinner, and accommodation in Pembroke College, at additional cost. Estimated cost for the conference dinner is £40 per person (wine extra), while ensuite rooms with breakfast start at £75 per night.

Proposals for individual 20-minute papers should include a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biography. Panel proposals should include a 500-word description of the focus of the panel, and brief biographies of all participants. These should be received by 17th November 2019.

Please email the conference convenors, Kieran Hazzard and Grace Mallon, with proposals via: constitutingboundaries@gmail.com.

More info on the conference website

BOOK: Wolfgang BARTUSCHAT, Stephan KIRSTE, and Manfred WALTHER, eds., Naturalism and Democracy - A Commentary on Spinoza’s “Political Treatise”; in the Context of His System (Leiden-New York: Brill, 2019).

(Source: Brill)

Brill has published a new book on the political philosophy of Spinoza (translated from German).

ABOUT THE BOOK

Naturalism and Democracy, first published in German in 2014, presents a long-awaited commentary on Spinoza’s Political Treatise (Tractatus politicus). Its contents reflect a recent intensification in the interest in Spinoza’s political philosophy in Germany. The volume addresses Spinoza’s political philosophy according to its place within his philosophical system as a whole, beginning with his theory of the natural genesis of law and state. Following from this are commentaries on the foundations of political philosophy, the relation of natural and state law, the theory of sovereignty, and theory of international relations. These chapters lay the basis for four essays interpreting Spinoza’s attempt to conceive of a systematic optimization of political and legal institutions for all three forms of governance (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy). The volume closes with an analysis of the current relevance of Spinoza’s political thinking and his influence on contemporary debates.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Wolfgang Bartuschat is professor (ret.) of Philosophy at Hamburg University. His areas of research are Philosophy of Modernity (emphasis on Spinoza and Kant), Systematic Metaphysics, Hermeneutics, and Philosophy of Law. 

Stephan Kirste is professor of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy at the University of Salzburg. His interests lie in Philosophy of Law and Constitutional Law. 

Manfred Walther is professor (emeritus) of Philosophy of Law at the Law Faculty of the Leibniz University of Hannover. His main areas of research are the Philosophy of Law and State since antiquity, as well as Spinoza and his reception, mainly in Germany. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Spinoza’s Ontology and Epistemology as Background to his Political Theory

By: Wolfgang Bartuschat

Pages: 1–10

Political Philosophy as Theory of Practice (Chapter 1: Introduction)

By: Stephan Kirste and Manfred Walther

Pages: 11–16

Natural and State Right, or, Spinoza’s Justification of Practical Reason (TP, Chapter 2)

By: Gunnar Hindrichs

Pages: 17–37

Spinoza’s Theory of Sovereignty (TP, Chapter 3, §§ 1–10)

By: Oliver W. Lembcke

Pages: 38–56

Spinoza’s Theory of International Relations (TP, Chapter 3, §§ 11–18)

By: Tilmann Altwicker

Pages: 57–67

Right and Reason in Spinoza’s Political Philosophy

On the Tasks and Limits of State Authority (TP, Chapter 4)

By: Tobias Herbst

Pages: 68–80

Theory of the Best State (TP, Chapter 5)

By: Martin Leiner

Pages: 81–92

Institutional Design to Stabilize the State i

Theory of the (Constitutional) Monarchy (TP, Chapters 6 and 7)

By: Manfred Walther

Pages: 93–102

Theory of the Aristocracy (TP, Chapters 8–10)

By: Wolfgang Bartuschat

Pages: 103–122

Spinoza’s Theory of Absolute Democracy (TP, Chapters 7/5, 8/1, 11; ttp 16)

By: Rainer Keil

Pages: 123–148

The Political Treatise in Present Discussion

By: Tilman Reitz

Pages: 149–180

More info here

Jessica M. MARGLIN, La nationalité en procès : droit international privé et monde méditerranéen (Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales LXXIII (2018), No. 1)

(source: cairn)

Abstract:

This article uses a single, transnational legal case that played out between Italy and Tunisia in the 1870s and 1880s to tell a truly global history of international law—that is, one that goes beyond the boundaries of the West. Samama v. Samama was a fabulously complicated case that dragged on in Italian courts for almost a decade. The crux of the legal arguments concerned the nationality of Nissim Samama, a Jew born in Tunis; Samama’s nationality, in turn, would determine which legal system regulated his estate. The Italian Civil Code enshrined respect for the national law of a foreigner, but such foreigners were presumed to be Western. A case involving the national law of Tunisia and the status of Jews called the very foundations of the international legal system into question. In putting Samama’s nationality on trial, the case opened up debate over fissures in the emerging theory of international law: How could non-Western states like Tunisia fit into an international legal order? How did Islamic law intersect with international law? What was the status of Jewish nationhood in a world increasingly based on exclusive nationalities? The Samama case offers access to the voices of European international lawyers debating the ambiguities of their field, as well as those of Maghrebis articulating their own vision of international law. The resulting arguments exposed tensions inherent to an international legal system uncomfortably balanced between universalism and Western particularism.

(read more on cairn)

BOOK: Lawrence M. FRIEDMAN, A History of American Law, 4th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). ISBN 9780190070885, $125.00

(Source: OUP)

Oxford University Press has just published the 4^th edition of Professor Friedman’s work on the history of American law.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Renowned legal historian Lawrence Friedman presents an accessible and authoritative history of American law from the colonial era to the present day. This fully revised fourth edition incorporates the latest research to bring this classic work into the twenty-first century. In addition to looking closely at timely issues like race relations, the book covers the changing configurations of commercial law, criminal law, family law, and the law of property. Friedman furthermore interrogates the vicissitudes of the legal profession and legal education. The underlying theory of this eminently readable book is that the law is the product of society. In this way, we can view the history of the legal system through a sociological prism as it has evolved over the years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lawrence M. Friedman is the Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Part I: The Beginnings: American Law in the Colonial Period

Part II: From the Revolution to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century:1776-1850
Chapter 1 The Republic of Bees
Chapter 2 Outposts of the Law: The Frontier and the Civil Law Fringe
Chapter 3 Law and the Economy: 1776-1850
Chapter 4 The Law of Personal Status: Wives, Paupers, and Slaves
Chapter 5 An American Law of Property
Chapter 6 The Law of Commerce and Trade
Chapter 7 Crime and Punishment: And a Footnote on Tort
Chapter 8 The Bar and Its Works

Part III: American Law to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 1 Blood and Gold: Some Main Themes in the Law in the Last Half of the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 2 Judges and Courts: 1850-1900
Chapter 3 Procedure and Practice: An Age of Reform
Chapter 4 The Land and Other Property
Chapter 5 Administrative Law and Regulation of Business
Chapter 6 Torts
Chapter 7 The Underdogs: 1850-1900
Chapter 8 The Law of Corporations
Chapter 9 Commerce, Labor, and Taxation
Chapter 10 Crime and Punishment
Chapter 11 The Legal Profession: The Training and Literature of Law
Chapter 12 The Legal Profession: At Work

Part IV: The Twentieth Century
Chapter 1 Leviathan Comes of Age
Chapter 2 The Growth of the Law
Chapter 3 Internal Legal Culture in the Twentieth Century: Lawyers, Judges, and Law Books
Chapter 4 Regulation, Welfare, and the Rise of Environmental Law
Chapter 5 Crime and Punishment in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 6 Family Law in the Twentieth Century

Epilogue A Final Word
Bibliographical Essay
Index

More info here