CALL FOR PAPERS: EUROPEAN FORUM OF YOUNG LEGAL HISTORIANS (Maastricht, 13-16 April 2011)

I'm pleased to post the call for papers for the XVIIth European Forum of Young Legal Historians:

The international graduate and post-graduate conference ‘European Traditions: Integration or Disintegration?’ of the European Association of Young Legal Historians will take place at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, from 13-16 April 2011, Wednesday-Saturday (www.maastrichtuniversity.nl).

The European Forum of Young Legal Historians has grown into the leading conference for young researchers in legal history in Europe and the world. Maastricht University, a truly international university at the heart of Europe, and currently celebrating its VIIth Lustrum provides the perfect location for the XVIIth Forum.

European legal traditions have always known centralising and de-centralising forces: Justinian’s Corpus iuris, the Medieval ius commune of Roman and Canon law, the usus modernus pandectarum, the current European harmonisation efforts all have an integrative character to a certain extent. Simultaneously the ius proprium, as in customary law, including the English Common law, as well as, most particularly, the national codifications of the 19th century, and the study of these laws, demonstrates the diversity of European legal traditions.

We are interested in papers and posters addressing these often contrasting developments, including their religious, philosophical, political, social or economic background. Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches are therefore most welcome.

You are strongly encouraged to give your presentation in English, as it is the current European lingua franca; French and German are also accepted, but be aware that this will reduce your audience.

Apart from the regular presentations, we will again have a ‘poster session’ or ‘poster walk’ during one of the afternoons: in several rounds you will be able to present and discuss your poster with various small groups of interested participants. Particularly PhD-candidates just starting with their research are encouraged to submit a poster outline, since the poster session will be a wonderful opportunity to obtain feedback on your project at an early stage.

Submissions with a close connection to the theme are preferred, though traditional legal history subjects are also welcome, especially in respect of the poster session.

Regular participation fee will be € 100; participants giving a paper or presenting a poster pay € 75.

Please send your application (an abstract of max. 500 words and/or an outline of a poster and a short academic CV) to forum2011@aylh.org

Deadline: 1 November 2010

Further information on the Association of Young Legal Historians and past Forums is available on www.aylh.org.  

We look forward to your application and to welcoming you in Maastricht in Spring 2011.

Emanuel van Dongen, Hester van der Kaaij, Mariken Lenaerts, Tanja van der Meer, Fé van Noortwijk, Janwillem Oosterhuis, Serban Vacarelu, Stefan Weishaar

Maastricht University
Department of Foundations and Methods of Law
Bouillonstraat 1-3, 6211 LH Maastricht
P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht
The Netherlands
www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

NOTICE: The Creation of the Ius Commune: From Casus to Regula

I'm delighted to announce the publication of The creation of the ius commune: from casus to regula. Edited by Professors John Cairns and Paul Du Plessis, both of Edinburgh University, it

discusses in detail how medieval scholars reacted to the casuistic discussions in the inherited Roman texts, particularly the Digest of Justinian. It shows how they developed medieval Roman law into a system of rules that formed a universal common law for Western Europe. Because there has been little research published in English beyond grand narratives on the history of law in Europe, this book fills an important gap in the literature.

With a focus on how the medieval Roman lawyers systematised the Roman sources through detailed discussions of specific areas of law, it considers:

•the sources of medieval law and how to access them
•the development from cases to rules
•medieval lawyers’ strategies for citing each other and their significance
•growth of a conceptual approach to the study of law

With contributions from leading international scholars in the field, this book therefore fills an important gap in the literature.


The contents include:
 
Introduction: Themes and Context (Cairns and Du Plessis)
1. An Introduction to the Interpretation of Legal Technicalities (Bezemer);
2. The Citation and the Ius Commune (Helmholz);
3. Medieval Family Law (Waelkens);
4. Legal Reasoning in Contract and Delict (Gordley);
5. The Buyer’s Remedy for Latent Defects (Hallebeek);
6. Commercial Law (Ernst);
7. The Law of Unjustified Enrichment (Schrage/Dondorp);
8. The Law of Succession (Ryan);
9. The Roman Law of Property and the Reality of the Middle Ages (Rüfner);
10. Fault-lines between contract and property in the medieval law of pledge (Du Plessis);11. Malicious litigation and the rise of the legal profession (Brundage).


For additional information see the Edinburgh Studies in Law site or Amazon.co.uk/com.

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: WESTERN LEGAL HYBRIDITY - ESSAYS IN COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY

Participants are being sought for a collection on Western legal hybridity.

Western legal histories are often little more than whiggish genealogies of contemporary common laws told at the expense of the legal pluralism of the past. But the creation of general national laws, a legal ‘system’ centred on the state, was a very long historical process; the elimination of competing jurisdictions and the marginalisation of other, non-state normative orders took centuries.

For much of the history of the West, there were multiple contemporaneous legal orders—customary, local, learned, common—co-existing in the same geographical space and at the same time. Indeed, this plurality of laws blurred seamlessly into the less formally institutionalised, but meaningful, normative pluralism from which more formal legal rules often emerged and with which they would continue to compete. Before the nineteenth century, the boundaries between such official and unofficial ‘legalities’ were especially porous.

The volume will examine Western jural complexity from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. Participants will contribute historical case studies combining both legal and normative hybridity, the ‘living law’ of the past. As a whole, it may shed new light on the expansion of the nation-state and common national laws as well as on attendant developments in legal nationalism, monism, centralism, and positivism.

Given the focus of the volume, we are especially interested in those familiar with comparative law, contemporary theories of interpretation, or historical anthropology, geography, and sociology.

Anyone interested in participating should contact Seán Patrick Donlan (sean.donlan@ul.ie) or Dirk Heirbaut (dirk.heirbaut@ugent.be).

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Comparative Legal Theory Project

Participants are being sought for a collaborative and comparative project in legal theory.

The Comparative Legal Theory project aims to place legal theory in its social, historical, and comparative context. Our goal is to produce jurisdictional reports on legal theory on the basis of a questionnaire prepared by the project organisers and through ongoing collaborative workshops.

A roundtable on the project will be held in Catania on Friday, 29 October 2010. Participants will be able to assist in creating the questionnaire to be used and to identify potential reporters.

The project managers are Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick), Margaret Martin (Western Ontario), and Alessio Lo Giudice (Catania). Please email sean.donlan@ul.ie for additional information.

Please feel free to circulate this message to other individuals, institutions, blogs, etc.

NOTICE: Professorship for European Legal and Constitutional History

I was just made aware of a professorship for European Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna.

The deadline for applications is 1 October 2010 and complete details are at http://personalwesen.univie.ac.at/fuer-mitarbeiterinnen/professorinnen/job/english/singleview/article/11965/the-faculty-of-law-of-the-university-of-vienna-ann-7/.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Law, Order and Individual Rights – Theory, Intent and Practice conference (Lyon, 8-10 September 2011)

A SOLON-related call for papers has been issued for the following (very interesting) conference:

SOLON,

in association with the Université Lyon Lumière

PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS

Crime, Violence and the Modern State III

Law, Order and Individual Rights –

Theory, Intent and Practice

September 8-10 2011

The third conference in this series will explore comparative, historical and transnational perspectives on crime and violence through a focus on Law, Order and Individual Rights, aiming to contextualise the concepts of individual or ‘human’ rights in the modern state utilising a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, but with a particular interest in promoting the historical dimension. We invite papers that, for example, seek to:

 explore state agendas and the use of law to define ‘deviance’ etc

 explore the changing comprehensions of an ‘orderly’ society, across chronological and territorial boundaries

 map differences, interconnections and movements through space and time.

 explore the differentiated social, cultural or political meanings of violent or criminal acts and ways in which violence is legitimised (or not) by states

 explore the impact of gender, race/ethnicity and other forms of social identification/exclusion

 religion, blasphemy and heresy, and other moral challenges to state authority

 the role of moral panics and other tools for voluntary or involuntary social control

 the management of crime and violence by the state, particularly reflecting on responses by individuals.

In line with the previous two conferences (Crete, 2007, University of Rethymno; St Petersburg, 2009, Herzen State University) the impact of social imaginaries of cultural identity, as well as conceptualisations of nations and empires, will be important considerations. We will also pay particular attention to comparative national or regional dimensions, and papers exploring the extent to which the actions of the modern state may clash with traditional cultural perceptions of deviance and violence in different communities will be of particular interest

Please send proposals to soloncvmsconferences@gmail.com by 29 October 2010. Please send any enquiries to Judith Rowbotham (judith.rowbotham@ntu.ac.uk), David Nash (dsnash@brookes.ac.uk) or Neil Davie (ndavie@mail.univ-lyon2.fr)

NOTICE: EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY Membership

The European Society for Comparative Legal History is pleased to announce that it is now accepting membership applications.

Annual fees are €50 for professionals and €25 for students (including doctoral students).

In addition to being able to vote in future ESCLH elections, members will receive a waiver of conference fees in years in which the official conference is held. In addition, we are negotiating for additional benefits of membership. Individuals accepted for membership before 1 November 2010, for example, will receive Kjell Å Modéer and Per Nilsén (eds), Teaching comparative and European legal history (forthcoming, October 2010).

To apply for membership, see the link on the ESCLH blog.

NOTICE: International School of Ius Commune (Erice, Sicily; 8-14 October 2010)

I just received the following information on this year's International School of Ius Commune to be held in Erice in October:

Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture

International School of Ius Commune

Direttori della Scuola: M. Bellomo – K. Pennington – O. Condorelli
XXX Corso, Erice, 8-14 ottobre 2010

History of dogmata iuris - dogmata iuris in the History

Direttore del XXX Corso
Manlio Bellomo (Catania)

Sponsored by: The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research - Sicilian Regional Government - Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. - University of Catania –Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Imola

Purpose

At the center of attention for this year’s School is the problem of the possibility and utility of thinking and writing a history of private law using specific terms. Such a history would focus on individual legal concepts and principles (figurae) as dominium and obligatio and on the history of a sistema iuris within which the variae causarum figurae are placed within a chronological framework and within the legal systems of Europe and beyond.

From this point of view the investigation and consideration of the dogmata iuris (or figurae) ought to be placed in their historical context. However, dogmata iuris are abstract by their nature. For example, the glossators thought of them ontologically as endowed with a unchangeable and thus eternal nature. They spoke therefore of natura contractus, natura dominii etc. Since the dogmata iuris are abstract, legal historians have encountered and continue to confront grave difficulties in placing them in their historical context and in utilizing them as a signpost of an ideal value and of a variable social and political reality in time and space.

The existence of this difficulty has led to many attempts by legal historians to explore this problem, especially in the civil law world. An analysis of these efforts has stimulated some legal historians to outline adequate historiographical profiles of the dogmata iuris to give a framework within which scholars may locate their work when they explore this problem more deeply. In brief, along side the dogmata iuris as a witness and mirror of the history of circumscribed and determined times and places (dogmata iuris in history or with the expressive German phrase Dogmengeschichte), one may see a series of attempts undertaken to resolve the problem of the dogmata iuris in history (history of historiography, or to use the German word Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung). The organizers of the course propose two points of view that point to one common objective that is properly and exclusively the goal of legal history: to understand history in terms of law and jurisprudence.

In particular the Course proposes to explore if the dogmata iuris and what is written about them can indicate which was (and which can be, in the present or in the future) the level of culture of the people who have conceived and have utilized dogmata iuris as a guide, or have forgotten them, or have rejected them with distructive force. Then there is the final question: can a society be considered civil that has rejected, mocked, and smashed all models regulating relationships in society and in the field of law and rights all figurae (or categories or dogmata)?

Al centro dell’attenzione vi è il problema della possibilità e dell’utilità di pensare e di scrivere una storia del diritto privato in termini specifici: come storia di singole figure giuridiche (dominium, obligatio etc.) e come storia di un sistema iuris entro il quale le variae causarum figurae sono state collocate nella successione dei tempi e nella varietà dei territori europei e d’oltre mare. Da questo punto di osservazione e lungo questa linea di indagine e di riflessioni i dogmata iuris (o figurae) devono essere collocati nella storia. Ma i dogmata iuris sono astratti per loro natura. Per primi, i glossatori li pensano, ontologicamente, come dotati di una natura immodificabile, e anzi eterna, e parlano perciò di natura contractus, natura dominii etc. E poiché i dogmata iuris sono astratti, la storiografia ha incontrato e incontra gravi difficoltà a collocarli nella storia, a utilizzarli come documento di valori ideali e di realtà socio-politiche variabili nel tempo e nello spazio. L’esistenza delle difficoltà ha comportato molteplici tentativi degli storici del diritto, soprattutto di area europeo-continentale. L’analisi di tali tentativi ha sollecitato alcuni storici del diritto a tracciare profili storiografici adeguati a dare un quadro di orientamento per ogni successivo approfondimento del problema. In breve, accanto ai dogmata iuris come testimoni e specchio della storia di tempi e di luoghi circoscritti e determinati (dogmata iuris nella storia, o con espressiva parola tedesca Dogmengeschichte), si è formata una storia dei tentativi compiuti per risolvere il problema dei dogmata iuris nella storia (storia della storiografia, o Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung). Si tratta di due punti di vista che mirano a un unico e comune obiettivo, che è proprio ed esclusivo della storiografia giuridica: capire la storia, in uno dei suoi qualificanti aspetti giuridici. In particolare, il Corso si propone di esplorare se i dogmata iuris e quanto si è scritto su di essi possano indicare quale sia stato nel passato, e quale possa essere nel presente e nel futuro, il livello della civiltà dei popoli che, nel succedersi dei tempi, hanno concepito e utilizzato dogmata iuris, o li hanno dimenticati, o avversati con impeto distruttivo. È vi è perciò una domanda finale: può essere considerata civile una società che rifiuta e dileggia e infrange ogni ‘forma’, e nel campo del diritto ogni figura (o categoria, o dogma)?

Topics and Lecturers

Manlio Bellomo (Università di Catania, I)
“Sigismundus dogmate legum fultus”: (I) Per una storia della storiografia in tema di categorie giuridiche; (II) “Irnerius qui fuit ausus dirigere cor suum ad legem istam”. Il problema socio-politico dei “dogmata iuris”

Giovanni Chiodi (Università di Milano “Bicocca”, I)
L’interpretazione del testamento nel diritto comune: nascita e sviluppi di un metodo (I)

Emanuele Conte (Università Roma Tre, I)
Il vassallaggio medievale fra le maglie della scolastica giuridica. Un capitolo della storia del diritto comune in Europa (I)

Alessandro Corbino (Università di Catania, I)
“Iura condere” e “iura constituere” nel pensiero dei giuristi romani (I)

Anne Lefebvre-Teillard (Université Panthéon Assas, Paris, F)
“Ne pater pro filio”: la responsabilité délictuelle personnelle du mineur entre principe et réalité (I); Le droit romano-canonique: droit savant? (II)

Emma Montanos Ferrín (Universidad de La Coruña, E)
Un ejemplo de categoría jurídica pasada del derecho canónico al derecho español: el asesinato (I)

Andrea Padovani (Università di Bologna, I)
“Tenebo hunc ordinem”: metodo e struttura della lezione dei giuristi medievali dalle “Summae” al commento (I, II)

Beatrice Pasciuta (Università di Palermo, I)
Il processo come “sistema” tra ricostruzioni storiografiche ottocentesce e struttura medievale delle fonti (I)

Kenneth Pennington (Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USA)
Legal Positivism and Natural Law (I)

Hans Schlosser (Universität Augsburg, D)
Die deutsche Rechtsgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Mythos, nationalem Pathos und richtiger methode: (I) Von der Historischen Schule bis zur Krise der Pandektistik Ende XIX. Jahrhundert; (II) Neue Wege nach 1945 (Coing, Wieacker, Thieme), die Methodendiskussion und der heutige Standort.

Alain Wijffels (Université Catholique, Louvain, B)
Early-Modern ius commune: transmitting and renewing old doctrines? (I, II)

For information and applications please write to:

Prof. Orazio Condorelli
Università di Catania
Facoltà di Giurisprudenza
via Gallo 24
I-95124 Catania
tel. 0039-095-230417
ocondorelli@lex.unict.it

I hope to see you there.

REPORT: European Society for Comparative Legal History Conference

Last week's inaugural conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History was a great success.

Much of this was due to the organisation of the event, on reasonably short notice, by the local organiser and new ESCLH President, Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia). He was also generously supported by the Faculty of Law at the University of Valencia, the Universitas Foundation, the managers of the La Nau Building, and the Instituto de Historia de la Intolerancia. Finally, he was ably supported on the ground by an elite group of students.

On behalf of the ESCLH Executive Council, we'd like to thank the many speakers and participants who attended. Your contributions, both in formal sessions and in informal gatherings, made the conference both enlightening and enjoyable. 

In addition to selecting our first Executive and launching the Western Legal Traditions casebook project, a final Constitution is being completed, a second conference is being planned, a logo will soon be available, and membership has been opened to all those interested in our subject.

More details on these developments will follow soon.

Best wishes to all. We look forward to working together.

Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick), ESCLH General Secretary

CALL FOR PAPERS (Reminder): The Twentieth British Legal History Conference (13-16 July 2011)

REMINDER: The Call for Papers for the Twentieth British Legal History Conference has been announced.

The conference:

will be held in Cambridge from Wednesday 13 July 2011 to Saturday 16 July 2011. The conference theme will be 'Law and Legal Process'.

The conference addresses the intersection between law and legal process, the ways in which the processes of courts and other tribunals, the practices of judges and lawyers, and the needs of litigants, influence each other and shape the development of the law; and the influences in turn of legal doctrine upon the practices of those coming into contact with the law.

The conference organisers welcome papers concerning all jurisdictions, branches of the law and historical periods. Ideally, papers should reflect the conference theme. Papers reflecting the results of innovative legal history research are most welcome. Submissions from doctoral students are encouraged.

Proposals for papers (up to 500 words) are invited, to reach the organisers – preferably by email attachment (in Word or pdf format) sent to the address below – by 31 August 2010. If potential contributors are unsure whether their proposals suitably reflect the theme, the organisers are very happy to be contacted informally by email (again to the address below).

A draft programme and details of registration and accommodation will be circulated early in 2011.

Conference email: LawBLHC@hermes.cam.ac.uk

Conference Organisers

Professor Sir John Baker
Professor David Ibbetson
Dr Neil Jones
Dr Isabella Alexander
Dr Matt Dyson

University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law, 10 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DZ, UK

NOTICE: 2011 Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History - 'The Struggle for Land: Property, Territory, and Jurisdiction in Early Modern Europe and the Americas'

The 2011 Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History at Chicago's Newberry Library will focus on 'The Struggle for Land: Property, Territory, and Jurisdiction in Early Modern Europe and the Americas'. It will take place from 9-5 on Friday, 8 April, 2011. The Symposium is organised by Tamar Herzog (Stanford) and Richard J. Ross (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).

The description reads:

The struggle to possess and control land, both as property and as jurisdictional territory, was central to the formation of early modern European societies as well as their colonial domains. This conference will look at how Europeans defined the right to land both at home and overseas. We will examine how so-called European expansion influenced the conceptualization of property and territorial jurisdiction and the relationship between them. Conference participants may explore how notions of property and territoriality changed over time; and how colonial needs and the encounter with new cultures reshaped these notions. In what ways did “international competition” and the emergence of an “international law” (to use an anachronism) modify property and jurisdiction? How did economic, social, and political developments influence new ideas and experiences regarding the land? In what ways did these ideas and experiences shape practical strategies for claiming land and asserting rights to govern it and profit from it? We are particularly eager to know whether these encounters encouraged, consciously or not, borrowing between different European legal systems as well as between settlers and indigenous peoples. How was the movement and refashioning of legal knowledge bound up with the movement of peoples and refashioning of modes of control over land? We would like to encourage an interdisciplinary conversation among lawyers, historians, sociologists, geographers, and literary scholars.

NOTICE: Empire: Legality, Locality, Authority Symposium (Plymouth, 10 September 2010)

I just received the following information:

Empire: Legality, Locality, Authority
A Symposium at the University of Plymouth 10 September 2010
Organizers: Dr Nandini Chatterjee and Dr Kim Stevenson

This multi-disciplinary symposium draws together scholars working within their own disciplinary contexts on the historical connection between law and empire, with the following aims:

• Bringing together a variety of discipline-specific analytical tools to explore how law-bound power is constituted, exercised, justified, represented and transgressed in the inherently unequal context of empire;

• Grappling with methodological problems to identify the most convincing and productive uses of the Privy Council’s records, recently transferred to the National Archives;
• Building a core research team and larger advisory committee to help in conceptualizing, executing, publicizing and attracting funds for the Privy Council project as its grows.

Further details about the project: ‘Judging empire: the global reach of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’; Programme and Abstracts are available from the website of the Centre for Humanities, Music and Performing Arts Research, University of Plymouth.

Speakers: Nandini Chatterjee; Lin Holdridge; Stacey Hynd; Diana Jeater; Justin Jones; Stephanie Jones; Stephanie Pratt; Charlotte Smith, Judith Rowbotham; Kim Stevenson; Elizabeth Tingle

Participation in the symposium is free, but spaces are limited.

To register, contact: nandini.chatterjee@plymouth.ac.uk before 16 July 2010.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Union in Separation – Trading Diasporas in the Eastern Mediterranean (1200-1700)', Heidelberg, 17-19 February 2011

A Call for Papers has been issued for international conference to be held in Heidelberg from 17-19 February 2011. The theme is 'Union in Separation – Trading Diasporas in the Eastern Mediterranean (1200-1700)':

“Union in Separation” is a three-day international conference hosted by the Transcultural Studies Programme at the University of Heidelberg. The conference focuses on transcultural diasporic communities in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean with specific respect to their role in trade between perceived separate cultural areas.

The term “transculturality” tends to be used to designate the hybrid character of modern-day societies and to ultimately argue that separate cultural units (defined as the sum of elements that characterise the aggregate identity of a society) do not exist. However, regardless of whether it is possible to speak of separate ‘cultures’, the construct continues to persist in people’s minds. These mindsets, their creation and their impact on societies is what historians are now investigating.

The study of Mediterranean diasporas lends itself well to this endeavour, as it allows for an understanding of the construction and deconstruction of cultural differences as well as the potential integration into a host culture. In order to best analyse these processes, we suggest exploring commercial exchange and its legal framework as two interrelated phenomena.

Medieval Mediterranean trading diasporas, such as Venetian merchants residing in Mamluk Alexandria, operated both within and outside of formal legal structures. However, their status as religious minorities often posed strong challenges to their business. For instance, far-reaching privileges granted by the Sultan to Christian merchants coexisted with, and were frequently challenged by, orthodox Islamic law and/or local legal practice.

Thus, a primary interest of historical transcultural research is to gather evidence on informal mechanisms that facilitated trade-given cultural hurdles. This will shed light on the form and scope of cultural exchange.

The conference will bring together academics from a wide variety of fields including medieval studies, history (including economic, legal, art history), and cultural studies.

Panels include

-Legal Pluralism and Diasporic Communities in Historical Perspective (Teresa Sartore)
-Diasporic Communities in Rhodes 1350-1450 (Teresa Sartore)
-Diasporic Groups in Mamluk Egypt 1300-1450 (Anna Katharina Angermann)
-Diasporas and Imperial Rule in the 13th C. Aegean (Stefan Burkhardt)
-Diasporic Networks and Institutions in Medieval Trade 1200-1500 (Lars Börner, Franz Julius Morche)
-Early Modern Italy‘s Diasporas (Roberto Zaugg)

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short CV to the respective panel organizer as well as to Teresa Sartore and Georg Christ.

PhD students are encouraged to participate as well. Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you wish to propose an entire panel. There is a limited availability of travel grants for PhD students.

Deadline for Abstracts: 31.07.2010

University of Heidelberg
Transcultural Studies
Marstallstraße 6
D-69117 Heidelberg
Germany

teresa.sartore@uni-heidelberg.de
angermann@uni-heidelberg.de
stefan.burkhardt@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
morche@uni-heidelberg.de
roberto.zaugg@unibas.ch
georg.christ@uni-heidelberg.de

NOTICE: American Journal of Legal History seeks Web Editor

The following message from the Legal History Blog might be of interest:

American Journal of Legal History seeks Web Editor
Posted by Mary L. Dudziak

The American Journal of Legal History has decided to establish a web site to raise its public profile; provide information to potential and current authors, subscribers, and advertisers; and increase access to its issues. Accordingly, the Journal now seeks an Associate Editor for Electronic Content. In addition to designing, launching, and maintaining the Journal's web site, the AEEC will be responsible for expanding the Journal's internet footprint by working with such entities as ExpressO and SSRN.

Persons interested in applying for the position should send an expression of interest (including a resume or summary of relevant experience) to Professor Robert M. Jarvis, the chair of the Journal's Advisory Board, at jarvisb@nsu.law.nova.edu. For an example of the type of web site that the Journal has in mind, please see this site. Like most academic journals, the American Journal of Legal History does not compensate its editors but does reimburse reasonable expenses that are not absorbed by the editor's home institution.

About the Journal: The American Journal of Legal History is a peer-reviewed, peer-edited quarterly founded in 1957 by Professor Erwin C. Surrency, a leading figure in the development and promotion of legal history as a subject of study in United States law schools. The Journal is published by Temple University's Beasley School of Law and is currently edited by Mr. Lawrence J. Reilly of Philadelphia. The Journal's Advisory Board consists of a mix of prominent lawyers, judges, and academicians.

Earlier this year, the Journal began publication of its 50th volume with a biography of John B. West (the founder of the West Publishing Company); an essay on the brief (1745-56) but contentious tenure of Dr. Hugh Baillie as judge of the Irish Admiralty Court; and an article examining the administrative underpinnings of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Works appearing in the Journal are accessible through Hein Online, Lexis, and Westlaw.

NOTICE: Inaugural Annual Lecture of the Exeter Centre for Legal History Research

The inaugural annual lecture of the Exeter Centre for Legal History Research, "Revolting Law - Revolting Law Teachers? The Struggle to Render Law a Subject Fit for University Education" will be given by Professor David Sugarman of Lancaster University on Wednesday 23 June at 6pm in the Moot Room, Amory Building, University of Exeter. A wine reception will follow in Xfi. All are welcome.

Law and Multilingualism in Historical Context

Legal Translation and the Bilingual Publication of Roman Imperial Constitutions

Speaker: Dr. Anna E. Plisecka
The question whether legal translation can facilitate the communication, implementation and interpretation of multilingual legal acts, is the object of a lively scholarly debate in the European Union today. The speaker contributes to this discussion by looking at the practice in the early Roman Empire of publishing bilingual normative texts in Greek and Latin. By closely analyzing these ancient normative texts, from the perspective of linguistic patterns and translation techniques, the author argues that legal translation may actually contribute to legal communication in Europe.

Date:
Tuesday 25 May, 2010
Time:
17:15 - 18:15
Venue:
University of Amsterdam Law School
Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Room A 1.01
Language: English
For more information, please visit: http://www.jur.uva.nl/acll or contact Jaap Baaij (c.j.w.baaij@uva.nl)

NOTICE: Conference on ‘Ethnicity, Crime and Justice; Contemporary and Historical Perspectives’ (8-9 June 2010)

The International Centre for Criminological Comparative Research (ICCCR) is hosting a conference on on ‘Ethnicity, Crime and Justice; Contemporary and Historical Perspectives’ from 8-9 June 2010. The conference will be held at The Open University, Walton Hall, Christodoulou Meeting Rooms, Room 15, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA:

This two day conference on 'Ethnicity, Crime and Justice; Contemporary and Historical Perspectives' aims to bring historians and criminologists together around common themes The conference partly comes out of a recent ESRC-funded research project on ethnicity, crime and justice in England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the desire of Peter King and John Carter Wood, who are writing a book out of this research, to bring together historians and criminologists working in this field.

The conference will begin with overview papers - by two speakers who have recently written general texts in the area of research -one an historian and the other a criminologist. This will be followed by sessions on a range of topics - policing, prisons, hate crime etc and by sessions looking more specifically at the treatment of black offenders/victims and at Irish and Jewish minorities and their experience of the criminal justice system in the past.

The main focus is research on Britain but speakers from Africa, North America and France will bring a broader geographical range. The aim is to have 2 or 3 25 -30 minute papers and then to allow plenty of time for discussion in each of the 6 consecutive sessions.

Speakers include Coretta Phillips, Marty Wiener, Paul Iganski, and Rene Levy

Full details including programme and registration form can be found on the ICCCR Website www.open.ac.uk/icccr/  

Any queries please contact Sarah Sarah Batt, Research Secretary, ICCCR; +44(0) 1908 654704, A.S.C.Batt@open.ac.uk

NOTICE: EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY Inaugural Conference (5-6 July 2010)

The Inaugural Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) will take place from 5-6 July 2010 at the University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain).

Speakers will include:

• R Jovita Baber, University of Illinois, “Multiplicity of Meanings: Legal Pluralism and the Layer Legality of Land in Sixteenth-century Andes”

• Louis Berkvens, Maastricht University, “An Approach of comparative history of legislation”

• Juan B. Cañizares, University of Valencia / MPIER, Frankfurt/M, “The notion of honour in the injury and slander offences. Normative and scholarly legal comparative approach between Spain and France, late 18th century-late 19th century”

• Chao-ju Chen, National Taiwan University, “In the Name of the Mother: A Feminist Legal History of Naming in Taiwan”
• Serge Dauchy, University of Lille–Nord de France, “A comparative study of legal culture in early Modern Europe”
• Seán Patrick Donlan, University of Limerick, “World is crazier and more of it than we think”: histories of legal and normative hybridity”
• Paul J. du Plessis, Edinburgh University, “Law, modernity and the place of European legal history”
• Matt Dyson, University of Cambridge, “Comparative Legal History: methodology for morphology”
• Francesca Galli, Institut d’Etudes Européennes, Section Juridique, ULB, Brussels, “British, French and Italian measures to deal with terrorism: a comparative study”
• Eduardo Galván, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, “How to govern an archipelago? The Channel Islands and the Canary Islands”
• Jean-François Gerkens, University of Liège, “The Liberation of the Debtor in mora by vis maior, or the Incredible Success Story of a Non Roman Rule”
• Adolfo Giuliani, University of Cambridge, “Two models of fact-finding”
• Jan Hallebeek, VU University Amsterdam, “Some Remarks on the Direct Enforcement of Obligations to Do in the Continental Legal Tradition”
• Karl Härter, MPIER, Frankfurt/M, “The Emergence of the International Order of Criminal Prosecution in the Modern Age: Extradition, Asylum and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters”
• Nikitas Hatzimihail, University of Cyprus, “Pre-Historical Private International Law: A Study in Conflicts Historiography”
• Dirk Heirbaut, Ghent University, “Feudal law in Flanders and the Lotharingian principalities: a comparison”
• David Ibbetson, University of Cambridge, “Comparative Legal History: A Methodology”
• Nir Kedar, Bar-Ilan University, “Transplanted Law v. Transplanted Culture: The Unique Case of Israeli Legal History”
• Marcelo Lacombe, NYU, “Constitutionalism , liberalism and militarism. A comparative approach on the evolution of constitutional systems in Europe and Latin America, during the nineteenth century?”
• Pia Letto-Vanamo, University of Helsinki, “Some Remarks on the History of Legal Argumentation”
• Michael A Livingston, Rutgers School of Law, “One Hatred, Many Laws: The Evolution of Antisemitic Laws in Germany, France, and Italy in Comparative Historical Perspective”

• Lara Magnusdottir, University of Iceland, “How to understand a Concordat when you don‘t know what the word means”

• Aniceto Masferrer, University of Valencia, “The French Codification and the Western Legal Traditions”

• Matthew Mirow, FIU College of Law, Miami, “Codification and the Constitution of Cádiz”

• Thomas Mohr, University College Dublin, “The Constitution of the Irish Free State in Inter-War Europe”

• Olivier Moréteau, Louisiana State University, “The ethnocentrism of French legal culture: origins and effects of a superiority complex”

• Anthony Musson, Exeter University, “Common legal heritage? Visual Representations of Law and Justice in Medieval Europe”

• Michael L Nash, Les Roches/Gruyères University of Applied Sciences, “A contrast in evolution: the legal framework of the British and Continental monarchies”

• Heikki Pihlajamäki, University of Helsinki, “The Need of Comparative Legal History in the Nordic Countries: The Case of Early Modern Sweden”

• Merike Ristikivi, University of Tartu, “Terminological turn as a turn of legal culture”

• Graziella Romeo, L. Bocconi University, “The development of the idea of social citizenship in a comparative perspective”

• Jonathan Rose, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, “Advocatorum Militia: The Chivalric Ethos of the Legal Profession--Loyalty and Honor”

• Judith Rowbotham, Nottingham Trent University, “Narrating Crime: Nineteenth Century Media Depictions of Crime”

• Stephen Skinner, University of Exeter, “Tainted Law: Critical Legal History and the Italian Penal Code”

• Ditlev Tamm, University of Copenhagen, “From a European to a Global Approach. Some Reflections on the Utility of Comparative law for Legal Education”

• Andreas Thier, University of Zurich, “Legal Transplants, Legal Transfers and Comparative Legal History”

• Judit Valls, University of Girona, “The Spanish Commercial Code of 1829”

• Henry Yeomans, University of Plymouth, “Moderate Measures in Alcohol Policy: British Attitudes and Victorian Hangovers, 1914-1921”

The future of the ESCLH and the Western legal traditions casebook project will also be discussed.

The conference fee is €100 and we ask that those planning to attend the conference register by 1 June 2010.

Please contact the conference organiser, Aniceto Masferrer (Aniceto.Masferrer@uv.es), or one of the other members of the ESCLH Executive for the programme or for registration and accommodation information:

• Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick): sean.donlan@ul.ie
• Professor Jan Hallebeek (VU University Amsterdam): j.j.hallebeek@rechten.vu.nl
• Professor Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent): dirk.heirbaut@UGent.be
• Professor Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia): Aniceto.Masferrer@uv.es
• Professor Remco van Rhee (Maastricht): remco.vanrhee@maastrichtuniversity.nl  

CALL FOR PAPERS: 29th Annual Australian and New Zealand Law and History Conference (13-15 December 2010, Melbourne Australia)

I've just found out about the 29th Annual Australian and New Zealand Law and History Conference to be held in Melbourne in December. The conference is hosted by the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS). Its theme is 'Owning the Past: Whose Past? Whose Present?' The conference site explains:

The use and study of the past is constantly being refashioned and reinterpreted to construct meaning in the present, imparting understandings of a common but chaotic humanity. Because everyone and no one ‘owns’ history, the ownership of historical events and the right to speak of them remains deeply contested. What are the outcomes and practical challenges surrounding the construction of historical consciousness through and about law? Whose past is told and by whom? How does law’s past influence history’s present? And is there any such thing as the orderly evolution of legal ideas? This conference invites papers on the subject of ownership in history and law, and may include contributions on any of several broad themes: the contestation of memory; the ethics of representation and remembrance; the commoditization and consumption of traumatic pasts; transcultural and transgenerational trauma; new technologies of historical documentation; testimony and bearing witness; Indigenous knowledge; identity politics; citizenship; the ethics of reproducing historical narratives; colonialism and hegemony; ‘dark’ tourism and artefacts of law; and new legal imaginings and the contest with the legal past.

This is an interdisciplinary conference and papers are invited from scholars across a broad range of disciplines, as well as chronological and geographical contexts.

The submissions of abstracts was due 1 May 2010. You may want to contact lawhistoryconference@latrobe.edu.au to see if there's any flexibility.

Reminder: Rencontres d'histoire du droit de la fondation Biermans-Lapôtre (12 May 2010, Paris)

Welcome and Introduction (09:30)

M. Jos AELVOET, directeur de la Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre

First Session: the Kingdom of France and the Netherlands, up to the 16th Century (10:00)

M. le professeur Rik OPSOMMER (Université de Gand/Archives de la ville d’Ypres)

« Le droit féodal dans les baillages de Cassel-Bailleul-Bourbourg-Bergues »

M. Florian MARIAGE (AE Tournai) (10:30)

« Une province en quête d’identité ? Le Tournaisis, XIVe-XVIe siècles. Facteurs et acteurs d’une cohésion sociale et territoriale difficile »

Coffee Break (11:00)

M. le professeur Jean-Marie CAUCHIES (UCL/Académie Royale de Belgique) (11:15)

« L’hommage de Philippe le Beau pour le comté d’Artois »

M. le professeur Laurent WAELKENS (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) (11:45)

« L’université d’Orléans et les juristes des Pays-Bas méridionaux »

Lunch (12:15)

Second session : France/Netherlands, Spanish and Austrian periods (14:00)

Dr. Nicolas WAREMBOURG (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris 1)

« François Bauduin (1520-1563), un juriste artésien et européen »

M. Frederik DHONDT (FWO/Université de Gand) (14:30)

« Partager les pays-bas autrichiens, contenir la France : tâter les limites du langage diplomatique en août 1725 »

Coffee Break (15:00)

Mme. le professeur Catherine LECOMTE (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin) (15:15)

« Conquête et administration »

Third session : the Modern Era (15:45)

Dr. Bart COPPEIN (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

« Le droit, c’est tout! L’approche intégrale de la pensée juridique d’Edmond Picard (1836-1924) »

Closure (16:15)

Organising Committee: Mlle Charlotte BRAILLON (FNRS/ULg), M. Wim DECOCK (FWO/KUL), M. Frederik DHONDT (FWO/UGent), M. Emmanuel FALZONE (FNRS/FUSL)

Free entry - reception afterwards.

Address:

Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre (Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris)

9a Boulevard Jourdan

75014 PARIS

Public Transports: RER B - T 3 (Cité Universitaire)

CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Renaissance Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law' - Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting 2011

The Renaissance Society of America is holding its 2011 Annual Meeting in Montreal from 24-26 March, 2011. The topic is 'Renaissance Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law':

Papers are invited for a session that will explore aspects of legal theory in the Renaissance. The impressive corpus of works produced in the three centuries from Marsilius of Padua to Hugo Grotius is testimony to the crucial and multifaceted transition from medieval to modern legal principles and application. The exploration of legal theory within the context of the dynamic developments that took place in related fields (such as political philosophy, ethics and theology) sheds light on how varying degrees of continuity and innovation in the Renaissance laid the foundations of modern legal thought.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Major theorists of the period (e.g. Machiavelli, Bodin, St. Germaine, Vitoria, Suárez, Bellarmine);

- Other theorists whose work in the field of legal philosophy has been neglected or left unexplored;

- Continuities and innovations in theology-based legal theory;

- The 'French school', the 'Italian School' and the School of Salamanca;

- The reconfiguration of 'natural law' and 'positive law' and the relation between the two;

- Law and the discovery of the new world;

- Law, interpretation and authority;

- Law and utopia;

- The individual and the state;

- Universal law and international law;

- Roman law in the Renaissance;

- Legal theory and legal education

Please send proposed title and abstract (not exceeding 200 words) together with a brief biographical note (clearly indicating institutional affiliation) and AV requirements to jean-paul.delucca@um.edu.mt by May 20.

See also www.rsa.org/meetings/conference_start.php

Pursuing the Joint Degree (from the Legal History Blog)

The following post on the Legal History Blog discusses American joint-degree (law and history) programmes. I thought it might be of interest.

Pursuing the Joint Degree

Posted by Karen Tani

One of the most interesting facets of legal history is that there are multiple access points. Scholars enter from history departments and law schools; they carry various degrees and credentials. Expertise is required, but one need not have passed the bar or had formal training in the historical method. Whether this will be true twenty years from now remains to be seen, but my entirely unscientific observation is that a fair amount of recent entrants to the field have dual degrees in law and history.

A J.D./Ph.D. is not for the faint of heart, and I recommend it only for those who believe that both degrees are necessary to achieving their career goals. For those who are sure, or simply want more information, this post is for you. I’ve put together a list of institutions (that I know of) that train legal historians and welcome dual degree students. Please supplement my list and add your comments!

Out of loyalty, I’ll list my home institution first. The University of Pennsylvania has a J.D./Ph.D. program in American Legal History, with a formal system of funding, cross-credits, and advisers. It has the firm backing of both the Law School and the History Department, which is important because dual degrees can involve significant red tape. You want to be at an institution that will invest in your success and help you solve the complicated administrative problems that can arise.

I know several legal historians who have pursued dual degrees at New York University. NYU boasts scholars in the Law School and the History Department who are excited to work with legal history graduate students. NYU is also home to a fantastic legal history colloquium, which gives students access to cutting-edge work and an interesting array of scholars.

Another legal history powerhouse is Yale University: it has consistently encouraged dual degree students and has produced many of the field’s rising stars. I don’t know much about the formal structure of the program (the website is somewhat vague), but it’s clear that Law School and History faculty have worked together to produce top-notch legal historians. Cross-departmental cooperation and dialogue is crucial to a good joint degree experience.

Some programs that I’m less familiar with, but look strong are Columbia University’s and Stanford University’s. These institutions would be natural places to pursue dual degrees, given their impressive collections of legal historians. Another option out west is the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at the University of California, Berkeley. This Ph.D. program does not require or lead to a J.D.., but some candidates get one while there.

I imagine there are other places that have produced or are currently training J.D./Ph.D. students in legal history. The machinery and the potential advisers appear to be in place at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, for example. Hopefully, those who know better will comment below.

Of course, one need not complete both degrees at the same university. Doing so can shave off time and minimize the financial cost, but there are good reasons (availability of mentors, educational quality, geography) for pursuing a J.D. at one institution and a Ph.D. at another. For those with a J.D. in hand, Princeton is a terrific place to pursue the doctorate. The History Department’s list of legal history alums is truly stunning.

Last, there are a number of J.D./M.A. legal history programs. The University of Virginia’s, for one, appears to be thriving.

Update: I forgot the University of Michigan. Here's a link to the Law School's Dual Degrees page.

Image credit: robed elite

See the orignial post for links to the different programmes.