Search
15 June 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Union in Separation – Trading Diasporas in the Eastern Mediterranean (1200-1700)', Heidelberg, 17-19 February 2011
“Union in Separation” is a three-day international conference hosted by the Transcultural Studies Programme at the University of Heidelberg. The conference focuses on transcultural diasporic communities in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean with specific respect to their role in trade between perceived separate cultural areas.
The term “transculturality” tends to be used to designate the hybrid character of modern-day societies and to ultimately argue that separate cultural units (defined as the sum of elements that characterise the aggregate identity of a society) do not exist. However, regardless of whether it is possible to speak of separate ‘cultures’, the construct continues to persist in people’s minds. These mindsets, their creation and their impact on societies is what historians are now investigating.
The study of Mediterranean diasporas lends itself well to this endeavour, as it allows for an understanding of the construction and deconstruction of cultural differences as well as the potential integration into a host culture. In order to best analyse these processes, we suggest exploring commercial exchange and its legal framework as two interrelated phenomena.
Medieval Mediterranean trading diasporas, such as Venetian merchants residing in Mamluk Alexandria, operated both within and outside of formal legal structures. However, their status as religious minorities often posed strong challenges to their business. For instance, far-reaching privileges granted by the Sultan to Christian merchants coexisted with, and were frequently challenged by, orthodox Islamic law and/or local legal practice.
Thus, a primary interest of historical transcultural research is to gather evidence on informal mechanisms that facilitated trade-given cultural hurdles. This will shed light on the form and scope of cultural exchange.
The conference will bring together academics from a wide variety of fields including medieval studies, history (including economic, legal, art history), and cultural studies.
Panels include
-Legal Pluralism and Diasporic Communities in Historical Perspective (Teresa Sartore)
-Diasporic Communities in Rhodes 1350-1450 (Teresa Sartore)
-Diasporic Groups in Mamluk Egypt 1300-1450 (Anna Katharina Angermann)
-Diasporas and Imperial Rule in the 13th C. Aegean (Stefan Burkhardt)
-Diasporic Networks and Institutions in Medieval Trade 1200-1500 (Lars Börner, Franz Julius Morche)
-Early Modern Italy‘s Diasporas (Roberto Zaugg)
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short CV to the respective panel organizer as well as to Teresa Sartore and Georg Christ.
PhD students are encouraged to participate as well. Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you wish to propose an entire panel. There is a limited availability of travel grants for PhD students.
Deadline for Abstracts: 31.07.2010
University of Heidelberg
Transcultural Studies
Marstallstraße 6
D-69117 Heidelberg
Germany
teresa.sartore@uni-heidelberg.de
angermann@uni-heidelberg.de
stefan.burkhardt@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
morche@uni-heidelberg.de
roberto.zaugg@unibas.ch
georg.christ@uni-heidelberg.de
31 May 2010
NOTICE: American Journal of Legal History seeks Web Editor
American Journal of Legal History seeks Web Editor
Posted by Mary L. Dudziak
The American Journal of Legal History has decided to establish a web site to raise its public profile; provide information to potential and current authors, subscribers, and advertisers; and increase access to its issues. Accordingly, the Journal now seeks an Associate Editor for Electronic Content. In addition to designing, launching, and maintaining the Journal's web site, the AEEC will be responsible for expanding the Journal's internet footprint by working with such entities as ExpressO and SSRN.
Persons interested in applying for the position should send an expression of interest (including a resume or summary of relevant experience) to Professor Robert M. Jarvis, the chair of the Journal's Advisory Board, at jarvisb@nsu.law.nova.edu. For an example of the type of web site that the Journal has in mind, please see this site. Like most academic journals, the American Journal of Legal History does not compensate its editors but does reimburse reasonable expenses that are not absorbed by the editor's home institution.
About the Journal: The American Journal of Legal History is a peer-reviewed, peer-edited quarterly founded in 1957 by Professor Erwin C. Surrency, a leading figure in the development and promotion of legal history as a subject of study in United States law schools. The Journal is published by Temple University's Beasley School of Law and is currently edited by Mr. Lawrence J. Reilly of Philadelphia. The Journal's Advisory Board consists of a mix of prominent lawyers, judges, and academicians.
Earlier this year, the Journal began publication of its 50th volume with a biography of John B. West (the founder of the West Publishing Company); an essay on the brief (1745-56) but contentious tenure of Dr. Hugh Baillie as judge of the Irish Admiralty Court; and an article examining the administrative underpinnings of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Works appearing in the Journal are accessible through Hein Online, Lexis, and Westlaw.
26 May 2010
NOTICE: Inaugural Annual Lecture of the Exeter Centre for Legal History Research
The inaugural annual lecture of the Exeter Centre for Legal History Research, "Revolting Law - Revolting Law Teachers? The Struggle to Render Law a Subject Fit for University Education" will be given by Professor David Sugarman of Lancaster University on Wednesday 23 June at 6pm in the Moot Room, Amory Building, University of Exeter. A wine reception will follow in Xfi. All are welcome.
14 May 2010
Law and Multilingualism in Historical Context
Speaker: Dr. Anna E. Plisecka
The question whether legal translation can facilitate the communication, implementation and interpretation of multilingual legal acts, is the object of a lively scholarly debate in the European Union today. The speaker contributes to this discussion by looking at the practice in the early Roman Empire of publishing bilingual normative texts in Greek and Latin. By closely analyzing these ancient normative texts, from the perspective of linguistic patterns and translation techniques, the author argues that legal translation may actually contribute to legal communication in Europe.
Date:
Tuesday 25 May, 2010
Time:
17:15 - 18:15
Venue:
University of Amsterdam Law School
Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Room A 1.01
Language: English
For more information, please visit: http://www.jur.uva.nl/acll or contact Jaap Baaij (c.j.w.baaij@uva.nl)
13 May 2010
NOTICE: Conference on ‘Ethnicity, Crime and Justice; Contemporary and Historical Perspectives’ (8-9 June 2010)
The conference will begin with overview papers - by two speakers who have recently written general texts in the area of research -one an historian and the other a criminologist. This will be followed by sessions on a range of topics - policing, prisons, hate crime etc and by sessions looking more specifically at the treatment of black offenders/victims and at Irish and Jewish minorities and their experience of the criminal justice system in the past.
The main focus is research on Britain but speakers from Africa, North America and France will bring a broader geographical range. The aim is to have 2 or 3 25 -30 minute papers and then to allow plenty of time for discussion in each of the 6 consecutive sessions.
Speakers include Coretta Phillips, Marty Wiener, Paul Iganski, and Rene Levy
Full details including programme and registration form can be found on the ICCCR Website www.open.ac.uk/icccr/
Any queries please contact Sarah Sarah Batt, Research Secretary, ICCCR; +44(0) 1908 654704, A.S.C.Batt@open.ac.uk
11 May 2010
NOTICE: EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY Inaugural Conference (5-6 July 2010)
• Serge Dauchy, University of Lille–Nord de France, “A comparative study of legal culture in early Modern Europe”
• Seán Patrick Donlan, University of Limerick, “World is crazier and more of it than we think”: histories of legal and normative hybridity”
• Paul J. du Plessis, Edinburgh University, “Law, modernity and the place of European legal history”
• Matt Dyson, University of Cambridge, “Comparative Legal History: methodology for morphology”
• Francesca Galli, Institut d’Etudes Européennes, Section Juridique, ULB, Brussels, “British, French and Italian measures to deal with terrorism: a comparative study”
• Eduardo Galván, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, “How to govern an archipelago? The Channel Islands and the Canary Islands”
• Jean-François Gerkens, University of Liège, “The Liberation of the Debtor in mora by vis maior, or the Incredible Success Story of a Non Roman Rule”
• Adolfo Giuliani, University of Cambridge, “Two models of fact-finding”
• Jan Hallebeek, VU University Amsterdam, “Some Remarks on the Direct Enforcement of Obligations to Do in the Continental Legal Tradition”
• Karl Härter, MPIER, Frankfurt/M, “The Emergence of the International Order of Criminal Prosecution in the Modern Age: Extradition, Asylum and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters”
• Nikitas Hatzimihail, University of Cyprus, “Pre-Historical Private International Law: A Study in Conflicts Historiography”
• Dirk Heirbaut, Ghent University, “Feudal law in Flanders and the Lotharingian principalities: a comparison”
• David Ibbetson, University of Cambridge, “Comparative Legal History: A Methodology”
• Nir Kedar, Bar-Ilan University, “Transplanted Law v. Transplanted Culture: The Unique Case of Israeli Legal History”
• Marcelo Lacombe, NYU, “Constitutionalism , liberalism and militarism. A comparative approach on the evolution of constitutional systems in Europe and Latin America, during the nineteenth century?”
• Pia Letto-Vanamo, University of Helsinki, “Some Remarks on the History of Legal Argumentation”
• Michael A Livingston, Rutgers School of Law, “One Hatred, Many Laws: The Evolution of Antisemitic Laws in Germany, France, and Italy in Comparative Historical Perspective”
• Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick): sean.donlan@ul.ie
• Professor Jan Hallebeek (VU University Amsterdam): j.j.hallebeek@rechten.vu.nl
• Professor Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent): dirk.heirbaut@UGent.be
• Professor Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia): Aniceto.Masferrer@uv.es
• Professor Remco van Rhee (Maastricht): remco.vanrhee@maastrichtuniversity.nl
09 May 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS: 29th Annual Australian and New Zealand Law and History Conference (13-15 December 2010, Melbourne Australia)
The use and study of the past is constantly being refashioned and reinterpreted to construct meaning in the present, imparting understandings of a common but chaotic humanity. Because everyone and no one ‘owns’ history, the ownership of historical events and the right to speak of them remains deeply contested. What are the outcomes and practical challenges surrounding the construction of historical consciousness through and about law? Whose past is told and by whom? How does law’s past influence history’s present? And is there any such thing as the orderly evolution of legal ideas? This conference invites papers on the subject of ownership in history and law, and may include contributions on any of several broad themes: the contestation of memory; the ethics of representation and remembrance; the commoditization and consumption of traumatic pasts; transcultural and transgenerational trauma; new technologies of historical documentation; testimony and bearing witness; Indigenous knowledge; identity politics; citizenship; the ethics of reproducing historical narratives; colonialism and hegemony; ‘dark’ tourism and artefacts of law; and new legal imaginings and the contest with the legal past.
This is an interdisciplinary conference and papers are invited from scholars across a broad range of disciplines, as well as chronological and geographical contexts.
The submissions of abstracts was due 1 May 2010. You may want to contact lawhistoryconference@latrobe.edu.au to see if there's any flexibility.
05 May 2010
Reminder: Rencontres d'histoire du droit de la fondation Biermans-Lapôtre (12 May 2010, Paris)
Welcome and Introduction (09:30)
First Session: the Kingdom of France and the Netherlands, up to the 16th Century (10:00)
Lunch (12:15)
Second session : France/Netherlands, Spanish and Austrian periods (14:00)
Third session : the Modern Era (15:45)
Closure (16:15)
Organising Committee: Mlle Charlotte BRAILLON (FNRS/ULg), M. Wim DECOCK (FWO/KUL), M. Frederik DHONDT (FWO/UGent), M. Emmanuel FALZONE (FNRS/FUSL)
Free entry - reception afterwards.
Address:
Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre (Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris)
9a Boulevard Jourdan
75014 PARIS
Public Transports: RER B - T 3 (Cité Universitaire)
CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Renaissance Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law' - Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting 2011
Papers are invited for a session that will explore aspects of legal theory in the Renaissance. The impressive corpus of works produced in the three centuries from Marsilius of Padua to Hugo Grotius is testimony to the crucial and multifaceted transition from medieval to modern legal principles and application. The exploration of legal theory within the context of the dynamic developments that took place in related fields (such as political philosophy, ethics and theology) sheds light on how varying degrees of continuity and innovation in the Renaissance laid the foundations of modern legal thought.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
04 May 2010
Pursuing the Joint Degree (from the Legal History Blog)
A J.D./Ph.D. is not for the faint of heart, and I recommend it only for those who believe that both degrees are necessary to achieving their career goals. For those who are sure, or simply want more information, this post is for you. I’ve put together a list of institutions (that I know of) that train legal historians and welcome dual degree students. Please supplement my list and add your comments!
Out of loyalty, I’ll list my home institution first. The University of Pennsylvania has a J.D./Ph.D. program in American Legal History, with a formal system of funding, cross-credits, and advisers. It has the firm backing of both the Law School and the History Department, which is important because dual degrees can involve significant red tape. You want to be at an institution that will invest in your success and help you solve the complicated administrative problems that can arise.
I know several legal historians who have pursued dual degrees at New York University. NYU boasts scholars in the Law School and the History Department who are excited to work with legal history graduate students. NYU is also home to a fantastic legal history colloquium, which gives students access to cutting-edge work and an interesting array of scholars.
Another legal history powerhouse is Yale University: it has consistently encouraged dual degree students and has produced many of the field’s rising stars. I don’t know much about the formal structure of the program (the website is somewhat vague), but it’s clear that Law School and History faculty have worked together to produce top-notch legal historians. Cross-departmental cooperation and dialogue is crucial to a good joint degree experience.
Some programs that I’m less familiar with, but look strong are Columbia University’s and Stanford University’s. These institutions would be natural places to pursue dual degrees, given their impressive collections of legal historians. Another option out west is the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at the University of California, Berkeley. This Ph.D. program does not require or lead to a J.D.., but some candidates get one while there.
I imagine there are other places that have produced or are currently training J.D./Ph.D. students in legal history. The machinery and the potential advisers appear to be in place at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, for example. Hopefully, those who know better will comment below.
Of course, one need not complete both degrees at the same university. Doing so can shave off time and minimize the financial cost, but there are good reasons (availability of mentors, educational quality, geography) for pursuing a J.D. at one institution and a Ph.D. at another. For those with a J.D. in hand, Princeton is a terrific place to pursue the doctorate. The History Department’s list of legal history alums is truly stunning.
Last, there are a number of J.D./M.A. legal history programs. The University of Virginia’s, for one, appears to be thriving.
Update: I forgot the University of Michigan. Here's a link to the Law School's Dual Degrees page.
Image credit: robed elite
See the orignial post for links to the different programmes.
28 April 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS: International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World
The Fellows of the Seminar will generally be scholars who are recent recipients of the Ph.D. or its equivalent or advanced doctoral students. There will be about 20-25 places available in the Seminar, with non-U.S. scholars making up a sizable portion of the group. Fellows will have their primary travel and conference expenses paid by the Seminar (except some meals), though it is hoped that some of the expenses of the participants will be defrayed by their own institutions. A few more established scholars who are engaged in research on topics that are particularly appropriate for the Seminar may also be included, but they will be asked to provide their own funding whenever possible.Fellows will present an original paper embodying work in progress related to the topic of the Seminar. The papers, written in English, will be distributed in advance of the sessions, so that the meetings themselves will involve discussion of the research and insights rather than reading of the papers. This means that participants must be able to provide such a paper by early-July 2010. The papers, after final corrections, will be included in the Seminar's Working Paper series http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~atlantic/Seminar-%20General/wphome.html, which will be distributed to interested parties upon request and will eventually be posted on the Seminar's Web site.
Completed applications are due by May 3, 2010; we hope to notify applicants of the results by the end of May.
To apply for the 2010 Seminar please download the application and the recommendation form www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eatlantic/Seminar-%20General/seminarapplicationdownload.html (both are available as a Word document or as a PDF). Applicants will need to submit the application along with a current cv and two letters of recommendation.
For more information or if you have questions please contact:
Emily LeBaron
Administrative Director
Atlantic History Seminar
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
phone: 617-496-3066 or email: elebaron@fas.harvard.edu
NOTICE: Writing Legal History: Breaking out of National Frameworks
10:00 - 13.00
John CAIRNS (University of Edinburgh), National, Transnational, and European Legal Histories: Paradigms and Problems
Jean-Louis HALPÉRIN (ENS Ulm, Paris), Is it time for the de-construction of myths in French legal history ?
Michael LOBBAN (Mary Queen, University of London), The Varieties of Legal History
Alain WIJFFELS (CNRS - Centre Georges Chevrier), Le ius commune européen: les limites d'une base commune pour l'historiographie du droit anglais et français
Paul BRAND (All Souls, University of Oxford), The English medieval Common Law and the learned law tradition
14:00 - 17.00
Soazick KERNEIS (Université Paris Ouest), Alternative Dispute Resolution. Penal Law, History and Anthropology
Andrew LEWIS (University College London), The Tithe and La Dîme : similarities and différence
Chantal STEBBINGS (University of Exeter), The ‘Unreported’ Tax Case: its Place in the Development of Law in Nineteenth Century England
David DEROUSSIN (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3), Une nouvelle nationalisation du droit : la culture juridique française vue par la doctrine (1ère moitié du XXè s.)
Conclusion : Louis ASSIER-ANDRIEU (CNRS-ISP Cachan)
With the support of Institute of European and Comparative Law, Service Culturel de l’Ambassade de France à Londres, Centre de Théorie et Analyse de Droit (CNRS-UMR 7074), Centre Lyonnais d’Histoire du Droit et de la Pensée Politique, and Centre Toulousain d’Histoire du Droit et des Idées Politiques
- All welcome -
For any further detail, please contact Frédéric AUDREN: frederic.audren@iecl.ox.ac.uk
Maison Française d’Oxford, 2- 10 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SE
Tel: 01865 274 220 ; maison@herald.ox.ac.uk
CALL FOR PAPERS: Southern African Society of Legal Historians Conference
CONFERENCE STELLENBOSCH 17-20 JANUARY 2011
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
The Southern African Society of Legal Historians will hold its Conference in tandem with the Conference of the Society of Law Teachers of Southern Africa (SLTSA).
The theme of the Southern African Society of Legal Historians Conference is “Fraud and Corruption in the Private and Public Sphere”.
Should you wish to present a paper at the Southern African Society of Legal Historians Conference, please send an abstract of approximately 300 words to P. Finney at dlagnpg@unisa.ac.za. The deadline for the abstracts is 30 September 2010.
Details regarding the date and process of registration for the conference will be circulated at a later stage, as soon as these details have been finalised.
The Southern African Society of Legal Historians Conference proceedings will appear in Fundamina: A Journal of Legal History volume 17(1) of 2011. Papers submitted for publication as part of the conference proceedings will be subjected to the normal peer-review process of the journal.
23 April 2010
Conference: Nordic Legal Traditions and the Changing European Context
The Matthias Calonius Society, the association of Finnish legal historians, will celebrate its 20th birthday this year by organising an international conference on the ”Nordic Legal Traditions and the Changing European Context.” The event will take place on the 19th of May in Calonia, the Law Faculty building at the University of Turku (street address: Vänrikinkatu 2), and it is open to the public.
The conference will focus on the changes of academic legal history in the Nordic countries. The presentations will deal with the effects of the European legal tradition on Scandinavian legal history (Jussi Sallila, Helsinki), the development legal history teaching in Finland (Mia Korpiola, Helsinki) and in Norway (Dag Michalsen, Oslo), and the relationship of the Baltic legal history vis-à-vis the Nordic countries and its treatment of the Soviet legal past (Marju Luts, Tartu).
Matthias Calonius (1738–1817) was Professor of Law at the Academy of Turku and Finland’s Procutator. He is known as the founder of Finnish legal science, and he played a pivotal part in the drafting of the Finnish constitutional structure when Finland was annexed to the Russian Empire as a Grand-Duchy in 1809. Calonius thus exerted significant influence on the shaping of the Finnish legal culture. The theme of the conference, the construction of legal traditions and identities, stood in the center of Calonius’s interests.
Registrations and inquiries: Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen at marianne.vasara-aaltonen@helsinki.fi by 3rd of May. Please notify if you wish to attend the conference dinner.
22 April 2010
Book: Von der Staatengesellschaft zur Weltrepublik ? (H. Steiger)
The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History recently (July 2009) published an interesting compilation of various articles and contributions written (most of them in German) between 1966 and 2007 on the History of International Law by Prof. em. Heinhard Steiger (Univ. Giessen).
Table of Contents (translated from German):
I Generalities
International Law (1)
From International Law of Christendom to World Citizen's Law. Remarks on the division of Epochs in the History of International Law (51)
Religion and the Historical Development of International Law (67)
II History of Ideas
Ius binds Mars. Classic International Law and its Science as Early Modern Cultural Phenomenon (105)
Solidarity and Sovereignty in Vattel reconsidered (133)
International Law and Natural Law between Christian Wolff and Adolf Lasson (143)
Peace through Institution. Peace and the League of Nations in the writings of Kant and afterwards (167)
III General International Orders
Legal Structures of the European State Order 1648-1792 (191)
International Law versus Feudal Law ? Treaty Arrangements on Imperial Italian fiefs in the Early Modern Period (233)
Law between Europe and Asia in the 16th and 17th Centuries ? (267)
IV Peace
Peace in Legal History (293)
Remarks on the Treaties of Peace of Crépy and Laonnais between Charles V and Francis I, 18 September 1544 (357)
The Peace of Westphalia, Constitution for Europe ? (383)
Conclusion of Peace and Amnesty in the Münster and Osnabrück Treaties (431)
Preambles to and in Peace Treaties of the Early Modern Period (469)
Peace Treaties from Paris to Versailles (513) [In English]
The League of Nations' Post-War Order - Potential and Limitations (553)
V The Laws of War
The bearers of the ius belli ac pacis 1648-1806 (581)
The ius belli ac pacis in the Old Holy Roman Empire between 1645 and 1801 (599)
Occupatio Bellica in the International Law Doctrine of Christendom (Late Middle Ages-18th Century) (627)
VI International Law in a divided World
On the Foundation of the Universality of International Law (667)
Legal Questions of the Ostverträge 1970 (693)
VI The End of International Law ?
Is the Era of Sovereign States ending ? (703)
Do we need a World Republic ? (729)
Remarks concerning the normative structure of Modern World Order in a historical perspective (749) [In English]
References of initial publications (777)
Publications on the History International Law (781)
16 April 2010
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Roman Legal Tradition
The editors of Roman Legal Tradition welcome submissions in English for the forthcoming issue.
Roman Legal Tradition is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the civilian tradition in ancient, medieval, and modern civil law. It is published by the Ames Foundation and the University of Glasgow School of Law.Contents are distributed by HeinOnline, and available for download from the journal website.
Roman Legal Tradition is edited by Ernest Metzger (University of Glasgow School of Law) with the support of an international board of editors.
15 April 2010
Position as a professor in Luxembourg
Professeur André Prüm
Doyen de la Faculté de Droit, d’Economie et de Finance
Université du Luxembourg
162a, avenue de la Faïencerie
L-1511 Luxembourg
FDEF-recrutement@uni.lu
For more questions (profile, documents to be joined to the application) contact the address above.
12 April 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS: The Twentieth British Legal History Conference (13-16 July 2011)
The conference:
will be held in Cambridge from Wednesday 13 July 2011 to Saturday 16 July 2011. The conference theme will be 'Law and Legal Process'.A draft programme and details of registration and accommodation will be circulated early in 2011.
Conference email: LawBLHC@hermes.cam.ac.uk
Conference Organisers
- Professor Sir John Baker
- Professor David Ibbetson
- Dr Neil Jones
- Dr Isabella Alexander
- Dr Matt Dyson
06 April 2010
REMINDER: Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History (23 April 2010)
The symposium meets:
to discuss the comparative legal history of the Atlantic world in the period c1492 to 1815. Each year we offer a one-day conference that brings together law professors, historians, and social scientists to explore a particular topic in comparative legal history, broadly understood.
The site reads:
Colonialism enhanced legal pluralism. European, African, Asian, and American polities relied on layered and multi-centric systems of law, and their encounters generated new and often repeating patterns of jurisdictional politics. This widespread legal pluralism at times contributed to regional integration by making substantively different legal systems intelligible to travelers and merchants. It also posed challenges to imperial administration as subordinate authorities sought to establish, expand, or protect prerogatives to act independently of metropolitan sovereigns and courts. With recent scholarship establishing clearly the benefits of framing colonial law as jurisdictionally complex and unstable, opportunities are now in sight to push this perspective further in a number of directions.
One interesting set of problems involves questions about how conflicts over the prerogatives of delegated legal authorities to discipline and control subordinate or dependent populations related to the changing contours of imperial constitutions or ideologies of rule. Conference participants may explore the ways in which such figures as garrison commanders, plantation owners, ship captains, Company officials, missionaries, and others with some measure of legal authority positioned themselves in relation to both metropolitan and colonial law. Did they make innovative legal claims or exert influence on regional patterns? We invite investigations of the conditions under which such actors deferred to imperial authority, the sources they drew upon to defend their legal prerogatives, and the nature of their interactions with various courts. Other studies might consider the degree to which the politics of making and defending claims to semi-autonomous legal authority informed broader, even regional, political processes. As we bring such connections into sight, it may be possible to refine comparisons of the politics of legal pluralism in different parts of a colonial regime, or between the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean worlds.
A related theme focuses on the legal strategies of subordinate groups. Taking into account a framework of legal pluralism, scholars can move beyond the study of “resistance” to ask questions about the legal participation of formally subordinate groups—even some that were seemingly powerless before the law. Forum shopping, petitions for mercy, violence against magistrates, new genres of legal writing, maneuvers to escape indebtedness—these and other strategies had immediate and sometimes far-reaching institutional effects. In addition to tracing such connections, we might probe the formative influences on legal strategies. How did knowledge about law circulate? To what extent did information or stories about of the effectiveness of particular legal strategies carry across social strata, imperial divides, and oceans? How did legal actors imagine and describe plural legal orders? With attention to these and other, related topics, the conference seeks to open the study of legal pluralism to new approaches and insights.
Additional information, including the schedule, is available here. Note that attendance is free, but advance registration is required.
01 April 2010
Heavy reading: Oxford history laws of England
ISBN13: 9780199258833 ISBN10: 019925883X (The list price is impressive: 450 £.)








