NOTICE: International Francqui Professor Chair 2011-2012 (VUB & UGent)

International Francqui Professor Chair 2011-2012: Heikki Pihlajamäki 

What: Inaugural Lecture "Lay Judges in Criminal Trials: Historical Remnants or Living Law? Comparative Remarks on Western Legal History"

When: Wednesday, 24 October, 2012 - 18:00

Where: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Etterbeek (Brussels, Belgium)

Aula QD

The Francqui Foundation invites scientists from abroad to stay and work at Belgian universities. Two or more of those universities may propose an exceptional scientist, for the International Francqui Professor Chair.  The holder stays six months at the hosting universities, where he participates in scientific life. He will work with experts in his field, and with doctoral students. The stay culminates in a conference. Professor Heikki Pihlajamäki was granted the chair 2011-12, on the proposal of the Faculties of Law of Ghent University and of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Professor Pihlajamäki is professor of comparative legal history at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, and he is one of the leading legal historians and comparative lawyers in Northern Europe. He has published many books, peer-reviewed articles and contributions on legal-historical themes of the early modern period, but also on other subjects and other eras. Professor Pihlajamäki is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt, and of the editorial board of four international legal history journals.

Programme

•   18.00 :  Welcome by Prof. Paul Van Cauwenberge (Rector Ghent University)

•   18.10 :  Prof. Dave De ruysscher (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) ‘Comparative Legal History: A Revival’

•   18.20 :  Prof. Pierre van Moerbeke (Francqui Foundation) ‘Introduction of Prof. Heikki Pihlajamäki and handing over of the Francqui Medal’

•   18.30 :  Prof. Heikki Pihlajamäki (University of Helsinki) ‘Lay Judges in Criminal Trials: Historical Remnants or Living Law? Comparative Remarks on Western Legal History’

•   19.30 :  Closing remarks by Prof. Piet Taelman (Dean of the Faculty of Law of Ghent University)

•   19.40 :  Reception

On the hosting Institute and department

The Ghent Legal History Institute (www.rechtsgeschiedenis.be), which is part of the Department of Legal Theory and Legal History, continues the high-level research that was initiated in Ghent by famous legal historians like the late François-Louis Ganshof and by Raoul C. baron van Caenegem. It has taken a leading role in the research on such themes as feudal law, codifications, legal iconography and the history of the legal profession. The Institute hosts three full-time legal history professors, Prof. Dirk Heirbaut, Prof. Georges Martyn and Prof. Rik Opsommer. The Brussels Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Law (www.vub.ac.be/metajuridica) houses among others the disciplines of legal history and comparative law. It has a strong tradition in comparative legal history, which was initiated there by the late John Gilissen, and in the history of public law (social and social security law, constitutional law), under the wings of Michel Magits. Currently, the Department has two full-time legal history professors, Prof. Machteld De Metsenaere and Prof. Dave De ruysscher.  

Please confirm your attendance via email to activiteiten.rc@vub.ac.be before 17 October 2012.

For more information, please click here  

 

Call for Papers: 'Preparing for Death in Medieval and Early Modern Europe'

Picture: Giacomo Borlone de Buschis, "Danza macabra", Oratorio dei discipini in Clusone, Italy (1485)

What: Conference

Where: Helsinki, Collegium for Advanced Studies, Fabianinkatu 24

When: 14-15 March 2013

"The conference 'Preparing for Death in Medieval and Early Modern Europe' will investigate and explore the various ways and strategies medieval and early modern people used in attempting to prepare themselves and others - body, soul, property and memory - for the inevitable and omnipresent death. Although the timeframe is historical in order to achieve certain consistency, the conference aims at interdisciplinarity. Papers dealing with religious, legal, visual, cultural, political, and philosophical perspectives on preparing for death are welcome.

Those interested in giving a twenty-minute presentation at the conference are requested to submit a paper proposal (about 200 words) by 30 October 2012 to MIA KORPIOLA: mia.korpiola[at]helsinki.fi), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki"

For more information click here

NOTICE: The Triangle Legal History Seminar 2012-13 (Duke University School of Law)

The Triangle Legal History Seminar (TLHS) of the Duke University School of Law, which brings together faculty and graduate students with an interest in legal history, was launched in the fall of 2006 to provide a forum for the presentation of pre-circulated drafts of work-in-progress, involving legal history from any historical period or part of the world.


To read the complete 2012-2013 schedule click here.
For more information about the Triangle Legal History Seminar click here.
 

NOTICE: Legalism: Anthropology and History

Oxford University Press will be publishing Paul Dresch and Hannah Skoda (eds), Legalism: Anthropology and History in the months ahead:

 

Law and law-like institutions are visible in human societies very distant from each other in time and space. When it comes to observing and analysing such social constructs historians, anthropologists, and lawyers run into notorious difficulties in how to conceptualize them. Do they conform to a single category of 'law'? How are divergent understandings of the nature and purpose of law to be described and explained? Such questions reach to the heart of philosophical attempts to understand the nature of law, but arise whenever we are confronted by law-like practices and concepts in societies not our own.

In this volume leading historians and anthropologists with an interest in law gather to analyse the nature and meaning of law in diverse societies. They start from the concept of legalism, taken from the anthropologist Lloyd Fallers, whose 1960s work on Africa engaged, unusually, with jurisprudence. The concept highlights appeal to categories and rules. The degree to which legalism in this sense informs people's lives varies within and between societies, and over time, but it can colour equally both 'simple' and 'complex' law. Breaking with recent emphases on 'practice', nine specialist contributors explore, in a wide-ranging set of cases, the place of legalism in the workings of social life.

The essays make obvious the need to question our parochial common sense where ideals of moral order at other times and places differ from those of modern North Atlantic governance. State-centred law, for instance, is far from a 'central case'. Legalism may be 'aspirational', connecting people to wider visions of morality; duty may be as prominent a theme as rights; and rulers from thirteenth-century England to sixteenth-century Burma appropriate, as much they impose, a vision of justice as consistency. The use of explicit categories and rules does not reduce to simple questions of power.

The cases explored range from ancient Asia Minor to classical India, and from medieval England and France to Saharan oases and southern Arabia. In each case they assume no knowledge of the society or legal system discussed. The volume will appeal not only to historians and anthropologists with an interest in law, but to students of law engaged in legal theory, for the light it sheds on the strengths and limitations of abstract legal philosophy.

The table of contents includes:

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. 

REMINDER: British Legal History Conference Call for Papers (Deadline 31 August 2012)

The Twenty-First British Legal History Conference

Wednesday 10 July – Saturday 13 July 2013

The Twenty-First British Legal History Conference will be held in Glasgow from Wednesday 10 July 2013 to Saturday 13 July 2013. 

The conference theme will be:

Law and Authority

How have sources of law and frameworks for their application related to underlying conceptions of authority, or to the authority of other institutions, processes or actors within the legal order? The conference addresses the ways law has been shaped historically by different forms and ideas of authority, and by assumptions, arguments and debates about the relationship between law and authority. The theme embraces the authority of lawyers, judges and jurists; law courts, legislatures and other institutions of governance; judicial decisions, legislation and codes; texts such as legal opinions, law reports and juristic treatises; records such as charters, court decrees and verdicts; rules, principles and precedents; forms of argument, interpretation and doctrinal categories; custom, social practice and myth; ideology, equity and wider traditions in intellectual history, legal and political thought.

Papers concerning all jurisdictions, branches of the law and historical periods are welcome. Ideally, papers should reflect the conference theme. Papers embodying innovative legal history research and proposals from doctoral students are encouraged.

Ph.D.-vacancy (legal iconography) at Ghent University (Legal History Institute & Research Unit Social History after 1750) (DEADLINE: 31 AUGUST 2012)

THE RESEARCH UNIT ‘SOCIAL HISTORY SINCE 1750’ (HISTORY DEPARTMENT, FACULTY OF ARTS AND PHILOSOPHY) AND THE ‘LEGAL HISTORY INSTITUTE’ (LAW FACULTY) (GHENT UNIVERSITY) CURRENTLY HAVE A POSITION AVAILABLE FOR A: SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHER (PHD STUDENT)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF LAW AND JUSTICE IN BELGIUM IN THE 19th AND 20th CENTURIES
The 1831 Belgian constitution is known as one of the most modern and liberal ones of the 19th century. It established, amongst other new principles, an independent judiciary, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Jurists played an important role in the Belgian revolution and the state’s first governments, but were also very active as (critical) journalists.

Both the jurists of ‘the establishment’ (in the three section of the trias politica) as of the ‘public opinion’ made use of art and architecture in their ‘discourse’. New ‘temples’ of judicature were created on the one hand, with splendid statues and murals. On the other hand, satiric drawings illuminated the critical press. Both these artistic visions on law and justice have antecedents in the Ancient Regime.
Allegories, symbols and themes are repeated, but also reinterpreted. Legal iconography studies the meaning and the roles of these representations in the identity building of the state, the judiciary and the legal profession.

The PhD research project will establish a catalogue of ‘classical’ and ‘new’ allegories and symbols, as well as of their inventors. The research will investigate both the legitimizing and critical power of images in law and justice. This PhD-project is funded by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles (IAP) of the Belgian Science Policy Office and is part of the project ‘Justice & Populations’.

QUALIFICATIONS
- The candidate has a Master’s degree in History, Art History or Law or a Master’s degree with demonstrable interest in historical research
- The candidate has experience with qualitative and quantitative research
- The candidate masters Dutch, French and English
- The candidate has a passive knowledge of German
- The candidate is an enthusiastic and inventive team player

OFFER
- A 4-year contract as a full time scientific staff member of Ghent University
- Contact with national and international research groups
- Opportunity to follow an individualized PhD program at the UGent Doctoral School of Arts, Humanities and Law, including
language courses
- Extra benefits: free public transport between home and work place; biking fee; access to university sports facilities and university restaurants
Start of the project: October 1st, 2012

APPLY
If you are interested in joining us, please send your CV and a short research plan (maximum 2500 words) describing how you would conduct the research (in Dutch, French, German or English), before August 31, 2012 to: prof. dr. Dirk Heirbaut (dirk.heirbaut@ugent.be)

NOTICE: 32nd Annual Conference of the SCOTTISH LEGAL HISTORY GROUP: Parliament House, Edinburgh, Saturday 6th October 2012

"The 32nd Annual Conference and AGM of the Scottish Legal History Group will be held in the Reading Room of the Advocates’ Library, Parliament House, Edinburgh, on Saturday 6th October 2012. All welcome"
To read he programme click here

EXHIBITION: Autun - Musée Rolin: 13 September - 9 December 2012

The exhibition "Bologne et le pontifical d’Autun. Un chef-d’œuvre inconnu du premier Trecento (1330-1340)" will take place at the Musée Ronin (Autun, France) from the 13th September to the 9th December 2012.
The discovery of an exeptional manuscript of the bishop of Autun gives the opportunity to analyze the artistical production of the first half of the 14th century in Bologna and is therefore an important event for art historians. Nevertheless, the catalogue of the exhibition contains a part devoted to legal manuscript and the teaching of law in the Middle Ages (texts by Carla Frova, Patrick Arabeyre and Maria Alessandra Bilotta), which can be of great interest for legal historians.
For more information about the exhibition click here.
To contact the Museum Rolin (3, rue des bancs
71400 Autun): autun-museerolin@wanadoo.fr

NOTICE: Conference in memory of Alan Rodger, 7 - 8 September 2012 -

A short conference in memory of Alan Rodger will take place at the University of Glasgow, on 7-8 September 2012. The topics will be drawn from legal history and Roman law.

There are full details about arrangements and how to book here

If you have any particular queries not answered there, you can send them to: rodgermemorial@iuscivile.com

The conference will start on the Friday afternoon and continue on Saturday morning, with a reception and dinner on the Friday evening. The conference is being organized by Ernest Metzger, Douglas Professor of Civil Law in the University of Glasgow, and David Johnston QC, Axiom Advocates, Edinburgh.


The speakers are:

• Tiziana Chiusi (Professor of Civil Law, Roman Law and Comparative Law, University of Saarland)
• Michael Crawford FBA (Emeritus Professor, History, University College London)
• Robin Evans-Jones (Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Aberdeen)
• Joshua S. Getzler (Professor of Law and Legal History, University of Oxford)
• Kenneth Reid CBE, FBA, FRSE (Professor of Scots Law, University of Edinburgh)
• John Richardson FRSE (Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Edinburgh)
• Boudewijn Sirks (Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford).

CALL FOR PAPERS: Open invitation to friends, colleagues and admirers of Professor Mario Ascheri

"Mario Ascheri will turn seventy in February 2014. This will be an important milestone, and one that affords an occasion to honor a world-famous and prolific scholar whose vitality and energy have left a profound mark on historical studies.

Mario’s many scholarly interests, together with his charm, directness and enthusiasm, have attracted friends and admirers amongst historians of law and institutions as well as scholars of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Because of the immense range of his work it is impossible to classify Mario within a single field of research. Likewise the extraordinary number of people with whom he has come into contact over the years means that any choices we might make in the compilation of a Festscrift would inevitably be arbitrary, and unfair to some colleagues and friends (and perhaps even to whole areas of scholarship).

In view of this we have decided to invite all those who wish to pay tribute to Mario Ascheri with a scholarly contribution. Contributions must not exceed 30.000 characters (notes included), and will be subject to peer review. They will be published online on http://www.retimedievali.it and printed on demand".

For further information click here

Source: http://www.labinf-digips.unisi.it/studiascheri/?lang=en 

NOTICE: International Conference for the 200th Anniversary of the ABGB (1812), University of Trieste

The University of Trieste (Italy) will host, from the 25th to the 27th October 2012, an international conference for the 200th anniversary of the entrance in force of the Austrian Civil Code, the Allgemeines Buergerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB). The title of the conference, organized by the Department of Legal Sciences, Language, Interpreting and Translation of the University of Trieste, in collaboration with the Department of Law of the University of Genoa and the Faculty of Law of the University of Bern, is: "La codificazione del diritto tra il Danubio e l'Adriatico. Per i duecento anni dall'entrata in vigore dell'ABGB".
Papers will be presented in Italian, French and German.
To read the program click here.
To register click here.
Organization: Elisabetta Fiocchi(elisabetta.fiocchi@hotmail.com), Federica Furfaro(f.furfaro@campus.unimib.it) Davide Rossi (coordinator: drossi@units.it), Daniela Tarantino (daniela.tarantino@unige.it).   

NOTICE: The American Bar Association plans events for the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta

"The ABA has begun planning to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta with a series of events in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2015".

For more infrmation click here

NOTICE: Manuscripta Juridica is now online!

From the 31st of July 2012 the new data base of the Max-Planck-Institut fuer europaeische Rechtsgeschichte is available online. Based on the famous Verzeichnis der Handschriften zum römischen Recht bis 1600 (4 vols., Frankfurt 1972) by Gero Dolezalek, the online database has been realized under the direction of prof. Dolezalek.

"The data base aims at providing a census of handwritten texts (as many as possible) of juridical literature from past times. At present, the main focus is on texts in Latin, and predominantly texts from medieval times before the invention of the printing press. However, the data base also accommodates texts in vernacular languages and texts not from the Middle Ages".

"The data base is being made available to the public although it is still in a provisional state of electronic layout, so that researchers eager to use the data base should not be kept waiting any longer. While more sophisticated electronic presentation is planned, it can be postponed to later stages of the work.
At present, the data base offers seven entry points:

• (1) Locations and their manuscripts
• (2) Scribes
• (3) Previous possessors
• (4) Titles of individual items within the manuscripts
• (5) Authors
• (6) Beginning words of items
• (7) Closing words of items (in reversed order)"

Website: http://manuscripts.rg.mpg.de/