REMINDER: The first issue of the ESCLH Journal, "Comparative Legal History" is now available!

Full access is limited to subscribers but you can read the preface here. 

Index:

Editorial Articles

The Challenges of Comparative Legal History

David Ibbetson

American Responses to German Legal Scholarship: From the Civil War to World War I

David M Rabban

The Political Offence and the Safeguarding of the Nation State: Constitutional Ideals, French Legal Standards and Belgian Legal Practice (1830-1870)

Bram Delbecke

Sex, Crime and the Law: Russian and European Early Modern Legal Thought on Sex Crimes

Marianna Muravyeva  

Review Article

Comparative and Economic Approaches to Law: A Tale of Wilful Misunderstanding?

Jaakko Husa

Book Reviews

Manlio Bellomo, Inediti della giurisprudenza medievale

Reviewed by Emanuele Conte

Alejandro Guzmán-Brito, Codificación del Derecho Civil e Interpretación de las Leyes: Las normas sobre interpretación de las leyes en los principales Códigos civiles europeo-occidentales y americanos emitidos hasta fines del siglo XIX

Reviewed by MC Mirow

Turan Kayaoglu, Legal Imperialism: Sovereignty and Extraterritoriality in Japan, the Ottoman Empire and China

Reviewed by Zülâl Muslu

Mia Korpiola (ed), Regional Variations in Matrimonial Law and Custom in Europe, 1150-1600

Reviewed by Richard Mc Mahon

MC Mirow, Florida's First Constitution, the Constitution of Cádiz: Introduction, Translation, and Text

Reviewed by Peter L Reich

Anthony Musson and Chantal Stebbings (eds), Making Legal History: Approaches and Methodologies

Reviewed by Adelyn LM Wilson

BOOK: Essays by the lawyer Alessandro Criscuolo, edited by Stefano Vinci

Alessandro Criscuolo. Un avvocato tra età liberale e fascismo: un'antologia di scritti editi ed inediti, a cura di Stefano Vinci, In Quaderni della Rivista "Le Corti Pugliesi" 1, Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2013

Abstract by the author:

"Alessandro Criscuolo was one of major figures in criminal advocacy between 1800 and 1900 in South of Italy. Chairman of the Board of the Bar Association of Taranto for over twenty years, his long legal profession there is witnessed by a rich collection consists of books, essays and miscellaneous writings in his signature through which it's possible  to learn about its cultural eclecticism that embodied a full the nineteenth-century character of the lawyer, that the study of law accompanied the passion for history, poetry and literature in perfect cohesion. In the courtroom, in the halls of the city and provincial council, in speeches and public lectures, writings and legal allegations Criscuolo gave proof of a wonderful culture in the round that allowed him to expand in every respect, with mastery of language and concepts". 

For more information (in Italian) about this book and others related to Italian legal history, click here. 

BOOK: Dutch New York and the Law

Dutch New York and the Law: Just out from SUNY Press is the collection of essays, Opening Statements: Law, Jur... http://t.co/CkKDT5pF0h
— Legal History Blog (@legalhistory) June 21, 2013

BOOK: Martyn, Musson & Pihlajamäki (eds.), From the Judge's Arbitrium to the Legality Principle Legislation as a Source of Law in Criminal Trials [Comparative Studies in Continental and Anglo-American Legal History (CSC), Band 31, 2013, 407 p.

Duncker & Humblot published a volume edited by Georges Martyn (UGent), Anthony Musson (Exeter) and Heikki Pihlajamäki (Helsinki) in the Comparative Studies in Continental and Anglo-American Legal History Series. The book (407 p., € 89,90) covers the legality principle in criminal affairs.

 Abstract:

The legality principle characterizes all western legal systems, and it has become an integral part of the Western rule of law and the international human rights law. The principle dates back to enlightened jurists such as Cesare Beccaria and to social contract thinkers such as Charles de Secondat de Montesquieu, according to whom judges were to act only as the mouthpiece of the statutory law. Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach, the inventor of the famous maxim nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege, developed these thoughts further. The emergence of the legality principle links closely to the teachings on the division of powers. The studies of this volume cover most of Europe from England, Italy and Spain to Sweden, Russia and England, and both the South and North American continents. In most parts of Europe, the nineteenth-century criminal law reforms form an integral part of the ›liberal‹ agenda. These changes took place, however, at different times in different parts of the Western world, and for slightly different reasons. Comparative legal history shows, furthermore, that the roots of the principle date much further back in history than the eighteenth century. Before the formulation of the legality principle, written statutes already played a significant role in the criminal law in many parts of the Western world. The articles of the volume, written by the foremost experts on comparative legal history, demonstrate that the attitudes and practices toward written statutes as sources of criminal law varied greatly from one region to another. In most parts of the European continent judicial arbitration was carefully defined in legal scholarship (Italy, France), whereas in some regions written law played an important role from early on (Sweden). Although the nineteenth century was fundamental in shaping the legality principle, in some countries its breakthrough remained even then far from complete (Russia, the United States).

Contents:

• Georges Martyn (UGent) "Introduction: From Arbitrium to Legality? Or Legality and Arbitrium?"

• Anthony Musson (Exeter) "Criminal Legislation and the Common Law in Late Medieval England"

• Massimo Meccarelli (Macerata) "Dimensions of Justice and Ordering Factors in Criminal Law from the Middle Ages till Juridical Modernity"

• Wim Decock (KULeuven/MPI Frankfurt) "The Judge's Conscience and the Protection of the Criminal Defendant: Moral Safeguards against Judicial Arbitrariness"

• Sébastien Dhalluin (Lille 2) "Control of the Arbitrium of the Criminal Judge of the ›Parliament of Flanders‹ by Royal Legislation"

• Mathias Schmoeckel (Bonn) "The Mystery of Power Verdicts Solved? Frederick II of Prussia and the Emerging Independence of Jurisdiction"

• Sylvain Solei (Rennes) l "»Lex Imperat«: Creation and Exportation of the French Model of the Legality Principle (18th–19th C.)"

• Heikki Pihlajamäki (Helsinki)  "Legalism before the Legality Principle? Royal Statutes and Early Modern Swedish Criminal Law"

• Matthew C. Mirow (Florida) "The Legality Principle and the Constitution of Cádiz"

• António Manuel Hespanha (Lissabon) "The Pale Shade of Legality: The Resilience of Arbitrary Criminal Iudicia after the Era of Revolutions – the Portuguese case"

• Alejandro Agüero (Córdoba) "Law and Criminal Justice in the Spanish Colonial Order: the Problematic Enforcement of the Legality Principle in the Early National Law in Argentina"

• Aniceto Masferrer Domingo (Valencia) "Principle of Legality and Codification in the Western Criminal Law Reform"

• Tatiana Borisova (Moscow) "Legislation as a Source of Law in Late Imperial Russia"

• Marju Luts-Sootak and Marin Sedman (Tartu) "Ambivalences of the Legality Principle in the Penal Law of the Baltic Provinces in the Russian Empire (1710–1917)"

• Kimmo Nuotio (Helsinki) "Legality over Time: the Path of the Nullum Crimen Principle to a Fully Anchored Legal Principle in Finnish Penal Law "

• Markus D. Dubber (Toronto) "The Legality Principle in American and German Criminal Law: An Essay in Comparative Legal History"

• Michele Pifferi (Ferrara) "Indetermined Sentence and the Nulla Poena Sine Lege Principle: Contrasting Views on Punishment in the U.S. and Europe between the 19th and the 20th Century"

 See the editor's website.

NOTICE: Italian Monographs on Legal History Published in 2013

For a complete overview of the books published in the field of legal history in Italy in 2013, we suggest to have a look at the interesting and inspiring website http://www.storiadeldiritto.org managed by Paolo Alvazzi del Frate (univ. Roma Tre) - Loredana Garlati (univ. Milano Bicocca) - Marco Miletti (univ. Foggia) - Giovanni Rossi (univ. Verona),  and Dario di Cecca (univ. Roma Tre). 

In order to visualize the list of monographs, click here. 

REMINDER: Interdisciplinary Seminar on Citizenship between Middle Ages and Modern Era (Rome, 21 June 2013)

What:  5th Meeting of the Interdisciplinary Seminar on Citizenship "Cittadinanze e strategie di potere tra Medio Evo ed Età Moderna", organized by Sara Menzinger, Giuliano Milani and Massimo Vallerani, devoted to Forme di diminuzione della cittadinanza  

  

Where: RomaTre University, Law Faculty, Via Ostiense 161, room 278 (2nd floor) 

When: 21 June 2013, 3:30 pm 

More information here

All materials available here (everyone can open the papers  but to download them you need an account on academia.edu or on facebook).  

Program: 

Prof. Caterina Bori (Università degli Studi di Bologna): Fama e infamia come "prova" nella dottrina giuridica islamica (XIII-XIV secolo)

Prof. Antonia Fiori (Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’): Infamia e purgatio nel diritto canonico medievale

BOOK: Sumalla on Historical Memory and Criminal Justice in Spain:

Intersentia has published Josep M Tamarit Sumalla’s Historical Memory and Criminal Justice in Spain: A Case of Late Transitional Justice. The abstract reads:

The Spanish transition from the Franco regime to democracy has not been a very popular subject amongst researchers examining transitional justice at the international level. However, Spain presents certain peculiarities that make it an interesting case in which to explore comparative law and sociology. It has sometimes been seen as a model of peaceful transition, but has also been labelled as an example of an “amnesic” transition to a democratic system in which victims’ rights, justice and truth were forgotten. In contrast to other transitions, demands of justice were not expressed during what was the purely transitional period, but they have been on the increase since then. That is why, in this case, we can speak of “post-transitional justice” or, more properly, of “late transitional justice”.

This book analyses, above all, the laws, policies and judicial decisions adopted in Spain that were related to the construction of the past and could therefore be understood as measures of transitional justice. By comparing this experience with transitional decisions adopted in other countries, the book highlights the main features of the Spanish case and the lessons that can be learned from it. Measures adopted during the transitional period, such as the amnesty and subsequent decisions aimed at giving some kind of partial reparation to the victims of the repression, are here studied. Demands for reviewing the past, the 2007 Historical Memory Act, and the controversial use of criminal justice are also considered. Criminal Law is hardly applicable to the facts of the past, but the purely amnesic option can no longer be defended. Therefore, the author proposes a plan of action including different measures, such as the creation of a commission of memory, which would be in charge of investigating not only violent crimes or torture, but also other related crimes, including child abduction and politically motivated unlawful adoptions and those perpetrated in a systematic way during the Dictatorship. A victim-centred approach requires ensuring that each victim has the right to be considered on the basis of his or her own suffering, needs and rights and not as a member of a large group. 

BOOKS: Irish Legal History Society

Dear members, we have a few fantastic books coming out over the next few months... watch this space! Free to members as always
— Irish Legal History (@IrLegalHist) June 17, 2013

For additional information, see the Irish Legal History Society website at http://www.ilhs.eu/

CONFERENCE on the history of administrative districts in Italy (Rome, 20-21 June 2013)

What: National conference on Per una storia delle circoscrizioni amministrative in Italia. Prime esemplificazioni, organized by Dipartimento delle scienze economiche, politiche e delle lingue moderne of the LUMSA University. 

Where: LUMSA - Aula 11, Via Pompeo Magno 22, Roma. 

When: 20 June (from 3:30 pm) - 21 June (from 9:00 am).

More information here. 

WORKSHOP on the connections between legal history, spaces and times (Macerata, 20-21 June 2013)

What: Ambiti geografici e dimensioni temporali nella storia del diritto: esperienze e percorsi di ricerca. In the framework of the PhD in Legal Sciences (Curriculum Legal History) of the University of Macerata Law Faculty, in collaboration with the Area de Historia del Derecho of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. 

Where: Scuola di Studi Superiori Giacomo Leopardi, Viale Martiri della Libertà 59, Macerata.  

When: 20 (from 3:00 pm) - 21 (from 9:00 am) June 2013. 

PROGRAM:

Thursday, 20 June 2013, 3:00 pm

Tempi storici e spazi della politica: temi ed ipotesi di ricerca

Pietro COSTA / Università di Firenze 

Continuità e discontinuità nelle letture del crollo della monarchia cattolica e delle indipendenze americane

Marta LORENTE / Universidad Autonoma de Madrid 

Colonialismo e configurazione di territorio e di cronologia per una storia dello stato spagnolo

Julia SOLLA / Universidad Autonoma de Madrid 

5.30 pm

Discussion and Final Report: Javier BARRIENTOS / Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Friday, 21June 2013, 9.00 am

La circolazione della letteratura giuridica nell'età moderna. Oltre i confini e le periodizzazioni nazionali 

Laura BECK / Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Province illiriche come crocevia del diritto, di codici, di lingue e di giuristi. Tra ordinamento veneziano, austriaco e francese 

Stefano SOLIMANO / Università Cattolica di Milano

I modelli nel discorso sul processo penale italiano, tra «inevitabile sistema misto», triangolo di Bartolo e mito americano 

Floriana COLAO / Università di Siena

11.30 am

Discussion and Final Report: Paolo CAPPELLINI / Università di Firenze

Conclusions: Massimo MECCARELLI / Università di Macerata

Discussants: Giovanni CAZZETTA / Università di Ferrara, Giulio CIANFEROTTI / Università di Siena, Luigi LACCHÈ / Università di Macerata, Francesco MIGLIORINO / Università di Catania, Aurelio CERNIGLIARO / Università di Napoli Federico II, Ninfa CONTIGIANI / Università di Macerata, Aldo MAZZACANE / Università di Napoli Federico II, Giacomo PACE / Università di Messina, Monica STRONATI / Università di Macerata. 

NOTICE: What is DIREL

The DIREL (Centro studi "Diritto, Religioni e Letterature") comprises two strictly connected sections: the first one is focused on legal-historical research, the second one on legal-philosophical issues. Both researches are carried on together with persons of letters and theologians, with particular attention to historical-rethorical and semiotic-linguistic research.

The center, as part of the Osservatorio sull’Antropologia della Libertà (ALI) of the associazione Polis, is the Turin based "headquarter" of the ISLL network (Italian Society for Law and  Literature). It is rooted in the CIRCE (Centro di Ricerche sulla comunicazione dell’Università di Torino) and joins both the CERMEG (Centro di Metodologia dell’Università di Trento) and the RES Center (Regolazione, Etica e Società, Università del Piemonte Orientale), actively collaborating with the Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa (Leo Olschki), the on-line Journal TCRS (Teoria Critica della Regolazione Sociale, Università di Catania) and the collection "Antropologia della Libertà" (Mimesis).

The Center organizes conferences, workshops and research projects and helps in the organization of the Summer Schools in Legal History and Legal Philosophy of the Law Faculty of the University of Turin, which take place in Italy as well as in other countries. The first Summer School will take place in Torre Pellice during the month of August 2014, the second one in France in 2015.

For more information click here. 

JOURNAL: New Issue of "Law and Humanities": 7.1 (2013)

Volume 7. Number 1. 2013

The 1^st issue of the 2013 volume of Law and Humanities is now available online.

ONLINE ACCESS: To access this issue online, read the abstracts and purchase individual papers please click here.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: To order or renew your subscription and for further information about Law and Humanities, please click here.

CONTENTS

Editorial

Free to view – please click here

Articles

‘The Cutting Edge of Cocking About’: Top Gear, Automobility and Law

Kieran Tranter and Damien Martin

Oaths, Credibility and the Legal Process in Early Modern England: Part Two

Barbara J Shapiro

Towards a Critique of Narrative Reason

François Ost

Recovering the Lost Human Stories of Law: Finding Mrs Burns

Dawn Watkins

Lost for Words: Embodying Law through Tanztheater

Miriam Aziz

Book Reviews

Julen Etxabe, The Experience of Tragic Judgment

Ari Hirvonen

Ruth Herz, The Art of Justice: The Judge’s Perspective

Leslie J Moran, Gary Watt, Linda Mulcahy and David Isaac

JOB: History Department at Rice University

The History Department at Rice University seeks a historian at the associate or full rank whose research is salient to the fields of the United States and the World; U.S. foreign relations; or the international history of the United States.  

The successful candidate will participate in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Rice University is located in Houston, Texas. A 2-2 course load is standard, and research and service are required. There is no deadline for submitting applications; they will begin to evaluate applications on 1 October 2013. The search will remain open until the position is closed or filled. Applicants should arrange for three letters of reference and send a letter of application, a sample article-length publication, and a c.v. to this address:  

Chair, U. S. Senior Search, Department of History MS-42, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892, USA.  

Electronic submissions welcome viahist@rice.edu.

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Minorities, women, and international scholars are encouraged to apply.

Here a video about the History Department at Rice University. 

BOOK: T. Noble, J. Van Engen (eds.), The Long Twelfth Century (review by W. Maleczek, Sehepunkte 2013)

Werner Maleczek reviewed the Acta of a 2006 conference held at Notredame University on the long twelfth century, including some essays on legal history by Maureen Miller ("Italy in the Long Twelfth Century: Ecclesiastical Reform and the Legitimization of a New Political Order, 1059-1183"), David Nicholas ("Lords, Markets, and Communities: The Urban Revolution of the Twelfth Century") and Anders Winroth ("The Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century").

Fulltext of the book review on sehepunkte.

BOOK: R. Riemer, Frankfurt and Hamburg before the Reichskammergericht. A comparison between two trade- and networking centres (Review by J. Haustmann, Sehepunkte 2013)

Jost Hausmann reviewed Robert Riemer's monograph on Frankfurt and Hamburg, two commercial Imperial cities, before the Reichskammergericht. The work (IX + 431 p.) contains a quantitative analysis of proceedings before this tribunal, established in 1495 to counterbalance the Emperor's overlordship. The work builds further on a previous edition of trial documents and focuses on litigation in itself, as well as commercial and social matters. Riemer's work is the published version of a 2006 doctoral dissertation at the University of Greifswald.

A full text of the review can be found online.

BOOK: W. Daum, P. Brandt, M. Kirsch, A. Schlegelmilch (Hrsg.), Handbuch der europäischen Verfassungsgeschichte 1815-1847 (reviewed by Olaf Blaschke)

Reviews in history features a book of interest to the members of our society. The second volume of Werner Daum, Peter Brandt, Martin Kirsch and Arthur Schlegelmilch's Handbuch der europäischen Verfassungsgeschichte, on early nineteenth-century developments from 1815 to 1847, has been extensively reviewed by dr. Olaf Blaschke (Heidelberg). The text of his review can be consulted on the Reviews in History-website (Institute of Historical Research, London).

This impressive volume counts 1504 pages and 30+ contributions, to cover the era stretching from the Congress of Vienna, marking the exit of Napoleon, to the 1848 Revolution, which toppled the Louis Philippe.

FELLOWSHIPS: Kluge Fellowships at the Library of Congress

Kluge Fellowships at the Library of Congress: [We have the following announcement.  Recent fellows Kluge Fello... bit.ly/13ihyaj
— Legal History Blog (@legalhistory) June 7, 2013

JOURNAL: New Iussue of "Historia et Ius" (n. 3, June 2013)

The new issue of "Historia et Ius" is now available onilne. To read the papers click here. 

Contents:

Temi e questioni

• 1) Mario Ascheri, La certezza del diritto nel Medioevo - PDF
• 2) Jacques Bouineau, Lecture politique de la référence à l’Antiquité sous la Révolution française -PDF

Studi (valutati tramite peer review)

• 3) Rosalba Sorice, Regulae in aedificando. La Constitutio ‘Asperitatem’ e il pensiero giuridico meridionale sul tentativo nei secoli XIII-XVI - PDF
• 4) Cecilia Pedrazza Gorlero, L’accusa del sangue. Il valore indiziario della cruentatio cadaveris nella riflessione di Paolo Zacchia (1584-1659) - PDF
• 5) Ulrike Müßig, Montesquieu’s mixed monarchy model and the indecisiveness of 19th century European Constitutionalism between monarchical and popular sovereignty - PDF
• 6) Faustino Martínez Martínez, Repensar la Constitución de 1812: Cádiz o el imposible constituyente - PDF
• 7) Alessandro Riccioni, La codificazione del diritto penale inglese. James Fitzjames Stephen e il Criminal Draft Code - PDF
• 8) Sylvain Soleil, Manéga en Bessarabie, Bello au Chili et Boissonade au Japon. Trois réformateurs du XIXe siècle face au modèle juridique français - PDF
• 9) Michele Natale, Una breve riflessione sul codice di rito del 1913. Azione penale, pubblico ministero e giudice istruttore tra modello misto e suggestioni accusatorie - PDF

 Interventi

• 10) Andrea Padovani, The ms. Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket B682. A description - PDF
• 11) Paolo Alvazzi del Frate, La Charte del 4 giugno 1814: una introduzione - PDF
• 12) Julien Boudon, La place réservée à l’histoire du droit et au droit comparé par la doctrine juridique française en 1900 - PDF
• 13) Dario Di Cecca, Per una ricerca sul socialismo giuridico francese - PDF
• 14) Nader Hakim, Droit privé et courant critique: le poids de la dogmatique juridique - PDF
• 15) Vito Piergiovanni, Un percorso scientifico (a proposito di Mario Caravale, Scritti)  - PDF
• 16) Giordano Ferri, Il notariato tra antico e moderno (a proposito di Maria Luisa Lombardo, Il notaio romano tra sovranità pontificia e autonomia comunale: secoli XIV-XVI) - PDF
• 17) Damigela Hoxha, La codification du droit pénal au XIXe siècle (à propos du livre Bruno Dubois, Tanguy Le Marc’Hadour, Un code pour la nation. La codification du droit pénal au XIXe siècle) - PDF

BOOK: Presentation of the Dictionary of Italian Jurists' Biography (7 June 2013, Rome)

What: Presentation of the Dizionario Biografico dei Giuristi Italiani (XII-XIX secolo), ed. by I. BIROCCHI, E. CORTESE, A. MATTONE, M.N. MILETTI, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2013. 

Where: Biblioteca del Senato (Sala Capitolare), Piazza della Minerva 38, Roma 

When: 7 June 2013, 3:30 pm 

Welcome by the President of the Italian Senate, Pietro Grasso

Discussants: Pio Caroni, Mario Dogliani, Giuseppe Galasso, Natalino Irti, Carlos Petit.

The Dictionary of Italian Jurists' Biography collects the biographies of more than 2000 jurists between the Middle Ages and the 21st Century. The single entries, written by experts in the field, describe persons who, from different perspectives - as professors, judges, lawyers or notaries, members of leading institutions or protagonists of the intellectual life of the country - have contributed to the development of legal knowledge. 

More information here. 

REMINDER: Conference on the interpretation of law (Besançon, 30 May-2 June)

What: L'interpretation du droit. Journées Internationales de la Société d'Histoire du Droit. 
Where: Université de Franche-Comté, Faculté des Lettres, 47 rue Mégevand (entrance: 16 rue Chifflet), Besançon
When: 30 May - 2 June 2013

More information HERE. 

NOTICE: Laurea Honoris Causa awarded to Prof. Paolo Grossi by the University of Macerata (12 June 2013)

What: Laurea Honoris Causa in Political and International Studies (Studi politici e internazionali) awarded to Prof. Paolo Grossi by the University of Macerata.

Where: Aula Magna, Piaggia dell'Università 2, Macerata

When: 12 June 2013, 5:00 pm

PROGRAM:

Welcome and introduction by Luigi Lacchè (Dean of the University)

Laudatio by Francesco Adornato (Director of the Department of Political Sciences, of International Communication and Relationships)

Motivation of the award by Barbara Pojaghi (Assistant Director of the Department of Political Sciences, of International Communication and Relationships)

Proclamation

Award

Lectio Doctoralis by Paolo Grossi: "La Costituzione italiana quale espressione di un tempo giuridico post-moderno"

Reminder: First Conference of the AFJHD: The pillars of civil law (6-7 June 2013)

The Association of Young French Legal Historians draws our attention to its upcoming first conference on "The pillars of civil law", to be held at the Paris II Panthéon-Assas law school. A conference poster is available here, the full programme (including abstracts) here. Papers cover classical civil law themes from diverse traditions (classical Roman law, canon law, medieval, humanist doctrine, Code Napoléon, China).