CFP CONFERENCE: Iustoria 2023 - University of Belgrade, 23-25 March 2023 [DEADLINE JAN 15]

 

The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law is now receiving paper proposals for the Fourth student conference on legal history – the Iustoria 2023, to be held on March 23rd -25th, 2023, its topic being “Law and Punishment”.

In 2023, it will be 150 years since corporal punishment was abolished in Serbian law, by the 1873 amendments of the Penal (Criminal) Code of 1860. To commemorate this anniversary, we wish to stimulate research related to punishment and sanctions in law. From the earliest legal history of Antiquity, all the way to the Modern Age, a large part of the law is concerned precisely with the sanctions for undesirable behaviour. Theory considers only that legal norm to be complete which prescribes a sanction in case of disobedience. First of all, a large array of subjects related to criminal law is available to our participants – on different types and subtypes of sanctions and manners of their execution, on the punishment for individual crimes and categories of crimes, as well on the purpose of punishment, which has had different aspects throughout the ages: retribution against the perpetrator, his reformation, special or general prevention, compensation for the victim… In various legal systems throughout history, different personal properties of the perpetrator and the victim could influence punishment: gender, age, belonging to a certain estate, class or caste, whether they were free persons or slaves, what their previous relationship used to be… One could also open the subjects of divine punishment, self-help and vendetta (blood feuds), talion and composition, as well as the private or public enforcement and execution of sanctions. Besides these central subjects related to criminal law, we also accept papers concerning other types of punitive norms, such as contractual penalties in the law of obligations, or the use of sanctions in international law.

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

The applications should be e-mailed to iustoria@ius.bg.ac.rs before the 15th of January, 2023. The students will be informed by the 25th of January whether or not their application has been accepted. A provisional programme for the conference will be announced by the 10th of February. For any additional information you may enquire at the same e-mail address, or consult the official Facebook page of the conference – https://www.facebook.com/iustoria. 

Just like on our previous conferences, apart from the presentations given by their colleagues, the students at the conference will have an opportunity to attend several lectures given by renowned experts – more details on this will be available in the final version of the programme. The conference will be held in hybrid format: both in-person or online participation will be possible. We'll do our best to secure accommodations either in student dorms or with student host families for participants who don’t reside in Belgrade and who wish to participate in person. These arrangements will depend on the number of available spots. The final versions of the papers presented at the conference, with final changes and corrections submitted within a reasonable time after the conference, will be submitted for publication in the journal „Vesnik pravne istorije / Herald of Legal History“ (http://epub.ius.bg.ac.rs/index.php/Vesnik/index).

CALL FOR PAPERS: International conference "(Un)fit to rule: themes of acceptance and rejection of rulers throughout history" - October 26th-28th, 2022 - The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law

(Source: University of Belgrade)

The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law is opening a CALL FOR PAPERS for the international conference "(Un)fit to rule: themes of acceptance and rejection of rulers throughout history" to be held on October 26th -28th, 2022.

In 2022, it will be 700 years since King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski ascended the Serbian throne in 1322. It was not a simple succession, though: he had unsuccessfully rebelled against his father, King Stefan Uroš II Milutin in 1314, and, as punishment, he was blinded and exiled. He was thus believed no longer to be a candidate for the throne, but his vision was miraculously restored (it is now believed that he was not blinded completely, if at all) and he managed to conquer the throne after his father's death. This anniversary presents an occasion for a comparative overview of requirements for a ruler – or, from a different angle, circumstances that made a person unfit to take the throne or govern a country.

Our anniversary first brings physical disabilities to the fore. These could have impeded potential rulers from assuming the reins of power simply because they were presumed to prevent one from being an efficient ruler, particularly in the periods when a monarch was also a military leader, but also (as a result of ideas widespread in Christian Europe) because of the idealised perception of a monarch as God's chosen representative on Earth who had to embody perfection. There are, however, well-known examples that speak to the contrary, such as Béla II of Hungary, Enrico Dandolo or John of Bohemia. An even more sensitive subject is that of mental disabilities, which were viewed as an even greater hindrance to effective rulership. In some countries, an heir with serious mental health issues would be ex lege disqualified from inheriting, while in some places, particularly in the Modern era, an extensive regency was considered better than a squabble over the throne. The reactions of other political figures to a ruler whose mental health was visibly deteriorating, and thus to the fate of his or her reign, also make for an interesting subject. 

The issue of gender must also be raised: while men were the default sovereigns in most countries of the world until well into the Modern Age, some countries accepted women on the throne when there was no suitable male heir; in some it was impossible and a more distant heir would be chosen. Finally, in some legal systems exceptional women did manage to rule, but had to go through a lot of effort to masculinize; their reign in order to be acceptable. Even in ancient Egypt, where women held a remarkably good legal position compared to the other polities of Antiquity, the first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, dressed and talked like a man to legitimise her rule, and still her successor, Thutmose III, tried to wipe the account of her reign from the records afterwards.

A sovereign’s religion also played an important role. Whatever the dominant religion of the realm, the ruler was expected to be pious, and in some ancient societies was even deified: with such a position came strict standards of behaviour in accordance with religious doctrines. (Akhenaton’s failed attempt to change the ruling faith is widely known.) The need for the monarch (and often the royal consort and heir) to belong to the country’s ruling denomination became a given in the Middle Ages. However, as the Modern Age gradually brought religious freedom and pluralism, as well as a rise in atheism, such provisions began to face criticism – yet they still persist in many modern monarchies. Finally, ethnic background or nationality also plays an increasing role in modern societies, where it is set as a requirement for the ruler to belong to the nation being governed.

Just as all of these issues could present an obstacle to a person’s claim to rulership, so could most of them, too, serve as cause for one’s overthrow. A ruler who suffered a crippling injury or a debilitating illness, who converted to a different religion or was revealed to be a heretic, for example, could, and indeed frequently was deposed. The reasons behind this act, their legality and legitimacy could also be valuable subjects of research. Perhaps more intangible, but by no means less important for a potential ruler’s prospects for success, was his or her charisma. The uncharismatic candidate for power who otherwise fulfilled all formal requirements for rulership might nonetheless have been deemed less qualified than a ‘disabled’ rival who possessed that certain je ne sais quoi which appealed to his or her subjects. In this light, ‘qualified’ and ‘competent’ were not interchangeable criteria in judging one’s fitness to rule.

A final consideration in evaluating a candidate’s fitness for assuming the reins of power concerns how we as scholars attempt to discern contemporaneous criteria for exploring this question. Rules and requirements for exercising sovereignty were, especially in pre-modern societies, often unwritten, and instead relied on oral traditions – whether longstanding or recently invented – and precedents and examples were set by predecessors. The absence of formal, constitutional prerequisites for rulers does not mean that they did not exist in other forms. Evaluating fitness to rule throughout time therefore requires taking account of the broader political order, of ‘constitutions’ both written and unwritten.

We believe a comparative and multidisciplinary approach to these questions could yieldthe best results, and therefore we invite scholars from all fields of sciences and humanities(including, but not limited to, legal history, political science, theology, art history, medical history etc.) to submit their abstracts. We welcome papers dealing with all countries and historical periods, from Antiquity to the Modern Age, regardless of whether they focus on an individual legal system or adopt a comparative approach, whether they are of a broader scope or case-studies, etc.

> The conference language is English. Applications containing an abstract of 200 to 500 words and a short CV should be sent to un-fit.to.rule@ius.bg.ac.rs by the 31 st of December 2021. 

> Participants will be notified if their applications have been accepted by the end of January at the latest. 

> For more information, please inquire at the same address or consult the conference webpage (http://wp2008.ius.bg.ac.rs/un-fit-to-rule/) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/un.fit.to.rule.2022/).

It is our desire to host the conference live at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and we hope that the current progress of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic will allow that. However, a final decision will be made within a reasonable time before the conference. Even if the conference is held live, remote participation via video link will be possible. A book of abstracts will be published as an e-book (with ISBN) before the conference. An edited volume of peer-reviewed conference proceedings will be published after the conference; details will be available to the participants in due course.