NOTICE: Women and Justice between Middle Ages and Modern Era (Bologna, 30-31 August 2012)

At the end of August 2012 a two days conference (papers in Italian and French) on Women and Justice in medieval and modern legal history will take place at the Alma Mater Studiorum, the University of Bologna Law Faculty.

What: Le donne e la giustizia fra Medioevo ed età moderna. Il caso di Bologna a confronto
When: 30 (3:00 pm) and 31 (9:30 am) August 2012
Where: University of Bologna Law Faculty, Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, Palazzo Malvezzi - Via Zamboni 22, Bologna (Italy)
Who: Marco Cavina, Gigliola Di Renzo Villata, Bernard Ribemont, Ettore Dezza, Philippe Haugeard, Giovanni Rossi, Elio Tavilla, Denis Bjai, Cesarina Casanova, Tanguy le Marc'Hadour, Antonio Grilli.

Organization: Prof. Marco Cavina: marco.cavina6@unibo.it (University of Bologna)

NOTICE: Law and the French Atlantic Symposium (5 October 2012)

Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History:

Law and the French Atlantic

Date: Friday, October 5, 2012

Location: Newberry Library, Chicago

Organized by: Allan Greer (McGill University)

and Richard J. Ross (University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign)

The French Atlantic has not yet received the sustained attention given to the British and Spanish Atlantic, particularly where the topic of law is concerned. This conference will explore the legal dimension (broadly conceived) of the French Atlantic empire in the early modern period. The variegated and rapidly evolving juridical order of ancien régime France was deeply implicated in the expansion of overseas commerce, the founding of colonies, and the creation of imperial administrations.

Participants may explore topics such as: legal discourse and imperial ideologies; the establishment of colonial jurisdictions in Canada, Louisiana, and the French West Indies; the regulation of slavery; indigenous peoples and the law; the emergence of colonial land tenures; and the legal framework for trade and business enterprise. The organizers wish particularly to encourage comparative approaches that consider more than one French colony and that examine contrasts and convergences with the British, Spanish and Portuguese empires. In according due attention to the distinctive features of French law and the French New World empire, we hope to enrich understandings of Atlantic history generally.

Allan Greer (McGill History) and Richard Ross (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Law and History) organized “Law and the French Atlantic.”  The conference is an offering of the Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History, which gathers yearly under the auspices of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago in order to explore a particular topic in the comparative legal history of the Atlantic world in the period c.1492-1815.  Funding has been provided by the University of Illinois College of Law. 

            Attendance at the Symposium is free and open to the public.  Participants and attendees should preregister by contacting the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library at 312.255.3514, or send an e-mail to renaissance@newberry.org. Papers will be precirculated electronically to all registrants. 

For information about the conference, please consult our website at http://www.newberry.org/symposium-comparative-early-modern-legal-history or contact Prof. Richard Ross at Rjross@illinois.edu or at 217-244-7890. 

            Here is the program and schedule:

REMINDER: ARTICLES SOUGHT FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY (the ESCLH Journal)

The European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) has agreed with Hart Publishing (UK) to produce a new journal. Comparative Legal History (CLH), an international and comparative review of law and history, will be the official journal of the ESCLH. 

The journal will be published, both online and in print, twice a year, appearing in the spring and the autumn. The first issue will appear in Spring 2013:

Articles will explore both 'internal' legal history (doctrinal and disciplinary developments in the law) and 'external' legal history (legal ideas and institutions in wider contexts). Rooted in the complexity of the various Western legal traditions worldwide, the journal will also investigate other laws and customs from around the globe. Comparisons may be either temporal or geographical and both legal and other law-like normative traditions will be considered. Scholarship on comparative and trans-national historiography, including trans-disciplinary approaches, is particularly welcome.

The Editors welcome scholarly submissions in the English language:

To submit an article please contact Articles Editor Heikki Pihlajamäki (heikki.pihlajamaki@helsinki.fi). The optimal length for articles is between 7500 to 15000 words, including footnotes. All articles are submitted to double blind peer review.

To propose a review, please contact Reviews Editor Agustin Parise (agustin.parise@maastrichtuniversity.nl). Book reviews will generally range from 1500 to 2500 words. Review articles will also be considered.

The Hart website also has information on the Editors (both the Editorial Staff and International Editorial Board), an Email alert service of the 'Table of Contents', and subscription information. 

Note that a special arrangement between the ESCLH and Hart has been made to ensure that, beginning next year, ESCLH membership fees will include a subscription to CLH.

Potential contributors should pay special attention to the ‘Notes for Contributors’ on the website. In particular, contributors whose first language is not English are strongly advised to have their papers edited by native Anglophone scholars in advance of their submission to ensure a clear presentation of their ideas and an accurate appraisal of their work.

Finally, note that CLH isn't likely to include short articles in its first few issues. 

Spread the word. 

Visit our Facebook Page!

As some of you already know, the ESCLH has now also a Facebook page. Become a "fan" of the ESCLH on Facebook and keep in touch with the community of comparative legal historians around the world. We need your help to create an effective network!

NOTICE: Australasian Colonial Legal History Library

The Australasian Colonial Legal History Library is now online! For more information read the article "Digitising and Searching Australasian Colonial Legal History" by G. Greenleaf, P. Chung, A. Mowbray and B. Salter.

Abstract:

Australasia has a rich and complex legal history since the first European settlement, and our knowledge of legal practice and precedent in the colonies of Australasia is still developing. The Australasian Colonial Legal History Library project is an ARC-funded project being carried out by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) since January 2012 with input from 18 legal historians from Universities across Australia. Cooperation with other parties who have already built invaluable and pioneering online resources for Australasian colonial law is an essential part of the project.

AustLII is a free access online service which has operated since 1995 as a joint facility provided by UNSW and UTS Law Faculties , and now provides over 500 databases, with usage of over 700,000 page accesses per day. The Colonial Legal History Library project is therefore being built within a large and mature research infrastructure, and this presents challenges as well as advantages. In particular, many of the AustLII databases cover the whole period from the formation of a colony to the present, so the databases for this Library have to be ‘virtual’ databases extracted from this larger corpus.

The paper explains the construction, content and features of the first version of the Library, which as of July 2012 contains 12 databases including one case law database from each of the seven colonies (including New Zealand), some of which are ‘recovered’ cases from newspaper reports, the complete annual legislation to 1900 from three of the colonies, plus legal scholarship concerning the colonial era. These databases provide over 20,000 documents so far, and the Victorian Government Gazette 1851-1900 another 200,000. The Library also includes the LawCite citator, which allows the subsequent citation history of any colonial case to be tracked, including if cited by courts outside Australasia.

The medium term aim of this part of the ARC project (which extends to 1950 in its full scope) is to include all legislation, reported cases, and cases which can be ‘recovered’, from the inception of each colony to 1900. Scholarship (old and new) and key source materials are also being added, as budgets permit. We hope that the Library will be a leader in the creation of legal history resources from the colonial era.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Journal of History and Cultures

The Journal of History and Cultures (JHAC) is issuing a Call for Papers for the next issue and welcomes articles on subjects in the fields of history and cultures within a broad geographic and chronological range. We are also accepting book reviews.

JHAC is a peer-reviewed journal and an excellent new publishing opportunity both for postgraduates and established academics. Articles should be 5,000-7,000 words in length. We encourage articles that consider and engage with historical, cultural, political, social, and theoretical research in new and original ways. Reviews should be 750-1,000 words in length. Review essays should be in-depth engagements with recent books which develop an argument to complement the reading of the text. A list of books available for review will be appearing on our website; alternatively, you can contact our reviews editor directly to request a specific book to review at jhac@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

The deadline for submissions is 1st October 2012.

Full submission and formatting guidelines can be found at: http://historyandcultures.com/submissions/

Finally, we invite you to join the JHAC community on both Facebook and Twitter @UOBJHAC for regular updates.

We are offering a £50 prize for the best article.

Please email all submissions and address any enquiries to jhac@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

NOTICE: 39. Deutscher Rechtshistorikertag (Lucerne, 2-6 September 2012)

The Institute Lucernarius of the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) organizes the 39th Day of Legal Historians (Rechtshistorikertag). It will take place from the 2nd to the 6th of September 2012, for the fourth time in Switzerland and for the first time in Lucerne. The plenary opening session will begin on the 2nd of Sepember at 5:00 pm with an address by prof. Peter von Matt. More information about the program, which includes, as a novelty, a poster-session, are available here (papers in German and in English).

NOTICE: SHEAR Annual Conference (Baltimore, 19-22 July 2012)

The 2012 Society of Historians of the Early American Republic's Annual Conference starts today in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information see: http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.it/2012/07/legal-history-at-shear.html

NOTICE: ESCLH Second Biennial Conference: Amsterdam 2012

One week ago, the ESCLH Second Biennial Conference on "Legal History: Definitions and Challenges" took place at the VU University Amsterdam (9-10 July). More than 100 participants, coming from 29 different countries, presented their papers on many different issues. For more information about the abstracts and to read Prof. David Ibbetson's Keynote Address ("The Challenges of Comparative Legal History"), see: http://www.rechten.vu.nl/nl/onderzoek/conferenties-en-projecten/conference-esclh/index.asp. After this great occasion of confrontation and discussion, we are looking forward to the next ESCLH Conference, which will take place at the University of Macerata (Italy) in 2014!

VU University Amsterdam

Executive Council

Executive Council

David Ibbetson

From the left: Luigi Lacché, Adolfo Giuliani, Jan Hallebeek: from Amsterdam to Macerata

Eberhard van der Laan, Mayor of Amsterdam (Plenary Opening Session Address)

NOTICE: "Faire la preuve de la propriété"

The Ecole française de Rome has recently published a volume on property in the Mediterranean from the Roman Republic until the 19th century:

Dubouloz et A. Ingold (ed. by), "Faire la preuve de la propriété: droits et savoirs en Méditerranée (Antiquité-Temps modernes)", École française de Rome, 2012
(Collection de l'École française de Rome n°452), 2012, 342 p., ISBN:978-2-7283-0906-1, 50€





List of contents:

• Introduction : faire la preuve de la propriété en Méditerranée.

• Catherine SALIOU, Épigraphie et rapports de voisinage: communis versus privatus.
• Lauretta MAGANZANI, L’expertise judiciaire des arpenteurs romains: ordo mensurarum et controversiae agrorum.
• Julien DUBOULOZ, Terres, territoire et juridiction dans les cités de l’Occident romain: le regard des arpenteurs.
• Étienne HUBERT, Droits sur le sol, résidence et citoyenneté dans les villes de l’Italie centrale et septentrionale (XIe-XIVe siècle).
• Jean-Pierre VAN STAËVEL, Experts en bâtiment et construction de la preuve: les avatars d’un cas d’espèce, entre Cordoue et Tunis (XIIe-XVe siècle).
• Nicolas MICHEL, Spécialistes villageois de la terre et de l’eau en Égypte (XIIe-XVIIe siècle)
• Christian MÜLLER, Les ventes de biens immobiliers au XIVe siècle: étude des actes du Haram al-Sharif à Jérusalem.
• Antonio STOPANI, La borne et l’expert: réflexions sur la fama dans les contentieux juridictionnels dans l’Italie d’Ancien Régime.
• Brigitte MARINO, Être accusé de mainmise devant les juges de Damas au XVIIIe siècle: le cas des terrains agricoles loués par Ismail Pacha al-’Azm.
• Michela BARBOT, Incertitude ou pluralité des droits? Les conflits sur les droits fonciers et immobiliers dans la Lombardie d’Ancien Régime.
• Alice INGOLD, Conflits sur les eaux courantes en France au XIXe siècle, entre administration et justice: de l’enchevêtrement des droits et des savoirs experts.

• Résumés des contributions
• Table des matières

For more information see: http://nomodos.blogspot.it/2012/07/j-dubouloz-et-ingold-dir-faire-la.html#more

NOTICE: American Journal of Legal History's July 2012 Issue

The table of contents of the July 2012 AJLH issue (vol. 52, issue 3) is now available:

Academic SAILERS: The Ford Foundation and the Efforts to Shape Legal Education in Africa, 1957-1997, by Jayanth K. Krishnan

Individualization of Punishment and the Rule of Law: Reshaping the Legality in the United States and Europe between the 19th and the 20th Century, by Michele Pifferi

Book Reviews

Judy E. Gaughan. Murder was Not a Crime: Homicide and Power in the Roman Republic, by Kevin Walker

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950, by Darrell A. H. Miller

Ethan Greenberg. Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court, by Gerry Leonard

Peter Charles Hoffer. A Nation of Laws: America’s Imperfect Pursuit of Justice, by William G. Merkel

Philip K. Howard. Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America, by Andrew Jay McClurg

Vicki Hsueh. Hybrid Constitutions: Challenging Legacies of Law, Privilege, and Culture in Colonial America, by Lauren Benton

Calvin H. Johnson. Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders’ Constitution, by Douglas G. Smith

Bernie D. Jones. Fathers of Conscience: Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South, by Kevin Noble Maillard

J. M. Kaye. Medieval English Conveyances, by Robert C. Palmer
Bruce A. Kimball. The Inception of Modern Professional Education, by Steve Sheppard

Christine L. Krueger. Reading for the Law: British Literary History and Gender Advocacy, by Teresa Godwin Phelps
Roberta Rosenthal Kwall. The Soul of Creativity: Forging a Moral Rights Law for the United States, by Robert C. Bird

Alison L. LaCroix. The Ideological Origins of American Federalism, by David J. Bederman

Mona Lynch. Sunbelt Justice: Arizona and the Transformation of American Punishment, by Marie L. Griffin

Earl M. Maltz. Slavery and the Supreme Court, 1825-1861, by Jason A. Gillmer

Edward F. Mannino. Shaping America: The Supreme Court and American Society, by Hunter R. Clark
Mark C. Miller. The View of the Courts from the Hill: Interactions Between Congress and the Federal Judiciary, by Bruce Peabody

Francis J. Mootz III (ed.). On Philosophy in American Law, by James R. Beattie, Jr.   

See: http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.it/
        http://www.temple.edu/law/ajlh/issues_upcoming.html 

NOTICE: Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law Special Issue

"The Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law provides literature which enables both the European professional and academic lawyer to grapple with the special difficulties presented by the concept of Ius commune Europaeum": http://www.maastrichtjournal.eu/content_page.aspx?contentId=150.

The current issue (2012-2), guest-edited by Janwillem Oosterhuis and Emanuel van Dongen, is focused on

"European Traditions – Integration or Disintegration?":

Articles:

Second-Rate Citizens: Junian Latins and the Constitutio Antoniniana
E. Koops, p. 223

The Booke of Orders of Assurances: A Civil Law Code in 16th Century London
G. Rossi, p. 240

The Revival of Romanistic Scholarship between the 19th and 20th Centuries as a ‘Centralizing Force’ in European Legal History – The Masterpieces of German Pandectist Literature Revised by Italian Translators
F. Furfaro, p. 262

New Imperialism (1870–1914) and the European Legal Traditions: A (Dis)Integrative Episode
M. Van Der Linden, p. 281

The Path of the Former Yugoslav Countries to the European Union: From Integration to Disintegration and Back
S. Fabijanić Gagro, B. Vukas Jr, p. 300

The Enigma of Civil Justice in Imperial China: A Legal Historical Enquiry
P. C.h. Chan, p. 317

http://www.maastrichtjournal.eu/table_of_content.aspx

NOTICE: International School of Ius Commune (Erice, Sicily), 5-11 October 2012

Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre
for Scientific Culture

 

International School of Ius Commune

Directors of the School:
M. Bellomo – K. Pennington – O. Condorelli

 

XXXII Course, Erice, 5-11 October 2012

The Legal Status of Jews and Muslims in the Ius Commune

La condizione giuridica di Ebrei e Musulmani nel diritto comune

Director of the XXXII Course

John Tolan (University of Nantes)

Sponsored by: The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research – Sicilian Regional Government – The European Research Council programme RELMIN: “The Legal Status of Religious Minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean World” – Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. – University of Catania –Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Imola

Purpose

Utrum ritus infidelium sint tolerandi, asks Thomas Aquinas in the Summa theologica, “should the rites of infidels be tolerated?” He concludes that there are limited grounds for the Church’s tolerating the existence of non-Christian cults. First and foremost, Judaism: the rites of Jews prefigure those of Christianity and should hence be allowed to continue as a confirmation of Christian truth. As for other faiths, they may be tolerated for reasons of expediency: if it would prove difficult or impossible to prohibit those rites without provoking social or political unrest (in particular where these infidels are numerous).

Christian legislators and lawyers from the fifth century on created laws that regulated, protected, or in some cases prohibited, the practice of other religions. In this course, we will look at these legists attitudes towards Judaism and Islam. In order to prove that the Church should indeed allow Jews to practice their religion, Aquinas cites Pope Gregory I, via Gratian’s Decretum. This in itself gives an important glimpse at how authority and precedent are constructed in legal discourse. Yet the question of toleration and protection of Jewish communities is found in legal sources well before Gregory the Great, in particular in a number of fourth- and fifth-century imperial constitutions preserved in the Theodosian code. Popes, bishops, kings, counts, and city councils issued a bewildering array of laws authorizing Jews to live in certain areas, build synagogues, trade with Christians, etc.; other laws prohibited or discouraged certain kinds of interactions between Jews and Christians; in other cases, Jews were expelled from cities, counties or kingdoms. In parts of Mediterranean Europe, jurists posed the same questions concerning Muslims living within Christian polities.

By studying medieval legal discourse on Jews and Muslims, this course aims not only to contribute to the understanding of the history of those minority communities within Christian Europe, but also to reflect on an important dimension of the development of legal thought in Europe. The existence of non-Christians poses questions about the universality of Christianity and Christian law. Just as in the early modern period, European colonization of non-Christian areas provoked debates on the universality of legal principles (in the works of Las Casas, Grotius and others), in the Middle Ages the existence of non-Christians both within and outside of Roman Christendom affected the development of the Ius commune. We will play close attention to the interplay between theoretical discourse on the legality (or not) of infidel law and practice and the practical application of law in daily interactions between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Lecturers and topics

1. Paul Brand (University of Oxford, UK): Jews and the Law in England, 1190-1290
2. Dwayne Carpenter (Boston College, USA): Separate, but not equal: Jews and Muslims in the legislation of Alfonso X, the Learned
3. Claude Denjean (Université de Toulouse, F): Les juifs et la définition de l’usure dans le jus commune catalan (XIIIe-XIVe siècles)
4. Johannes Heil (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, D): “Sicut Iudaeis” in the 11th century? On the origins of papal protection for Jews
5. Emma Montanos Ferrín (Universidad de La Coruña, E): Moros y moriscos en los fueros municipales de Hispania
6. Capucine Nemo-Pekelman (RELMIN, Université de Nantes, F) - Youna Masset (RELMIN, Université de Nantes): Le ius commune traitant de la capacité judiciaire des juifs dans les tribunaux chrétiens et sa réception dans la Catalogne des XIIIe et XIVe siècles
7. Andrea Padovani (Università di Bologna, I): Diritto canonico, diritto veneto, diritto islamico. Incontri e scontri (secoli XIV-XV)
8. Kenneth Pennington (Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USA): Jews in the Medieval and Early Modern Courts
9. Diego Quaglioni (Università di Trento, I): Ebrei e cristiani nel tardo diritto comune: il “judicium” di Johann Jacob Frey (1701)
10. Jessie Sherwood (RELMIN, Université de Nantes, F): How canon law created religious boundaries between Christians and Jews
11. Fernando Suárez Bilbao (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, E): El fuero judiego en los reinos de Castilla y Aragón (siglos XII-XV)
12. John Tolan (Université de Nantes, F): Muslims as pagans, heretics, or Jews? The quandary of classification for medieval jurists
13. Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati (University of Oslo, N): Intercommunal bathing in the ius commune and in the ius proprium of medieval and early modern Iberia

Persons wishing to attend the School are requested to write to:

Professor Dr. Orazio Condorelli

Facoltà Giuridica – Via Gallo, 24 – 95124 CATANIA, Italy

Tel +39.095.230417

e-mail: ocondorelli@lex.unict.it

NOTICE: "Historia et Ius" second issue

The first issue of "Historia et Ius" has been published at the web address www.historiaetius.eu

The journal is dedicated to medieval, modern and contemporary historical legal studies.

"Historia et ius" invites interested scholars to send articles and texts for publication in the N. 2 of the journal, which will be posted  on the web on the 31st of December, 2012.

Articles and texts for publication should be sent to the editorial board by the 31st of July, 2012.

Interested scholars shall send manuscripts specifying in which section they desire to publish to the following e-mail address:

info@historiaetius.eu

Texts may be written in Italian, French, English, Spanish and German.

NOTICE: Irish Legal Diaspora Conference

Irish Legal Diaspora Conference

Dublin, Ireland

7-8 July 2013    

 

The Irish legal diaspora has had a significant impact on the development of legal systems all over the globe.  Over the centuries Irish lawyers have imbued the law of many lands with their own ideals and experience.  Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a law graduate in addition to being a journalist and politician, is recognised as one of the fathers of Canadian Confederation.  The contribution of the legal diaspora often extended beyond the strict bounds of law.  The young Dublin lawyer John Robert Godley was the driving force behind the settlement and organisation of a new city in New Zealand that he named “Christchurch”.

The Irish Legal History Society would like to invite Irish and international scholars to Dublin in order to celebrate the global significance of the legal diaspora.  This event is supported by the Society as part of its 25^th anniversary celebrations.  The dates of this conference dovetail with the British Legal History Conference that will be held at the University of Glasgow on 10-13 July 2013.  Some participants may wish to attend both events.

Proposals of less than 500 words for papers relating to the Irish legal diaspora in any part of the world should reach the organisers by 30 September 2012. 

More details can be found on our website. The conference email is ildc2013@yahoo.ie.

NOTICE: Alternative Justice Yesterday and Today (Maison française d'Oxford, podcast)

The Maison française d'Oxford podcasted the contributions to the conference "Alternative Justice Yesterday and Today" (13 June 2012).

Speakers:

• Boudewijn Sirks, "The episcopalis audientia in Late Antiquity"
• Thomas Charles-Edwards, "The three columns of law"
• Emanuele Conte, "Karissimo amico domino Aymerico. The turn to Roman procedure and the beginning of legal doctrines"
• Emmanuel Dockès, "Power struggle as an alternative justice? The example of the right to strike"
• Raymond Verdier, "“Les ordalies, un phénomène transculturel: l’épreuve rituelle du feu chez les Kabyè du Togo” (film de 2011 commenté)"

(source: Maison française d'Oxford podcast RSS-feed)

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: 31st Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society

Receiving Laws/ Giving Laws: 

The 31st Annual Conference of the

Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society

December 2012, UTS, Sydney

Paper proposals due 31 July 2012

The 31st Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), 10-12 December 2012.

 

• Keynote speaker: Professor Philip Girard, Dalhousie – “Colonization, Culture, Continuity:  The Role of Law”
• Plenary speaker: Professor Christopher Tomlins, UC Irvine – “Debt, Death, and Redemption: Toward a History of the Turner Rebellion”
• Keynote Panel: “Receiving Laws / Giving Laws: Three Takes” - Professor Anne Orford, Melbourne, A/Prof Katherine Biber, UTS, Dr Damen Ward, Crown Law, Wellington

More information, including on the conference theme, can be found at http://www.law.uts.edu.au/research/conferences/index.html

NOTICE: Comparative Legal History - the ESCLH Journal!

The European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) is delighted to announce that it has agreed with Hart Publishing (UK) to produce a new journal. Comparative Legal History (CLH), an international and comparative review of law and history, will be the official journal of the ESCLH. 

The journal will be published, both online and in print, twice a year, appearing in the spring and the autumn. The first issue will appear in Spring 2013:

Articles will explore both 'internal' legal history (doctrinal and disciplinary developments in the law) and 'external' legal history (legal ideas and institutions in wider contexts). Rooted in the complexity of the various Western legal traditions worldwide, the journal will also investigate other laws and customs from around the globe. Comparisons may be either temporal or geographical and both legal and other law-like normative traditions will be considered. Scholarship on comparative and trans-national historiography, including trans-disciplinary approaches, is particularly welcome.

The Editors welcome scholarly submissions in the English language:

To submit an article please contact Editor Seán Patrick Donlan (sean.donlan@ul.ie) or Articles Editor Heikki Pihlajamäki (heikki.pihlajamaki@helsinki.fi). The optimal length for articles is between 7500 to 15000 words, including footnotes. Shorter submissions will be considered for our 'Short Articles' section. All articles are submitted to double blind peer review.

To propose a review, please contact Reviews Editor Agustin Parise (agustin.parise@maastrichtuniversity.nl). Book reviews will generally range from 1500 to 2500 words. Review articles will also be considered.

The Hart website also has information on the Editors (both the Editorial Staff and International Editorial Board), an Email alert service of the 'Table of Contents', and subscription information. 

Note that a special arrangement between the ESCLH and Hart has been made to ensure that, beginning next year, ESCLH membership fees will include a subscription to CLH.

Potential contributors should pay special attention to the ‘Notes for Contributors’ on the website. In particular, contributors whose first language is not English are strongly advised to have their papers edited by native Anglophone scholars in advance of their submission to ensure a clear presentation of their ideas and an accurate appraisal of their work.

Spread the word. 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Legal Theory and Legal History: A Neglected Dialogue ? (Open Paper Session) (London, 12-13 April 2013)

 

(image source: Queen Mary) 

The Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, organizes a conference on the "Neglected Dialogue" between Legal Theory and Legal History (12-13 April 2013). The call for papers and keynote speakers can be found on the Department's website (link).

Excerpt:

Apart from some notable exceptions, much of contemporary legal theory is uninformed by history, including legal history. This is deeply regrettable, for legal theories may be vastly improved by being informed, and perhaps more importantly, challenged by historical contexts. Theories of law, one might say, are better if they are forged at the coal-face of historical research. Similarly, one could argue that legal histories are better when they draw on, and themselves contribute to, the conceptual resources of legal theory.

Somewhat more radically, if one agrees law does not have a nature, but a culture, then one must account for how the culture of law changes, and has changed, over time. This, by necessity, demands a historically-informed methodology. Similarly, the problem of change is an unavoidable one in legal theory, whether that be change in legal regimes or changes in certain areas of the law – here, again, the resources of history, including the philosophy of history, are invaluable. Putting things a little more colourfully, one could say that legal ideas cannot but be understood historically.

Further, legal theory has, of course, its own history: legal theories are not disconnected islands, but rather interventions in a long series of dialogues and polylogues amongst theorists. As many have observed, and described, legal theory’s history needs to be informed not only by such dialogues and polylogues amongst theorists, but also by awareness of the theorist’s immersion in political, economic and other conditions of his or her time and place – there, once more, a serious engagement with history is important.

This conference - the annual conference of the UK Branch of the IVR - is designed to bring together legal theorists and legal historians (including historians of legal theory and political thought) in an attempt to facilitate and encourage dialogue between the two disciplines.

(source: Legal History Blog)

NOTICE: Journal of the History of International Law XIV (2012/1)

A new issue of the Journal of the History of International Law-Revue d'histoire du droit international (Brill) is out now (link).

Contents:
Articles:

• Yolanda Gamarra, "Rafael Altamira y Crevea (1866-1951). The International Judge as 'Gentle Civilizer'"
• Peter Langford & Ian Bryan, "Hans Kelsen's Theory of Legal Monism. A Critical Engagement with the Emerging Legal Order of the 1920s"
• Robert Nelson & Christopher Waters, "The Allied Bombing of German Cities during the Second World War from a Canadian Perspective"
• Daniel Schwartz, "Grotius on the Moral Standing of the Society of Nations"

Book Reviews:

• Guo Ran, "International Law in China, Past and Present: Study on the History of International Law, YANG Zewei"
• Georg Cavallar, "Das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker. Die Domestizierung einer Illusion, Jörg Fisch"
• Frederik Dhondt, "Regeneration and Hegemony. Franco-Batavian Relations in the Revolutionary Era, 1795-1803, Raymond M. H. Kubben"
• Simone Zubruchen, "Imperfect Cosmopolis. Studies in the History of International Legal Theory and Cosmopolitan Ideas, Georg Cavallar"

NOTICE: The Teaching of Roman law in Europe, Lecce 22 June 2012

This event might be of interest to ESCLH members

(source: Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law Blog, see here)

The Teaching of Roman law in Europe, Lecce 22 June 2012

A round-table discussion on "L'insegnamento del diritto romano in Europa" [The teaching of Roman law in Europe] will take place in Lecce on 22 June 2012.
 Speakers include:
Professors Luigi Labruna, Jean Andreau, Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi , Alessandro Corbino,Teresa Giménez-Candela, Michel Humbert, Rolf Knu¨tel, Pascal Pichonnaz, Laurens Winkel.

For more information, contact:
Prof. Francesca Lamberti

Ordinaria di Diritto romano e Diritti dell'antichità (IUS/18)
Dipartimento di Scienze giuridiche
Complesso Ecotekne - Via Monteroni
73100 Lecce
lamberti.f[at]gmail.com

NOTICE: Putting the Legal Treatise in its Place

We recently noted the publication of Angela Fernandez and Markus D Dubber (eds),

Law Books in Action: Essays on the Anglo-American Legal Treatise.

The introduction to the book has now been made available here on SSRN.

NOTICE: Journal of Constitutional History

We recently added a link to the Journal ofConstitutional History/Giornale di Storia Costituzionale.

Here's some additional information on the journal:

The Journal is a biannual publication. It was first published in 2001 with the aim of promoting and gathering research and methodological proposals that concern the manifold paths of constitutional history. The articles here published intend to analyse – in a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective – the foundations and characters of a complex historical and cultural phenomenon which is the source of a common inheritance, yet with different forms and conceptions. Between present and past, the scholars of law, politics, institutions, and more generally the experts of social sciences think and dialogue about constitutionalism, marked by deep historical roots and growing tensions. The Journal is the only paper magazine dedicated to constitutional history. It has already become a meeting and reference point for the different practices of constitutional history. It publishes essays in various languages and is characterised by thematic richness and variety in surveys, alternating miscellaneous issues with others dedicated to monographic research.

At this moment the international scientific committee is composed of the following scholars:

Bruce Ackerman (University of Yale), Vida Azimi (CNRS-Cevipof, Paris), Bronislaw Backo (Université de Genève), Olivier Beaud (Université Paris II, Panthéon-Assas), Giovanni Busino (Université de Lausanne), Bartolomé Clavero (Universidad de Sevilla), Francis Delperée (University of Leuven), Alfred Dufour (Université de Genève), Dieter Grimm (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), António Manuel Hespanha (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki), Lucien Jaume (CNRS-Cevipof, Paris), Peter L. Lindseth (University of Connecticut), Martin Loughlin (London School of Economics & Political Science), Heinz Mohnhaupt (Max‑Planck Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main), Peter S. Onuf (University of Virginia), Michel Pertué (Université d’Orléans), Jack Rakove (University of Stanford), Dian Schefold (Universität zu Bremen), Michael Stolleis (Max‑Planck‑Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main), Michel Troper (Université de Paris Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense), Joaquin Varela Suanzes‑Carpegna (Universidad de Oviedo), H.H Weiler (New York University), Augusto Zimmermann (Murdoch University)

WANTED: ESCLH BLOGGER(S)

The European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) is looking for a Chief Blogger and Occasional Bloggers to provide its members and other blog readers with information on events, publications, etc.

 

Founded in 2009, the ESCLH promotes a broad view of comparative legal history through the blog, its conferences and projects, and co-operation with those with shared aims. 

The work of ESCLH bloggers will not be especially onerous as the blog is largely informational rather than opinion-oriented. The posting process is quite straightforward and no special computer skills are required.  

Those interested should contact the ESCLH President, Setu Masferrer, at aniceto.masferrer@uv.es. 

Both professionals and graduate students will be considered.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Law and Culture in Medieval /Early Modern Europe & the Atlantic World

The following was recently posted on the Legal History Blog:

CFP: Law and Culture in Medieval /Early Modern Europe & the Atlantic World

Posted: 17 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Via H-Law, we have the following call for papers, from the Centro de Estudos Medievais - Oriente & Ocidente, Departamento de Filosofia e Ciências da Educação da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo:

The international peer reviewed journal International Studies on Law and Education (ISSN 1516-6821) published by the Universidade de São Paulo, the Universidade do Porto and the Editora Mandruvá of Brazil requests submissions of previously unpublished articles that treat any aspect of the interrelationship between law and culture in Medieval/early modern Europe and the Atlantic world. Studies with a strong comparative and or interdisciplinary focus are encouraged.

Submissions and any questions should be directed to Prof. Enric Mallorquí-Ruscalleda, coordinator of this volume. Although the language of preference is English, studies written in any romance language, as well as German, will be considered.

The deadline for submission is the 30th of November of 2012, and decisions regarding acceptance will be communicated no later than fifteen days later (along with necessary modifications, if applicable).

NOTICE: Time Lapse Map of European history

A Time Lapse Map of European history has been around for several years now. It was also recently posted on Huffington Post.

I thought that many of you might enjoy having a look.

REVIEW: Fosi on Papal Justice

The following review appeared on H-Net and might be of interest to ESCLH members:

 
Irene Fosi.  Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State, 1500-1750.  Translated by Thomas V. Cohen. Washington, DC  Catholic University of America Press, 2011.  272 pp.  $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8132-1858-8.
Reviewed by Sara Beam (University of Victoria) Published on H-Law (May, 2012) Commissioned by Ethan Zadoff

The Black Legend of Papal Justice

_Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State_ is an invaluable addition to the English-language scholarship on criminal justice in early modern Italy. Irene Fosi originally published this work in Italian in 2007, but has subsequently expanded the text and footnotes with a North American audience in mind. Both a survey of up-to-date Italian research and a showcase for the author's deep knowledge of the archives, this volume succeeds in introducing a broad audience to a new subject and offers satisfying new material for those familiar with the topic. This wide-ranging study, masterfully translated from the Italian by Thomas V. Cohen, is a satisfying and indispensable read for historians and for legal scholars interested in the intersection of law and "good governance"
(_buon governo, _p. 2) in the pre-1800 period.