CONFERENCE: Annual Forum Young Legal Historians, "Compromis à la belge" (Ghent: UGent, 17-20 SEPT 2025)

 

(image source: blogger)

Wednesday, 17^th September 2025

Opening Ceremony

Venue: Faculty of Law and Criminology, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000 Gent

-          17:00-17:15: Opening Remarks by the Director of the Ghent Legal History Institute, Prof. Dr. Dirk Heirbaut.

-          17:15-17:30: Word of welcome by the Organizing Committee

-          17:30-18:00: Keynote speech Bruno Debaenst: The history of the Annual Forum for Young Legal Historians

-          18:00: official opening of the reception by the Dean of the Law Faculty prof. dr. Michel Tison

-          18:15-19:30: Opening ceremony reception

Thursday 18^th September 2025

Panel sessions

Venue: Faculty of Law and Criminology, Volderstraat 3, 9000 Gent

-          8:30-9:00: Registration day 1

-          9:00-10:30: Panel 1, 2, 3

-          10:30-11:00: Coffee break

-          11:00-12:30: Panel 4, 5, 6

-          12:30-14:00: Lunch break

-          14:00-15:30: Panel 7, 8, 9

-          15:30-16:00: Coffee break

-          16:00-17:30: Panel 10, 11, 12

Friday 19^th September 2025

Panel sessions

Venue: Faculty of Law and Criminology, Volderstraat 3, 9000 Gent

-          8:30-9:00: Registration day 2

-          9:00-10:30: Panel 13,14,15

-          10:30-11:00: Coffee break

-          11:00-12:30: Panel 16, 17, 18

-          12:30-14:00: Lunch break

-          14:00-15:30: Panel 19, 20

Closing ceremony

Venue: ‘Pacificatiezaal’, Ghent city hall (Botermarkt 1, 9000 Gent)

-          18u00: Welcome by the city administration

-          Keynote speech professor Julie Rocheton: Compromis à la Louisianaise

Conference Dinner

20:00 at Multatuli (Huidevetterskaai 40, 9000 Gent)

Saturday 20^th September 2025

City tour through the historical centre of Ghent

Point of assembly:  Faculty of Law and Criminology, Volderstraat 3, 9000 Gent

Panel sessions:

Panel 1: Compromise in Islamic and Ottoman Law – Amila Svraka-Imamovic, Rode Zaal

-          Afra Uysal: Muamalah Shar’iyyah: Fraus legis or legal compromise?

-          Dawid Szulc: Ottomanism as a concept legitimizing state and legal reforms in the Tanzimat era (1839–1876)

-          Rafał Kaczmarczyk: Forced compromise: crisis in the Muslim Religious Union in the Republic of Poland under the government’s management

-          Ramez Mahdi Mahmoud Ashour: Administrative Settlement as a Mechanism for Absorbing Disputes in Hybrid Legal Systems: The Case of Palestine (TBC)

Panel 2: Compromise and Finance – Elias Dessantis, Blauwe Zaal

-          Florenz Volkaert: Tariff Compromises in the History of International Law (1860-1914)

-          Ana Carolina Couto: Legal Designs of Compromise in Post-Abolition Brazil: Targeted Credit and the Encilhamento Crisis

-          Máté Pétervári: An Agreement Among Creditors Forcing Disagreeing Minority. The Theory of Compulsory Non-Bankruptcy Settlement in the Hungarian and German-language Jurisprudence

Panel 3: Compromise in Civil Law Changes – Emanuel van Dongen, Multimedialokaal

-          Robin Navez: The Belgian-Dutch civil codification of 1830: a lawmaking process encouraging parliamentary compromises?

-          Germans Pavlovskis: Legitimacy of the Roman Law Sources after the Adoption of the Codification of Baltic Private Law of 1864

-          Magdalena Ossowska-Tutaj: The Elusive Compromise of Abandoning Immovable Property in Polish Law

-          Michal Tutaj: Compromise or Dictate? Two Different Paths of Lawmaking: The Case of Polish and Turkish Obligation Law after World War I

Panel 4: “At the Crossroads of Revolution and Compromise” – The Legacy of the Conference of the justice of the Realm  of 1861 in Hungary – Dawid Szulc, Rode Zaal

-          Imre Képessy: “The Long and Winding Road” leading to the Approval of the Provisional Judicial Rules

-          Balázs Rigó: The Compromise in the Teaching of European and Hungarian Legal History at the Royal University of Pest in 1861

-          Gábor Bathó: Criminal Law on the Agenda of the Conference of the Justice of the Realm

-          Orsolya Papik: The Provisional Judicial Rules as a Gateway Between Constitutionalism and Modernisation (TBC)

 

Panel 5: Fundamental Rights: No Place for Compromise? - James Hannaford, Blauwe Zaal

-          Patricia Plana de Juan: Public Morality in Spanish Law (TBC)

-          Felix Dröll: Compromise and the exercise of rights - Japanese legal history between westernization and societal values

-          Linda Lielbriede: Right to Defense, Fair Trial, and Legal Compromise in Authoritarian and Transitional Regimes

Panel 6: (Post-)Colonial Compromises – Stephen Hewer, Multimedialokaal

-          Ilaria Masseroni: Polygamy as Colonial Compromise: Legal Pluralism and Missionary Governance in the Congo Free State (1885–1908)

-          Kato Desaever: Colonial concession regime as ‘compromis à la Belge’ between State & concessionaire

-          Pietro Reginato Costa Callado: Achieving Consensus in a Polarized World: The Role of Compromise in the Adoption of UNGA Resolution 1803 (XVII)

-          Daglié Colaço: Compromises in the Age of Empires: Belgian Presence on Brazil’s Western Frontier (1880–1914)

Panel 7: Compromises in Function of Social Protection – Bruno Debaenst, Rode Zaal

-          Caroline Desbois: From One Master to Another: The Mobility of Apprentices and Their Contacts in Parisian Compagnonnage During the 17th and 18th Centuries

-          Louis Debersaques: When it rains, it pours. The compromise of safety by operating outside the agreed period in public construction works (c. 1875)

-          Elizaveta Stetsenko: Defects in provision of medical care: legal ways to find a compromise 

-          Marcelo Muñoz Perdiguero - Heinrich Pesch and the quest for compromise and middle way

Panel 8: Crime and Punishment – Stephen Hewer, Blauwe Zaal 

-          Letizia Solazzi: The third school of criminal law: an Italian compromise

-          Wang Sarinai: The concept of collective responsibility in ancient Mongolian law

Panel 9: Compromises in the Creation of Criminal Legislation – Ana Paula Zappellini Sassi, Multimedialokaal

-          Benedek Varga: The Criminalization of Tax Fraud in Interwar Hungary: A Dogmatic and Historical Analysis of Act XXXII of 1920 

-          Edouard Delrée: Undying or Walking Dead? Scope and Trajectories of Two Major Long-Term Legal Compromises in Belgian Criminal Procedure (19th-21st centuries) 

 

Panel 10: Canon Law and Compromise – Antoine Leclère, Rode Zaal

-          Shiri Roelofs: Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) on Money Exchange: The Role of Canon, Roman, and Natural Law

-          Emilie Gérard: Pleading for tolerance: Charles Ancillon’s advocacy for the reinstatement of the Edict of Nantes

-          Łukasz Gołaszewski: Effective, ineffective and even informal compromise. Conflict resolution by way of settlement in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the light of records of noble and ecclesiastical courts from Podlasie

-          Ana Luiza Ferreira Gomes Silva: Teaching the Libri Feudorum in Leuven Across Three Centuries: Compromising Interpretation with Changing Contexts?

Panel 11: State Responsibilities during and after Times of War – Florenz Volkaert, Blauwe Zaal

-          Benedict Vanlanduyt: the restitution of movable and immovable goods in peace treaties between 1482-1715 

-          Louise Martens: Political Incivism of Belgian Lawyers on The Verge of The Repression

-          Michał Stokowski: Retaliation or reconciliation - responsibility for the crimes of the World War II on the example of legislation Poland and Belgium

-          Stefano Cattelan: Maritime Neutrality in the 18th Century: Seeking a Compromise Between the Rights of Belligerents and Neutrals

Panel 12: The Contrasting Roles of Compromise in Emancipation – Kaat Cappelle, Multimedialokaal

-          Ana Paula Zappellini Sassi: The discipline of female sexual honour within sexual crimes: the "honest woman" concept as a crossing-borders patriarchal compromise? (Italy—Brazil, 1889-1930)

-          David Karacsony: Discrimination and disadvantaged social groups in Roman law

-          Wang Jing: Title TBD (TBC)

-          Laura Rodriques: Compromise and Democratic Transition in the “Convenção Nacional do Negro Brasileiro” (1945-1951) (TBC) 

Panel 13: Contractual Compromises in Roman Law – Niels Fieremans, Rode Zaal

-          Michael Binder: Pactum de non petendo: A Compromise? 

-          Yüce Tunay: The role of Bonus Vir in Conflicts Arising from Commercial Activities in Roman Law with a comparison of Ottoman Islamic Law and Turkish Modern Law

-          David Magalhães: “Transactio”. The enduring Roman roots of settlement of controversies by agreement

-          Adrien Mociulschi: Compromises in commercial matters: the example of intuitu personae consensualism in contract law in Rome

-          Ahmet Arslan: The Role of Compromise in German Contract Law: Balancing Interests under Clausula Rebus Sic Stantibus and the Doctrine of Impossibility

Panel 14: Compromise and the Circulation of Ideas – Sebastiaan Vandenbogaerde, Blauwe Zaal

-          Katarzyna Latek: "When French books were Belgian'- the role and influence of Belgian contrefacon in shaping the legal thought in Europe

-          Ryo Mochizuki: Censorship conducted by universities in early modern Germany: Negotiation and compromise between the duke of Bavaria, the University of Ingolstadt, and its subjects

-          Joana Noguiera de Freitas: The Circulation of Notarial Forms in The Portuguese Empire during The Late Eighteenth Century

-          Marco Castelli: Technical Choice or Editorial Compromise? Early Editions of the Commentaries on the Liber Extra (TBC)

Panel 15: Compromise and Dispute Resolution – Imre Képessy, Multimedialokaal

-          Amila Svraka-Imamovic: Compromise as a Dispute Resolution Mechanism in Shari'ah Law: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications 

-          Sonja Dieckman: The role of compromise in Rome

-          Tea Dularidze: The Tradition of Compromise in Antiquity (TBC)

-          Przemysław Gawron & Jan Jerzy Sowa (TBC): A compromise in the land criminal law of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Panel 16: Compromise and Judicial Organisation – Marie De Beul, Rode Zaal

-          Mariusz Mohyluk: On Justices of the Peace in the Second and Third Polish Republics: Seeking Compromise

-          Kacper Górski: Compromise or Noble Supremacy? The Municipal-Castrensial Mixed Court (iudicium mixtum) in Early Modern Poland

-          Wojciech Wydmański: Arbitration Courts in Lodz in 1918-1939 (TBC)

 

Panel 17: Pardons and Amnesties – Julie Rocheton, Blauwe Zaal

-          Louis Bremond: Amnesties: Concealing the Chaos

-          Elias Dessantis: Between Memory and Amnesia: World War II and the Belgian Amnesty

-          James Hannaford: The Politics of the Pardon: The Use of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy in Extradition Cases

-          Mihai Dragumirescu: The Gentle Hand of the Despot: State Forgiveness in Communist Romania

-          Grigorij Tschernjawskyj: Compromise in a divided Republic: Amnesty in Weimar Germany

Panel 18: Liberalism vs. Compromise – Sebastiaan Vandenbogaerde, Multimedialokaal

-          Wout Vandermeulen: No more compromises? The legal historical roots of art. 101-102 TFEU in German Ordoliberalism

-          Damian Szczepaniak: Between liberalism and socialism. Right to property in the work on the Polish March Constitution of 1921 

-          Delphine Sirks: Mutual marine insurances in early modern Friesland and Groningen

Panel 19: Compromise in Constitutional History – Wouter De Rycke, Rode Zaal

-          Giulia Mannarini: Compromise in the evolution of history and political-constitutional thought

-          Lawrence Whitworth: Does the gradual evolution of the legal process create compromise in legal decision-making, and, if so, does slow progression enhance the legal decision-making process by providing continuity or undermine the legal decision-making process through its inherent laggardness?

-          Antoine Leclère: The Liège Revolution and the Electoral Congress of Frankfurt (1790): A Constitutional Compromise in Question

-          Maksymilian Francuz: “The switch in time that saved nine” – the compromise at the heart of the “constitutional revolution” of 1937 in and around the Supreme Court of the United States

Panel 20: Ownership and Inheritance – Louis Bremond, Blauwe Zaal

-          Fangfang Tian: Possession, Ownership, and Fiction: Compromise in the Roman Law of Res

-          Yanwen Wang: Jurisprudence of Exception: The Soldier’s Will and Legal Compromise in Roman Inheritance Law

-          Vincent Van den Eynde: Between legal certainty and testamentary freedom: regulating testamentary inalienability clauses and third-party rights in the early modern southern Netherlands (c. 1500-1600)

VeVenue: Ghent University Aula Campus (Voldersstraat/Universiteitstraat, 9000 GHENT, Belgium).

BOOK: Jorge GONZÁLEZ JÁCOME, Abrir los tiempos. Miradas al pasado desde el derecho, la literatura y la historia [Collección historia y materiales del derecho] (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2025)

(image source: Universidad de los Andes)

Abstract:

Abrir los tiempos cuestiona la manera en que el derecho construye relatos sobre el pasado. A partir de reflexiones sobre la filosofía de la historia, la historiografía y algunos textos literarios, este libro resalta las narrativas del derecho que subyacen a sus pretensiones de justicia. Mediante el análisis de la relación entre derecho y tiempo, de los relatos jurídicos sobre momentos fundacionales y de la construcción del espacio (escala), estas páginas proponen entender el derecho, la historia y la literatura como dispositivos culturales que abren o cierran nuestras posibilidades de liberar el futuro.

 Read more here.

BOOK: Victor KATTAN & Amit RANJAN (eds.), The Breakup of India and Palestine. The Causes and Legacies of Partition [Studies in Imperialism, eds. Andrew THOPSON & Alan LESTER] (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025), 312 p.

(image source: Manchester UP)
 

Abstract:

This book is the first study of political and legal thinking about the partitions of India and Palestine in 1947. The chapters in the volume, authored by leading scholars of partition, draw attention to the pathways of peoples, geographic spaces, colonial policies, laws, and institutions that connect them from the vantage point of those most engaged by the process: political actors, party activists, jurists, diplomats, philosophers, and international representatives from the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond. Additionally, the volume investigates some of the underlying causes of partition in both places such as the hardening of religious fault-lines, majoritarian politics, and the failure to construct viable forms of government in deeply divided societies.

Table of contents:

Foreword by Lucy Chester
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Connecting the partitions of India and Palestine: institutions, policies, laws and people - Victor Kattan and Amit Ranjan

Part I The partition of British India
1 The Mountbatten Viceroyalty reconsidered: personality, prestige and strategic vision in the partition of India - Ian Talbot
2 The paradigmatic partition? The Pakistan demand revisited - Ayesha Jalal

Part II The partition of Palestine
3 Partition and the question of international governance: the 1947 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine - Laura Robson
4 Fighting for Palestine as a holy duty? The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the partition of Palestine in 1947 - Mohamed-Ali Adraoui

Part III The partitions of India and Palestine compared
5 The communal question and partition in British India and mandate Palestine - Amrita Shodhan
6 India's dilemmas of pragmatism v. principles: Nehru's preference for a partitioned India but a federal Palestine - P. R. Kumaraswamy

Part IV The consequences of partition for South Asia, the Middle East and beyond
7 The partitions of India and Palestine and the dawn of majority rule in Africa and Asia - Victor Kattan
8 'Unfinished' partition: territorial disputes, unequal citizens and the rise of majoritarian nationalism in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - Amit Ranjan
9 Civil war, total war or a war of partition? Reassessing the 1948 war in Palestine from a global perspective - Arie M. Dubnov
10 Partitioned identities? Regional, caste and national identity in Pakistan - Iqbal Singh Sevea

Afterword: Partition as imperial inheritance - Penny Sinanoglou

 On the editors:

Victor Kattan is an Assistant Professor at the School of Law, University of Nottingham Amit Ranjan is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore

Read more here. 

BOOK: Fernand BRAUDEL, Ecrits. Autour de La Méditerranée. Les Ambitions de l'Histoire. L'Histoire au quotidien (ed. Bernard DE FALLOIS) (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2025), ISBN 9782251457154 € 59,99

 

(image source: Les belles lettres)

Abstract:

Ces Écrits rassemblent les textes de Fernand Braudel, rédigés entre 1927 et 1985. Ils retracent, dans son évolution chronologique, le chemin d’une pensée originale et fondatrice pour le renouvellement de la discipline historique au XXe siècle. Si elle s’est longtemps cherchée, sa pensée témoigne d’intérêts constants : pour l’histoire de la Méditerranée, dont il dresse un parallèle éclairant avec l’espace Atlantique pendant un séjour de recherche à Sao Paulo ; pour le capitalisme de l'âge moderne et la place des ouvriers dans l’histoire ; mais aussi et surtout pour la manière dont l’histoire se fait, s’écrit et s’enseigne en France, avec en perspective son engagement au sein de l’École des Annales. La première partie, Autour de la Méditerranée, correspond pour l’essentiel aux premières années d’enseignement et de formation de Braudel. Articles et comptes rendus tournent autour de ses lectures et recherches à partir de 1927. Naturellement, ils concernent d’abord l’Afrique du Nord où il professa de 1923 à 1932. Puis l’Espagne et l’Italie prennent le relais ; elles resteront présentes dans ses curiosités tout au long de sa vie. La deuxième partie, Les Ambitions de l’Histoire, est composée autour de la réflexion théorique de l’auteur : elle s’affirme pendant la longue rumination de la captivité et les rédactions successives de la Méditerranée. Bien entendu, sa longue fréquentation des Annales, alors dans toute leur agressive nouveauté, sa rencontre avec Lucien Febvre en 1937 ont leur part dans cette élaboration. Après la création de la VIe section de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études en 1948, il entre à son tour dans le combat des Annales « pour une plus grande histoire ». Les textes de cette partie, qui vont de la guerre jusqu’à la fin de sa vie, en sont le reflet et s’organisent d’eux-mêmes autour de ses trois ouvrages successifs : La Méditerranée, Civilisation matérielle et Histoire de France. La troisième partie, L’Histoire au quotidien, comme de juste, est plus hétéroclite, à la mesure des activités très diversifiées de Fernand Braudel. On y trouvera successivement les traces de son expérience brésilienne, de ses relations avec les mondes universitaires et scientifiques français et étrangers, de sa direction des Annales jusqu’en 1970, et de l’exercice de son métier d’enseignant, du lycée jusqu’au Collège de France. Ce recueil des Écrits de Fernand Braudel, réunissant des textes dispersés d’accès parfois difficile, nous invite à considérer l’oeuvre comme un tout, dans son élaboration, sa cohérence et ses contradictions. Il met en perspective la progression et l’évolution interne, ainsi que le rapport aux différentes étapes et expériences de la vie de son auteur. Il constitue, à ce titre, un ouvrage de référence qui permettra aux historiens, grâce à son index, de se repérer et de saisir l’oeuvre de Braudel dans son ensemble.

 Read more here.

BOOK: Fabrice VIGIER, Poitiers, grande cité judiciaire du Moyen Âge à nos jours [Poitiers. Histoire, identités, réalités et perspectives] (Poitiers: Atlantique Éditions, 2025), 480 pages. ISBN 978-2-911320-89-7

 

(image source: univ-poitiers)

Abstract:

Le lundi 18 octobre 2021 le président de la République lance officiellement au Palais des Congrès du Futuroscope les Etats Généraux de la justice, qui ont pour objectif de formuler des propositions pour améliorer l’accès et le bon fonctionnement judiciaire en France. Les plus importantes personnalités participent à cet évènement : le ministre de la justice, la Première Présidente de la Cour de cassation, le Procureur général près la Cour de cassation, plusieurs chefs et cheffes de cour et juridiction ou encore le président national des barreaux. Pendant quelques heures, Poitiers apparaît alors incontestablement comme la capitale judiciaire du pays. Dans ce domaine, l’agglomération poitevine n’a pas toujours tenue, comme ce 18 octobre 2021, les tout premiers rôles. En revanche, elle a toujours été une grande cité judiciaire avec une importance au moins régionale depuis le Moyen Age. C’est le cas à l’époque des comtes de Poitou (IXe -XIIe siècles) avec la cour comtale, aux XIIIe -XIVe siècles avec la sénéchaussée, au XVe siècle avec la présence du Parlement, de la Renaissance au Siècle des Lumières avec un présidial ayant un ressort parmi les plus vastes de France, enfin depuis 1800 avec une Cour d’appel ayant compétence sur quatre départements. Le présent ouvrage, rédigé par des universitaires, historiens, juristes et chartistes spécialistes de la question, entend revenir sur le long passé judiciaire de la cité poitevine, en étudiant l’histoire de ses tribunaux, de ses personnels de justice (magistrats, avocats), de ses procès, de ses prisons, de ses grandes affaires, mais aussi son influence judiciaire multiséculaire sur toute une partie du Centre-Ouest français.

Contents:

Avec les contributions de :
Jean-Marie Augustin, Frédéric Chauvaud, Gaël Chenard,
Amandine Contet, Jean-Paul Jean, Laurence Leturmy,
Nicolas Prouteau, Didier Veillon et Fabrice Vigier
Cartographie d’Anne Autissier
Avant-propos de Mariannig Hall et Pascal Chauchefoin
Préface de Léonore Moncond’huy
Postface de Gwenola Joly-Coz

Read more here.

ARTICLE: Ron MORDECHAI MAKLEFF, "Inter-Urban Alliances and the Archives of Legitimacy in the Southern Low Countries, 1250–1450" (Past & Present CCLXVIII, nr. 1 (Aug), 3-44)

 

(image source: Past & Present)

Abstract:

By the thirteenth century, confederations of communes in western Europe were claiming important legal, political and military prerogatives for themselves in written charters of inter-urban alliance. Scholars have seen these alliances as a tool of the emerging economic elite or as forces of resistance to the sovereign territorial state taking shape in the late Middle Ages. To understand alternatives to princely polity formation in the wealthy, urbanized regions of Brabant, Flanders and Liège, however, this article studies urban alliances as a power in their own right by examining how new documentary practices contributed to older traditions of inter-urban collaboration. Towns and their coalitions created and distributed bilateral, multilateral and hybrid or concentric charters of alliance and kept them in their own archives, which they saw as repositories of legal security and authority. Meanwhile, archivists, chancellors and other technicians of legitimacy helped princes to consolidate legal superiority over their supposedly subject towns by spearheading the confiscation and destruction of communal archives, in particular their charters of alliance. They thus obscured the scale of inter-urban solidarity: this article reports fifty-eight unique alliances preserved in over 200 charters between 1219 and 1444 across these three regions.

Read more here: DOI 10.1093/pastj/gtae035. 

VACANCIES: PhD positions on FWO Senior Fundamental Research Projects “Cities as breeding grounds: legal change in financial law (ca. 1620-ca. 1750)” and “Collective negotiations in sovereign default and corporate insolvency (1890-1920)” (Prof. Dave DE RUYSSCHER, DEADLINE 15 OCT 2025)

 

Prof. Dave De ruysscher advertises two vacancies for PhD candidates on FWO Senior Fundamental Research Projects. 

1. Cities as breeding grounds: legal change in financial law (ca. 1620-ca. 1750)

More information here.

2. Collective negotiations in sovereign default and corporate insolvency (1890-1920)

More information here.

(source: VUB CORE)

BOOK: Anthony MERGEY & Arnault SKORNICKI (eds.), The age of Du Pont de Nemours. Politics, law and physiocracy in the Ancien Régime to the American republic [Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, ed. Gregory BROWN (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2025), 400 p. ISBN 9781836242857, 60 GBP

(image source: Liverpool UP)

Abstract:

Pierre-Samuel Du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) is best known as a significant Enlightenment Physiocrat and economist, and, sometimes, as the ancestor of the famous industrial dynasty. But his thought and action are of an often-unsuspected richness. From Louis XV to the Restoration, between France and his American exiles, Du Pont de Nemours established himself as a prominent public figure, exploring an astonishing variety of issues, beginning as a bold reformer of the monarchy before becoming a moderate Republican. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team, this edited volume explores the myriad facets of Du Pont, as journalist, political thinker, administrator, publisher, legislator, diplomat, jurist, entrepreneur, playwright, and more. This book aims to reveal some of his most remarkable feature: it takes him out of solely the realm of physiocratic studies and the history of economic thought, and focuses on his thought and action, as well as on the legal history, administration, political, social, and even religious ideas. Far from being a pale reflection of a century marked by great democratic revolutions and the rise of capitalism, his work and his career mark the dimensions of a new world that he helped to shape.

On the editors:

Arnault Skornicki is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris Nanterre and a member of the ISP. A specialist in the history of political and economic thought, he is currently completing a book on the "roi citoyen" in France and the United Kingdom in the 18th century. Anthony Mergey is a professor of legal history at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University and a member of the Institut d'histoire du droit. His research focuses primarily on the history of political ideas, the history of the state, and the history of administration in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Table of contents:

PREFACE | FOREWORD Anthony MERGEY & Arnault SKORNICKI | Introduction. Pierre-Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, a Journey through the 18th Century

I. ACTION PUBLIQUE, BONHEUR PRIVÉ | PUBLIC ACTION, PRIVATE HAPPINESS Julia ABRAMSON | Family Business at Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours & Cie.: Huguenot Connections, Credit, and Capital in Post-Revolutionary France and AmericaII. UN JURISTE EN ACTION | A LAWYER IN ACTION Jean-Baptiste MASMÉJAN | Du Pont de Nemours et la question hospitalière: un éclairage des enjeux sanitaires à la fin du dix-huitième siècle Sébastien LE GAL | Du Pont De Nemours and the Maintenance of Public Order Thérence CARVALHO | *Abolir la contrainte par corps: le combat du jurisconsulte Du Pont de Nemours *III. UN PENSEUR POLITIQUE À L’EPREUVE DE LA RÉVOLUTION ET DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE | A POLITICAL THINKER CHALLENGED BY THE REVOLUTION AND THE REPUBLIC Thierry DEMALS & Alexandra HYARD | Politique et économie politique chez Pierre-Samuel Du Pont:Les annotations au Contrat social de Jean-Jacques Rousseau Christophe LE DIGOL | From One World to Another. How Du Pont de Nemours became a Revolutionary Liana VARDI | A Physiocratic Mandate: Du Pont de Nemours and l’Historien Annie LÉCHENET | Du Pont de Nemours et la république des ‘propriétaires du sol’IV. GUERRE ET PAIX ENTRE NATIONS | WAR AND PEACE BETWEEN NATIONS Antonella ALIMENTO | Commercial Treaties and the Emergence of a Political Economy of Peace: Dupont de Nemours, Inspirer of the Eden Treaty and Supporter of the Renewal of the Pacte de Famille (1782-1790) Alfred STEINHAUER |* Sur l’intérêt bien entendu des nations éclairées: la correspondance entre Thomas Jefferson et Du Pont de Nemours à propos de l’affaire de la Louisiane * Simona PISANELLI | Du Pont de Nemours: Colonies, Slavery and Economic GrowthV. LE RÊVE AMERICAIN DE DU PONT | DU PONT’S AMERICAN DREAM Gabriel SABBAGH | Du Pont de Nemours, coauteur des Lettres d’Abraham Mansword (1771-1772) et critique (1773-1789) de De Lolme: le modèle politique anglais confronté avec une Amérique rêvée Aya TANAKA | Pontiana: Du Pont de Nemours's Physiocratic Dream in America Manuela ALBERTONE | Des finances et des banques américaines: autour des rapports entre Du Pont de Nemours et Thomas JeffersonAnthony MERGEY & Arnault SKORNICKI | Du Pont de Nemours, between Physiocratic Loyalty and Political Versatility

Read more here. 

PROJECT: (Dis)continuity of Legal Systems in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland after WWII: Difficult Heritage

(image source: Jagellonian University)

The project ‘(Dis)continuity of Legal Systems in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland after WWII: Difficult Heritage’ – was carried out from 2024 to 2025 under the International Visegrad Fund by a consortium of four universities. The project was led by Jagiellonian University in Krakow (PI: Dr. Hab. Maciej Mikuła, JU Prof.) in collaboration with partners: University of Trnava (PI: Prof. JUDr. PhDr. Tomáš Gábriš, PhD., LL.M., MA), University of Szeged (PI: Prof. Dr. Norbert Varga, PhD, habil.) and University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (PI: doc. JUDr. Vilém Knoll, Ph.D.). The aim of the project was to integrate the V4 academic community around the issue of the legal heritage of the socialist period and to popularise joint research on this topic.

As a part of the project, the international research team made a comparison of the degree of Sovietisation of the legal systems of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland after 1945. Utilising the work of the international research team allowed the phenomenon of the law of the socialist period to be placed in the context of the ‘common’ heritage of the legal culture of the Visegrad countries.

In the dissemination of knowledge about the legal culture and identity of the V4 countries, the action of publishing a post-conference monograph was invaluable, as was the translation into English of selected legal regualtions from the socialistic period of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland and ensuring access to them in the database 'IURA. Sources of Law from the Past':

Czechoslovak law

https://iura.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/publication/5409#structure

Hungarian law

https://iura.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/publication/5408#structure

Polish law

https://iura.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/publication/5287#structure

 

We warmly invite you to explore the website of the project (https://crihestu.id.uj.edu.pl/vf-grant).

(source: Paulina KAMINSKA)

BOOK: Julia BÜHNER, Neue Welten. Eine andere Völkerrechtsgeschichte der Eroberung der Kanarischen Inseln (1402–1496) [Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte; 349) (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2025), XIV + 478 p. ISBN 9783465046646

 

(image source: Klostermann)

Abstract:

Two hundred years prior to Columbus’s “discovery” of America in 1492, Europeans were already exploring the waters of new worlds, including the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the west coast of Africa inhabited by various indigenous peoples. Focusing on the conquest of the Canary Islands, which over the course of the 15th century were subjugated by the French, Portuguese and Spanish, the study adds a new chapter to the history of international law and breaks new ground in the process: it understands the conquest as an encounter between legal and normative concepts, highlights the contribution of the indigenous Canary Islanders to the development of modern international law, and opens up a new perspective on the achievements of the School of Salamanca in international law.

Read more here.

BOOK REVIEW: Sarah A. BACHMANN on Feder und Recht. Schriftlichkeit und Gerichtswesen in der Vormoderne, edited by Josef Bongartz, Alexander Denzler, Carolin Katzer, and Stefan Andreas Stodolkowitz (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 1, June, pp. 129-132)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

The ‘Netzwerk Reichskammergerichtsbarkeit’ recently convened a discussion on the role of textuality in premodern judicial systems, attracting a wide range of participants to its conference. Scholars from various disciplines – including jurists, historians, and archivists – contributed their professional perspectives, creating an interdisciplinary dialogue that is reflected in the conference proceedings. The resulting volume is impressive with its thematic and chronological breadth, despite its clear focus on the premodern era.

The introductory chapter by the editors, Josef Bongartz, Alexander Denzler, Carolin Katzer, and Stefan Andreas Stodolkowitz (‘Feder und Recht. Zum Verhältnis von Schrift, Recht und Gericht – eine Annäherung’, 1–31), establishes the conceptual framework for the volume. It provides a comprehensive overview of the interplay between textuality, orality and law in the premodern period. The editors outline central questions that permeate the volume, addressing forms of textuality and their impact on the efficiency and structure of judicial proceedings, the transformations spurred by textual practices, and the utilisation of textuality for diverse purposes, from pursuing individual interests to archiving and preserving written materials. The chapter also explores the relationship between orality and textuality, a field where, as the volume acknowledges, significant research gaps remain.

To read the full review, please click here. Online access is free for members of the European Society for Comparative Legal History. 

DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2500206

BOOK: Thomas LE ROUX & Raphaël MORERA (eds.), La nature sous contrat. Concession, histoire et environnement (XVIe-XXIe siècle) (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2025), 322 p. ISBN 9782753598140, € 25

(Image source: Presses Universitaires de Rennes)

About the book:

Dans un monde toujours plus habité et exploité, dans lequel l’environnement se dégrade sous la pression anthropique et où la concurrence pour l’accès aux sources de la vie s’accroît, la question de l’appropriation des ressources est brûlante. À différentes échelles et sur des espaces variés, la « concession » a été de longue date un outil d’exploitation largement utilisé par les pouvoirs pour compenser leur manque de moyens en s’associant à des acteurs privés. La démarche transversale de cet ouvrage autour d’un thème inédit en histoire ouvre des perspectives insoupçonnées. Depuis le Moyen Âge, la concession n’a cessé de redéfinir les modalités de la propriété, entre communs et propriété pure. Conçue en tant que créatrice de légitimités nécessaires à l’exploitation des ressources, elle s’est avérée être un instrument de stabilité efficace. Outil juridique, comme l’assurance peut l’être pour l’État social, la concession participe d’un objectif politique : ancrée dans un univers social, elle est mise au service de stratégies comme l’occupation territoriale ou l’affirmation de la souveraineté. Ce faisant, elle est une forme spécifique d’expression du pouvoir. Ce volume explore les multiples facettes d’une forme d’exploitation de l’environnement dont les logiques font écho aux temps présents.

Table of contents:

SOUVERAINETÉ ET POLITIQUE

• Concession seigneuriale et concession féodale. Des instruments pour l’aménagement du territoire dans la France d’Ancien Régime
• Vers un éco-pouvoir ouvrier. Critiques du droit de concession et projets de nationalisation des mines (France, XIXe siècle)
• « Sans porter préjudice au public » ? Concéder l’eau à Marseille et Paris au XVIIe siècle

EMPIRES

• Concéder les rivières pour coloniser les terres. Le droit de pêche comme outil de développement du Canada sous le Régime français (1663-1759)
• Poissons et baleines de l’empire. Concessions, conservation et souveraineté maritime en AOF et en AEF (1900-1940)
• Les concessions aux îles australes françaises (1893-1939). Prédation des ressources, protection de la nature et manifestations de la souveraineté
• Concession minière, conquête coloniale et transformations environnementales. La mine de fer d’Aïn Mokra et son système concessionnaire articulé (1845 – fin du XIXe siècle)

RESSOURCES ET USAGES CONCURRENTS

• La concession du minerai de fer dans l’approvisionnement des hauts fourneaux de l’abbaye de Clairvaux à l’époque moderne
• « Limites à bois » et « billets de location ». La concession comme mode de régulation de la ressource forestière (Québec, XIXe-XXe siècles)

MARCHANDISATION DU PAYSAGE

• Concéder l’indisponible. Une socio-histoire des concessions de plage : le cas de Pampelonne (Var, 1922-1974)
• Concéder la montagne touristique au XIXe siècle (Pyrénées françaises)

LA MISE EN FLUX

• Les concessions royales et la seigneurie des eaux du Lez. Le partage contesté d’un petit fleuve méditerranéen sous le règne de Louis XIV (Montpellier, bas Languedoc)
• Mettre la Durance au travail. Hydroélectricité, concession et environnement (1950-2020)
• Concéder la gestion du Rhône sans les inondations ?

On the editors:

Thomas Le Roux est chargé de recherche au CNRS (Centre de recherches historiques, CNRS/EHESS). Ses recherches portent sur l’impact de l’industrialisation sur l’environnement aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles.

Raphaël Morera est chargé de recherche au CNRS (Centre de recherches historiques, CNRS/ EHESS). Ses recherches portent sur la maîtrise de l’eau au cours de l’époque moderne.

More information can be found here.

BOOK: Allison POWERS, Arbitrating Empire. United States Expansion and the Transformation of International Law [Oxford Legal History] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024), ISBN 9780190093006, 125 USD

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Arbitrating Empire offers a new history of the emergence of the United States as a global power-one shaped as much by attempts to insulate the US government from international legal scrutiny as it was by efforts to project influence across the globe. Drawing on extensive archival research in the United States, Mexico, Panama, and the United Kingdom, the book traces how thousands of dispossessed residents of US-annexed territories petitioned international Claims Commissions between the 1870s and the 1930s to charge the United States with violating international legal protections for life and property. Through attention to the consequences of their unexpected claims, Allison Powers demonstrates how colonized subjects, refugees from slavery, and migrant workers transformed a series of tribunals designed to establish the legality of US imperial interventions into sites through which to challenge the legitimacy of US colonial governance. One of the first social histories of international law, the book argues that contests over meanings of sovereignty and state responsibility that would reshape the mid-twentieth-century international order were waged not only at diplomatic conferences, but also in Arizona copper mines, Texas cotton fields, Samoan port cities, Cuban sugar plantations, and the locks and stops of the Panama Canal. Arbitrating Empire uncovers how ordinary people used international law to hold the United States accountable for state-sanctioned violence during the decades when the nation was first becoming a global empire-and demonstrates why State Department attempts to erase their claims transformed international law in ways that continue to shield the US government from liability to this day.

Table of contents:

Introduction: The Subjects of International Law

Part I: Dispossessions
Chapter 1: Arbitrating Debt
Chapter 2: Arbitrating War
Chapter 3: Arbitrating Citizenship
Part II: Exposures
Chapter 4: The World's Easement
Chapter 5: Dangerous Precedents
Part III: Foreclosures
Chapter 6: Sovereign Inequalities
Chapter 7: The Specter of Compensation

Conclusion: Life and Property

On the author:

Allison Powers is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Read more here. 

(source: Legal History Blog)

CALL FOR PAPERS: Legal History in Asia and Beyond: Lessons from the Past for the Present (Chinese University of Hong Kong: Hong Kong, 17-18 MAR 2026 & Oxford University: Oxford, 23 MAR 2026) [DEADLINE 31 OCT 2025]

 

(Source: CUHK Law)

Legal History in Asia and Beyond: Lessons from the Past for the Present 

Hong Kong, 17-18 March 2026 & Oxford, 23 March 2026 

CALL FOR PAPERS 

The Transnational Legal History Group, part of the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law within the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Oxford Programme in Asian Laws of the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and the Asian Legal History Association are jointly hosting a conference on “Legal History in Asia and Beyond: Lessons from the Past for the Present.” The conference will take place in two parts: first on 17 and 18 March 2026 in Hong Kong, and then on 23 March 2026 in Oxford. Applicants should specify at which venue they would prefer to present when making their application. There is no obligation or expectation to attend both sessions, but participants are welcome to do so. 

This unique cross-jurisdictional event will also serve to mark the institutionalization of the Asian Legal History Association (ALHA). The ALHA, which has its Secretariat at CUHK, brings together faculties and institutes from more than a dozen jurisdictions, collectively committed to promoting the study and knowledge of transnational legal history generally, enhancing the status and role of Asia as a generator and hub of global legal history knowledge, and developing collaborative relationships between universities in Asia and around the world. 

Theme 

Studying legal history requires a great deal of time and knowledge, and sensitivity to context. Care is necessary to minimize the extent to which our interpretations are overly influenced by contemporary concerns and modes of understanding. At the same time, history is one of the most fertile and productive arenas in which we can come to a better understanding concerning the complex dynamics of human society, different modes of organization and their relationship to individual and collective wellbeing and equality (or their absence). We welcome papers on the history of law that carry lessons relative to the future. Among other topics, papers might address issues such as: 

• Past laws, institutions and practices structuring public governance and state capacity in general; 

• Private law regimes, their formation, evolution and impacts; 

• The laws and institutions structuring economic life; 

• The history of the welfare state, of employment and labor, of development and of socio-economic rights; 

• Environmental law histories; 

• The evolution of criminal laws, institutions and punishments over time;

• Family law systems and laws governing gender and sexuality; 

• The development of judicial decision-making systems and of legal communities, including lawyers and law schools; 2 • Legal pluralism and the encounter between and interaction of multiple legal orders, including indigenous legal regimes; 

• The history of international law. 

We also welcome papers that challenge the frame and grapple with the complexities involved in seeking lessons for the present in the past, or which address (legal) history methodologies as such. 

Publication 

The organizers hope to assemble a selection of the papers from the conference for publication, potentially via a special edition of a journal, an edited volume, or both. Participants who wish for their piece to be considered for publication should submit a draft of at least 5,000 words (including footnotes) by 28 February 2026. 

Travel and Accommodation

 • The conference will be in person. 

• Applicants will be responsible for their own transportation and accommodation costs. 

• We will suggest hotels in due course. 

Timeline 

• Submission of Abstract: midnight (Hong Kong time) on 31 October 2025 

• Notification of selection: 1 December 2025 

• Conference Days: 17 & 18 March 2026 (Hong Kong), 23 March 2026 (Oxford) 

• Draft paper submission (for participants interested in publication in a special issue or edited volume): 28 February 2026 

Application 

• Proposals may be for individual papers or panels. 

• Individual paper proposals should include a 150-300 word abstract. 

 • Panel proposals should include a brief description of the panel as well as 150-300 word abstracts of three to five individual papers. 

• Applicants should specify at which venue they would like to present their papers. 

• Applicants should indicate their academic affiliations on their applications. 

• Applications should be submitted via the following link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13715426 

• Inquires may be addressed to: alha@cuhk.edu.hk

BOOK: Maksymilian DEL MAR, Neil MacCormick. A Life in Politics, Philosophy, and Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), ISBN 9781009609937, €58,36

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

Neil MacCormick (1941–2009) was one of the twentieth century's most important legal philosophers and one of Scotland's most influential public intellectuals. This book tells the story of his political and philosophical life, from his intensely political childhood as the son of 'King John', one of the founders of the Scottish National Party, through to his involvement in Scottish politics – especially as the author of SNP's constitutional policy – and his role as a Member of the European Parliament, helping to draft the European Constitution. With special attention to MacCormick's character, this book offers a reading of his entire oeuvre, covering his contributions to theories of legal and moral reasoning, institutional legal theory, nationalism, post-sovereignty, subsidiarity, and constitutional pluralism in Europe. This book reads MacCormick as a highly creative thinker who excelled in the art of constructing inclusive middles and thereby developed his own distinctive approach to politics and philosophy.

Read more here: DOI 10.1017/9781009609937. 

(source: Legal History Blog)

BOOK: Caroline DERRY & Carol HOWELLS (eds.), Legal History in the Curriculum. Comparative Perspectives, Critical Approaches and Future Directions (London and New York: Routledge, 2025), 242 p. ISBN 9781032754970, € 116

(Image source: Taylor&Francis Group)

About the book:

As legal education faces fresh challenges and opportunities, and a growing literature calls for subversive new approaches, this book engages with vital questions about the place of history in the law school. How and why should we teach legal history? What is its place in the curriculum? What can different jurisdictions learn from each other?

This collection offers an overview and examples of cutting-edge practice in teaching legal history across the law curriculum, challenging expectations of its place and potential. The book’s three sections explore practices and possibilities in the core curriculum, in dedicated legal history courses and in law schools across the world. They highlight how legal history offers diverse and inclusive content, global perspectives, and transnational understandings to students. By exploring contributors’ own purposes and practices, they provide insight and fresh ideas on how and why readers can incorporate legal histories into their own teaching.

Table of contents:

Introduction (Caroline Derry, Carol Howells)

Legal history in the curriculum

• Contextualising law for both scholarship and practice. The contribution of legal history (Nandini Boodia-Canoo)
• Feminist legal history at the heart of the law curriculum (Caroline Derry)
• Teaching public law through empire's archive (Tom Frost)
• Using history to contextualise, diversify and critique the contract law curriculum (Fred Motson)

Legal history courses

• An immersive, cross-disciplinary approach to teaching undergraduate legal history. ‘A Public Spectacle’: Murder and the Law in Nineteenth Century Newcastle (Jennifer Aston, Helen Rutherford)
• Opportunities in teaching global legal history (Lorren Eldridge)
• Anachronisms in legal historical education. Pitfalls, benefits and their importance for every lawyer (Mariken Lenaerts)

International perspectives

• Teaching English legal history at the continental university. A case study of the University of Lodz (Łukasz Jan Korporowicz)
• The purpose(s) of teaching legal history in contemporary Poland. Current situation and future perspectives (Tomasz Kucharski)
• Tracing threads. Brazilian legal history's evolution, research reflections and educational perspectives (Kauan Juliano Cangussu)
• The contribution of legal history to the curriculum of the modern law school. The Argentinian perspective 1 (Viviana Kluger)

Conclusion. The law schools of tomorrow: a collection of future legal histories (Russell Sandberg)

 On the editors:

Caroline Derry is Professor of Feminism, Law and History at the Open University, UK, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She teaches across all levels from access to PhD. Her research focuses on gender, sexuality and the criminal law, legal history and transformative approaches to legal education

Carol Howells is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Open University, UK. Her research interests include constitutional histories and legal traditions, histories of legal education, and marginalised legal histories

More information can be found here