NEW ASSOCIATION: "Associazione degli Storici del Diritto Medievale e Moderno" - Assemblea inaugurale Roma, 16 settembre 2022

 

(Source: Storia del diritto) Per iniziativa dei professori ordinari di “Storia del diritto medievale e moderno”, è stata costituita con atto notarile il 25 maggio u.s. l’Associazione degli Storici del Diritto Medievale e Moderno. L’Associazione si propone di costituire una sede di libero dibattito tra gli storici del diritto medievale e moderno e un organo di rappresentanza e di tutela degli interessi scientifici e accademici degli universitari afferenti al s.s.d. Ius/19. Alla nuova associazione potranno aderire (ex art. 5 dello Statuto) “su loro semplice richiesta, i professori ordinari, associati, i ricercatori a tempo indeterminato, appartenenti o appartenuti al Settore Scientifico Disciplinare IUS/19 – ‘Storia del diritto medievale e moderno’, nonché i ricercatori a tempo determinato di tipo B e di tipo A afferenti al medesimo settore e per il tempo di durata del loro contratto”. Per agevolare l’adesione dei Colleghi interessati, è stato realizzato un sito temporaneo nel quale è possibile reperire la documentazione e le informazioni essenziali sulla Associazione (indirizzo web: http://www.asdimm.weebly.com). Per aderire alla Associazione è sufficiente: 1) effettuare un bonifico bancario di € 30 sul c/c bancario intestato a “Associazione degli Storici del Diritto Medievale e Moderno” (Bper Banca - Ag. 20 Bologna) IBAN IT58G0538702412000003651800 - BIC BPMOIT22XXX con la causale: "Quota associativa 2022"; 2) compilare il modulo on-line all’indirizzo https://asdimm.weebly.com/iscrizioni.html (con l’indicazione di nome e cognome, del ruolo universitario, della propria mail, della sede professionale e della data del bonifico bancario). Una volta inviato il modulo, si riceverà conferma della avvenuta ricezione. La prima assemblea della ASDIMM si svolgerà a Roma il 16 settembre p.v. presso l’Università Roma Tre alle ore 15 (via Ostiense 159 – 00154 Roma), Aula Magna. In quella occasione si terrà l’elezione del Consiglio direttivo (5 componenti) che eleggerà al suo interno il Presidente, il Segretario generale e il Tesoriere della Associazione. I Consiglieri hanno un mandato di tre anni e non sono immediatamente rieleggibili. ​ Paolo Alvazzi del Frate - Marco Cavina - Elio Tavilla

ARTICLE: Péter TECHET, "Kultur- und Rechtskampf um das Wiener Krematorium (1922-1924)" (Forum Historiae Iuris, 24 MAY 2022) (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: forum historiae iuris)

Abstract:

Zwischen 1922 und 1924 versuchte die österreichische Bundesregierung, das neu eröffnete Krematorium im »roten« Wien zu verbieten. Der sozialdemokratische Bürgermeister von Wien weigerte sich jedoch, den Anweisungen des christlich-sozialen Bundesministers Folge zu leisten. Da die Zuständigkeitsregeln der republikanischen, neuen Verfassung (B-VG) damals noch nicht in Kraft traten, kam es zwischen der Bundesregierung und Wien (als Land) zu einem Rechtsstreit. Der Streit wurde schließlich vom Verfassungsgerichtshof (VfGH) zugunsten von Wien entschieden. Die Bundesregierung versuchte jedoch mit zwei weiteren Anträgen (wegen eines angeblichen Kompetenzkonflikts zwischen der Bundesregierung und Wien sowie wegen der angeblichen Verfassungswidrigkeit der Wiener Landesverfassung) das Krematorium zu verhindern. Auch in diesen Fällen entschied aber der Verfassungsgerichtshof zugunsten von Wien, ohne jedoch die Hauptfrage zu beantworten, ob die Feuerbestattung in Österreich legal ist. Neben der konkreten Rechtslage stellte der Fall auch ein wichtiges Kapitel des damaligen »Kulturkampfes« dar, der allerdings verfassungsrechtlich ausgefochten wurde. In dem Beitrag werden sowohl die öffentlichen Debatten als auch die Rechtslage und die Verfahren vor dem Verfassungsgerichtshof dargestellt und anhand von Primärquellen analysiert. Der berühmte Rechtstheoretiker Hans Kelsen war in allen drei Verfahren als Referent am Verfassungsgerichtshof tätig. Daher wird auch die Frage erörtert, ob die Entscheidungen der »Reinen Rechtslehre« von Kelsen ent- oder widersprachen, und ob die »zurückhaltende« Rechtsprechung des Verfassungsgerichtshofes im Sinne der Kelsenschen Rechtslehre und des historischen Kontextes der damaligen Zeit als »aktivistisch« anzusehen ist.

Read the article: DOI  10.26032/fhi-2022-005.

BOOK: Jean-Pol MASSON, Le droit dans la littérature française [Petites fugues] (Bruxelles: Larcier, 2022), 742 p. ISBN 9782807932906, € 40

 

(images source: furet)

Abstract:

L'auteur a été frappé depuis longtemps par l'importance des allusions au droit chez maints écrivains de langue française. Il a eu dès lors envie de réaliser sur cette question une oeuvre de synthèse, forcément incomplète, eu égard à la masse que représente la littérature française, mais se fondant néanmoins sur la lecture de suffisamment d'ouvrages pour donner un échantillon significatif de ce que les auteurs pensent du droit. Son étude porte successivement sur les acteurs du monde juridique (magistrats, avocats, notaires, etc.), sur la scène où l'on pratique le droit (la justice, la procédure, etc.), enfin sur le répertoire mis à la disposition des acteurs (le droit, la loi, le langage juridique, etc.). Se voulant accessible aux personnes n'ayant pas de formation juridique, l'ouvrage comporte de nombreuses explications sur les termes techniques utilisés, soit dans le corps du texte, soit dans un index figurant en fin de volume.

Read more here. 

BOOK: Emmanuelle TOURME JOUANNET, Le droit international le capitalisme et la terre. Histoire des accaparements de terres d'hier à aujourd'hui [Collection de droit international] (Bruxelles: Bruylant, 2021), ISBN 9782802769996, 412 p.

(image source: Larcier)

Abstract:

Le présent ouvrage étudie les liens historiques qui se sont noués entre le droit international et le capitalisme à travers le statut conféré à la terre. Il s’agit en fait de prolonger sous un angle nouveau notre réflexion sur les finalités du droit international et les critères empiriques de la justice sociale au plan international.

L’objet de ce livre est bien d’écrire une histoire portant sur le triptyque constitué par le droit international, le capitalisme et la terre, cette dernière servant à la fois de moteur originaire et de révélateur a posteriori des liens intrinsèques qui se sont noués à travers le temps et l’espace entre les deux premiers. En témoigne le phénomène contemporain de l’accaparement des terres. Depuis au moins deux décennies il se produit une véritable « ruée mondiale vers les terres » de la part de certains États et surtout des grands acteurs économiques privés pratiquant l’agro-business et l’agro-carburant.

Or l’ensemble des règles du droit international économique et du droit transnational des investissements a contribué à l’augmentation continue de ces accaparements et au fait que la terre fasse aujourd’hui l’objet d’une financiarisation à outrance qui va jusqu’à la dématérialiser. La terre devient un asset, une valeur refuge en bourse pour les investisseurs/accapareurs. De milieu tangible le plus concret, le plus immuable et matériel qui soit, la terre est passée à l’état d’un produit financier qui est par principe volatile, immatériel et impalpable. Ce faisant elle fait l’objet d’une exploitation intensive poussée à son extrême afin d’obtenir le plus de rendements possibles et donc de bénéfices.

Qu’est-ce que donc alors que la terre selon le droit international ? Est-ce un milieu, un espace ou un bien détenu en pleine propriété par l’être humain ? Est-ce le substrat de l’identité des êtres humains ou est-ce une marchandise ? D’où vient le besoin incessant de nouvelles terres qui a jalonné toute l’histoire humaine et que le droit international a licité tout au long des siècles ? Pourquoi tant de guerres et de contentieux pour des territoires ou la délimitation de frontières ? Pourquoi tant d’accaparements et de dépossessions de terres ou vivaient et où vivent encore des peuples autochtones ou des populations rurales démunies? Mais aussi quel est le rapport des questions liées à la terre avec la Nature et avec la Terre considérées comme un tout ?

Ce livre est une invitation à réfléchir à ces questions en cheminant à travers le temps.

Summary:

Introduction

Chapitre 1 – Origines conceptuelles du discours juridique européen sur l’appropriation et l’exploitation de la terre – Le droit des gens moderne

Chapitre 2 – Moment colonial de l’accaparement des terres − Le droit international des nations civilisées

Chapitre 3 – Marché mondial des terres − Droit international de la société globale

Conclusion

More details on the publisher's website.

(source: ESIL IGHIL Blog)

BOOK: Robert CARVAIS & Jean-Louis HALPÉRIN (dir.), L'Histoire de l'édition juridique (XVIe-XXIe siècle). Un état des lieux [Contexes. Culture du droit, dir. Anne-Sophie CHAMBOST] (Paris: LGDJ, 2021), 420 p. ISBN 9782275074856, € 46

 

(image source: LGDJ)

Abstract:

L’édition du droit (qu’il ne faut pas confondre avec l’édiction du droit), ou l’usage de l’imprimé pour composer un savoir juridique et le diffuser largement à travers le réseau des librairies, des bibliothèques et un public, se révèle un secteur de cette industrie qui n’a que très peu retenu l’attention des chercheurs et à plus forte raison des juristes. Alors que l’histoire de l’édition est depuis longtemps un champ reconnu de la recherche historique avec ses repères, ses grandes figures d’autorité, ses textes fondateurs, la discipline juridique ne s’y est pour ainsi dire pas intéressée, malgré le regain d’intérêt pour l’histoire de l’enseignement du droit et du livre juridique. Pourtant que serait le droit sans la présence de l’imprimé ? Ce secteur possède des caractéristiques tout à fait uniques : les coutumes n’ont-elles pas dû être imprimées pour prendre corps ? Les textes législatifs et réglementaires, au rythme de leur création permanente, n’imposent-ils pas une diffusion égalitaire auprès de tous les citoyens, surtout dans un État de droit, républicain et démocratique ? L’usage des bonnes références n’oblige-il pas à une mise à jour permanente des règles et des normes ? Les décisions des tribunaux et cours de justice n’ont-elles pas besoin d’être publiées et annotées pour constituer la jurisprudence ? Analysant de nombreuses formes et genres de l’imprimé juridique, le présent livre remet en cause des idées reçues sur le style juridique supposé austère, sur la présentation peu amène du livre de droit, sur sa double finalité (produit commercial et outils intellectuels critiques), comme sur la nature hybride des acteurs de ce secteur (professionnels du droit et de l’édition). Il ouvre également de nouvelles perspectives sur les publics des impressions juridiques, comme la circulation de celles-ci, tant sous l’angle linguistique (traduction) que spatiale (diffusion). Si les historiens de l’édition devraient être intéressés par le contenu et les résultats de cet ouvrage, les juristes et historiens du droit le seront tout autant. Gageons que ces derniers y façonnent un nouvel axe de recherches.

On the editors:

Sous la direction de Robert Carvais, directeur de recherche émérite en sociologie de l’Université Paris X Nanterre, et Jean-Louis Halpérin, professeur à l’École normale supérieure.

Contributors:

Robert Carvais, Jean-Louis Halpérin, Xavier Prévost, Laura Beck Varela, Viera Rebolledo-Dhuin, Antoine Pélicand, Sebastiaan Vandenbogaerde, Fatiha Cherfoin-Baïch, Pierre-Nicolas Barenot, Carlos Miguel Herrera, Anne-Sophie Chambost, Martine Lakuszynski, Valérie Hayaert, Quentin Epron, Marie Houllemare, Guillaume Richard, Sébastian Evrard, Annamaria Monti and John W. Cairns. 

Read more with the publisher. 

BOOK: Zhaoyang ZHANG, A History of Civil Law in Early China: Cases, Statutes, Concepts and Beyond [Legal History Library, eds. C.H. (Remco) VAN RHEE, Dirk HEIRBAUT & Mathew C. MIROW; 60] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2022), ISBN 9789004513907, € 118

 

(image source: Brill)

On the book:

How did people solve their disputes over debt, compensation, inheritance and other civil matters in early China? Did they go to court? How did the authorities view those problems? Using recently excavated early Chinese legal materials, Zhang Zhaoyang makes the compelling argument that civil law was not only developed, but also acquired a certain degree of sophistication during the Qin and Han dynasties. The state promulgated detailed regulations to deal with economic and personal relationships between individuals. The authorities formed an integral part of the formal justice system, and heard civil cases on a regular basis.

On the author:

Zhaoyang Zhang, Ph.D. (2010), University of California at Berkeley, is Professor of History at the School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has published monographs and many articles on China, including Zhongguo zaoqi minfa de jiangou (Zhongguo zhengfa daxue, 2014).

Read more on Brill's website. 

JOURNAL: Special Issue Image et Droit. Les manuscrits juridiques enluminés (eds. Maria Alessandra BILOTTA & Serge DAUCHY) (Clio@Thémis. Revue électronique d'histoire du droit) 21 (2021) (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: Clio@thémis)

Image et Droit. Les manuscrits juridiques enluminés (Martie Alessandra Bilotta & Serge Dauchy)

Illuminated English Law Books (Anthony Musson)

Abstract:

Illuminated books of the English legal tradition follow distinct iconographic patterns depending on the nature of the legal material included. The article explores correlations and dissonance between image and text as well as the symbolism associated with the imagery (in both initials and the margins) and its connection to political, legal and social discourses. It evaluates what the images reveal about key concepts of medieval law and justice, including kingship and good governance, the role of parliament and the church in endorsing these, as well as how these aspects might be undermined (or paradoxically confirmed) by medieval society’s penchant for role reversal, transgression and misrule.

Per gli esordi della decorazione del Digesto in epoca medievale : le iniziali miniate del ms. 941 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova (Gianluca del Monaco)

Abstract:

The Digestum vetus 941 of the Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova, dating back to the first half of the twelfth century, is well known to the studies among the witnesses of the earliest manuscript tradition of the work. However, the fine penwork initials adorning the manuscript have not been equally investigated, except for a few recent insights. The article explores the uncommon iconographies of some initials and analyses the style of the miniatures, advancing possible connections with the contemporary book illumination close to the milieu of Matilda of Canossa.

L’acquisizione del dominio tramite occupazione. Il rapporto testo-immagine nelle illustrazioni del libro 41, tit. 1 del Digesto e del libro 2, tit. 1 delle Istituzioni di Giustiniano nei manoscritti della BnF (xiii-xiv secolo) (Viviana Persi)

Abstract:

In this paper, I will analyse the legal aspect of the miniatures that illustrate book 41.1 of the Digest and the second book of Justinian's Institutions as a group of manuscripts dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth century and currently kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. These two Books are closely related to each other and present similar iconographies : the acquisition of ownership “naturali ratione” through the occupation of the res nullius, where wildlife and aquatic fauna – ferae bestiae, volucres et pisces – constituted an important example of res nullius in Roman and Justinian law. Hunting and fishing determined the acquisition of these assets and it is precisely these activities that illustrate books 41.1 of the Digest and 2.1 of the Institutions. Naturally, these activities have undergone changes over time, both of a technical and normative nature. I will try to show how these images depict, reflect and clarify the changes in the acquisition of the res nullius.

El poder a través de la imagen. La representación de los reyes de la Corona de Aragón en el Libro de privilegios de la villa de Alzira (Valencia) c. 1380-1391 (Nuria Ramón-Marqués)

Abstract:

This study intends to delve into the use of the image that the monarchy will use in the Kingdom of Valencia as an enhancing element of the accompanying text. For this, after the bibliographic review, a detailed analysis of the miniatures that appear in the Book of Privileges of the city of Alzira is carried out, considering it as the first manuscript made in a Valencian miniature workshop. From the study of artistic techniques and procedures, we will formulate stylistic connections that allow us to see the intervention of various illuminators working in Valencia in this period.

La imagen regia como símbolo legitimador: el Libro de los Privilegios de Toledo y la miniatura castellana a principios del siglo xiv (Jaime Moraleda Moraleda)

Abstract:

The illuminated decoration of the Hispanic medieval codex allows the study of the connection between materiality and use. The rich production during the alfonsí period in Castile maintained the characteristics of the French tradition from the end of the 13th century, without forgetting the aesthetic permeability from other variants of Italian influence. The Book of Privileges of Toledo, from the early 14th century, as a compilation legal document, collects the royal image represented in its vignettes and confirms the importance of royal iconography as a legitimizing symbol, an essential value in the origin of the codex.

Justice in the miniatures of Brunetto Latini's art of rhetoric: Columbia Library, Plimpton MS 281 (Tina Montenegro)

Abstract:

This article presents the miniatures in the art of rhetoric of a fifteenth-century French manuscript, Plimpton MS 281 (Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library). The text is Brunetto Latini’s Tresor, a thirteenth-century compilation written in Old French on the art of government. The iconography of Plimpton MS 281 seems to be new with regard to the art of rhetoric and to be intended for a legal milieu. By studying the images from the point of view of the history of the text, the aim is to understand what might have caused a change in the iconography of the art of rhetoric.

Les manuscrits juridiques bolonais parmi les transferts artistiques au Trecento : de l’iconographie des ermites de saint Augustin au Bon gouvernement d’Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Bertrand Cosnet)

Abstract:

The challenge of this contribution is to identify the role played by the legal manuscripts illuminated in 14th century Italian art. The decorative programmes of these manuscripts, too often underestimated, are doubly interesting because they allow, on the one hand, to identify the dynamics of the processes of circulation and iconographic transfer, particularly fertile in Trecento, and, on the other hand, to reconstruct the richness of the visual culture of Italian lawyers in the 14th century. The article focuses mainly on the iconography of virtues, which experienced considerable growth in the 14th century in the context of communal regimes and mendicant orders, of which several legal manuscripts provide decisive clues to the process of invention and circulation. Particular attention is paid to three manuscripts produced in Bologna, namely the Digestum vetus preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (Ms. Lat. 14339), the Novella sive commentarius in decretales epistolas Gregorii IX located at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (Ms. B 42 inf), and the Digestum novum preserved at the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid (Ms. M 197).

Un manoscritto giuridico miniato tra la Badia Fiorentina ed il Portogallo del xv secolo: il codice Conventi Soppressi A 4 2554 della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze  (Sofia Orsino)

Abstract:

A fifteenth-century Latin manuscript, kept at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence and coming from the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria (also known as Badia Fiorentina), contains the Repertorium iuris by Giovanni Nicola de Milis and seems to be the result of influences and contacts between Italy and Portugal. This article questions the enigmatic relationship between text and decoration; also, on the basis of an analysis of the illumination, combined with a codicological and palaeographical study, it reconstructs the context of production and the arrival of the codex in the Florentine monastery.

Varia

Foreign Law Without Borders in the Early Vast America. Spanish Legal Literature in 19th Century North America (Angela Ballone)

Abstract:

By studying some case studies, this article shows how the works of some Spanish jurists from the 17th and 18th centuries were used in the 19th century, both in Britain and also overseas in the British Atlantic (from Washington to California, passing through Florida), to solve judicial conflicts about land and exploitation. The reader will see to what extent some unexpected sources of law were intertwined into the daily practice of North American courts. Such entanglements are at the very heart of the comparative analysis of the field of legal history.

Read the full issue here. 

BOOK REVIEW: Christof ROLKER on Atria Ann Larson, Master of Penance: Gratian and the Development of Penitential Thought and Law in the Twelfth Century (Forum Historiae Iuris, 25 MAY 2022) (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: Google Books)

Prof. dr. Christof Rolker (Uni Bamberg) reviewed dr. Atria A. Larson (St Louis University)'s work on Gratian's Tractatus de Penitentia for Forum Historiae Iuris. 

Read the review here: DOI 10.26032/fhi-2022-006.

JOURNAL: Revue historique de droit français et étranger 2021/4

 

(image source: Dalloz)

La rencontre du Japon et des institutions délibératives occidentales dans les dernières années de l'époque d'Edo (1603-1868) (Éric Seizelet) (453)

La socialisation des services juridiques et les "vampires judiciaires". L'expérience de la Commune de 1871 (Martin Gallié) (483)

De quoi Bourbon est-il le nom ? (Jean-Marie Le Gall) (507)

Note sur l'hermaphrodite dans le ius commune (XIIIe-XIVe siècle) (Marta Madero) (547)

Comptes rendus (see website)

Revues

Nouvelles diverses

• Im memoriam Jean-Louis Ferrary (1948-2020)
• Programme de la SHD 2021-2022
• Programme de l'Institute de droit romain 2022

Ouvrages envoyés à la Direction de la Revue

Tables de l'année 2021

(read more here)

JOURNAL: The Journal of Legal History XLIII (2022), No. 1

 

(image source: Routledge)

Contracts ‘Not for the Public Good’ and the Classical Law of Contract (Warren Swain) (DOI 10.1080/01440365.2022.2043408)

Abstract:

During the nineteenth century, legal writers began to put the law of contract into a more rationale and ordered framework. This approach reached its apotheosis in the classical law of contract, which retains some influence in modern times. At its core was the belief that contracts were formed by a meeting of wills – that is, contracts were based on consent. Historically, however, there are instances where the law refused to enforce a contract even if the parties had seemingly freely consented to it. Two major examples were contracts that were against morality or public policy. Both of these categories evolved in the nineteenth century. They came to be seen as increasingly anomalous and restricted. They did not, however, disappear altogether.

Aggravation in Tort Before 1763 (Nicholas Sinanis) (DOI 10.1080/01440365.2022.2043398)
Abstract:

According to a well-settled narrative, modern exemplary (or punitive) damages were first awarded in 1763 in two famous tort cases that arose from the publication of the controversial forty-fifth issue of the North Briton newspaper. Before these cases were decided, English juries only ever increased damages in aggravated tort cases to further compensate plaintiffs for various intangible injuries. This article presents a challenge to this narrative. It seeks to do so by systematically accounting for the place of ‘aggravation’ in the practice of litigating tort actions from the turn of the seventeenth century to the North Briton decisions. It shows that remedial judgments about how to respond to matters of aggravation in tort were fundamentally conceived as belonging to the jury’s adjudicative province, and in which judges increasingly hesitated to interfere. Ultimately, this article contends there is sufficient evidence upon which to conclude that – within this province – pre-1763 juries increased the financial liability of aggravated tortfeasors according to diverse principles, not all of which purported to repair the full extent of a plaintiff’s suffering. In select cases, juries may have applied punitive and exemplary principles.

Law and Commerce: The Fortunate Crisis of the Eighteenth Century (Aleksi Ollikainen-Read) (DOI 10.1080/01440365.2022.2043373) (OPEN ACCESS)

Abstract:

This article refines a common narrative about eighteenth-century commercial law and its relationship to economic development. It looks at a specific doctrinal strand of English common law–promissory notes–and argues that their recognition by statute without regard to common law’s requirements led to a serious destabilization and a crisis for the legal community. This crisis coincided with the South Sea crash and its aftermath, when promissory notes were most needed by the population at large. However, a fortunate effect of this crisis was that promissory notes went essentially unregulated by the courts, and their use was thereby allowed to proliferate. When Lord Mansfield effected his reforms, this brought mercantile cases back to common law courts and brought certainty to the law (albeit at the cost of common law processes). With these commercial instruments in common use and on certain legal foundation, the financial instruments and networks were in place to allow the process of economic development that eventually became modern capitalism. Therefore, instead of the narrative of the steady development of English institutions to pave the way for industrial and financial capitalism, the story of common law’s development is of institutional failures that happened to be fruitful.

 Scottish Legal History Group Report 2021

Migrations of Manuscripts 2021 (sir John Baker)

Book reviews:

• Art and Modern Copyright: The Contested Image by Elena Cooper, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, 304 pp., £85 (hardback), ISBN: 9781107179721 (by Stavroula Karapapa)
• The Foundations of Anglo-American Corporate Fiduciary Law by David Kershaw, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, xxix + 517 pp. (including index), £110 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-107-09233-4 (by Victoria Barnes)

Read more here.

HYBRID SYMPOSIUM: Martti KOSKENNIEMI's most recent work discussed with peers (London: UCL, 15 JUL 2022)

(image source: UCL)

Announcement:

On July 15, 2022, UCL Faculty of Laws will host a hybrid workshop in connection with the publication of History, Politics, Law: Thinking through the International, featuring panel conversations across disciplines (on themes of Discipline, identity and responsibility; Translation; Beyond the textual; and Temporality, chronology and periodization); and an author interview and Q&A with Martti Koskenniemi on his To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870. Details and links to register (hybrid and limited in-person) are here.

Event Information:

To mark the publication of History, Politics, Law: Thinking through the International (CUP 2021) the editors are convening a forum for reflection on the interdisciplinary conversations reflected in this volume, and in other recent works including Martti Koskenniemi’s To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power, 1300–1870 (CUP, 2021).

We hope to give participants space to reflect on questions emerging from this work, and explore the future of interdisciplinary interaction, without the pressure of presenting formal papers.

The event will have two components: a day of panel conversations and a book event, open to all; and a smaller by-application doctoral workshop, not open to the public.

15 July, 9am-4:30pm - Panel conversations (hybrid: limited in-person tickets, unlimited online tickets)

15 July, 9am-4:30pm - Panel conversations (hybrid: limited in-person tickets, unlimited online tickets)

The History, Politics, Law volume presented overarching methodological reflections, and a series of chapters from lawyers and historians arranged around themes of potential dialogue (‘Law and Constructions of the Political’; ‘Empires, States and Nations’; ‘Institutions and Persons’; ‘Economics and Innovation’; and ‘Gender’). We hope to spark some further grounded yet open-ended exchanges through thematic panels on

- Discipline, identity and responsibility

- Translation

- Beyond the textual

- Temporality, chronology and periodization

Each panel will begin with a loose set of shared questions, and panelists will speak to these questions briefly through the lens of their own work, past or current; followed by discussion between panelists and audience Q&A. Panelists are not expected to speak ‘for’ their discipline in any sense, but rather ‘through’ their own, more specific, work: the emphasis is not to converge on methodological prescription but to see what emerges from juxtaposing some distinct projects.

There is some limited capacity to join the event in person at UCL. If you are booking to attend in person, please only do so if you are able to participate for the whole day on 15 July; otherwise, it will be possible to join on Zoom for particular panels.

15 July, 5.30-6.30pm - Author interview and audience Q&A with Martti Koskenniemi (hybrid: limited in-person tickets, unlimited online tickets)

15 July, 5.30-6.30pm - Author interview and audience Q&A with Martti Koskenniemi (hybrid: limited in-person tickets, unlimited online tickets)This session will focus on Koskenniemi’s new monograph, To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power, 1300–1870. This work offers a sweeping resource from and through which to think about many of the themes explored in the panels, as well as opening new avenues for reflection across disciplines and periods.

See the full program here (incl. Saliha Belmessous, Martin Clark, Anne Orford, Karen Knop...)

(source: ESIL IGHL Blog)

JOURNAL: American Journal of Legal History LXII (2022), No. 2

 

(image source: OUP)

British Policy towards the Incorporation of the Baltic States into the USSR: A Dilemma of de facto and de jure Recognition (Evgeny Tikhonravov) (DOI 10.1093/ajlh/njac011)

Abstract:

Multiple viewpoints have been expressed regarding the British attitude towards the Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The vast majority of writers maintain that the United Kingdom extended only de facto recognition to this incorporation. A small minority of commentators, however, hold otherwise and argue that Britain recognised the annexation de jure. To address this controversy, which has previously received almost no consideration, this article traces the development of the British policy towards the incorporation of the Baltic republics into the USSR, giving wide scope to the statements of the British government and to the views of Members of Parliament. Careful attention is also given to judicial practice. This legal and historical analysis helps to identify the meaning of de facto and de jure recognition used by Britain in the Baltic case, as well as clarifies a number of other relevant questions (for example, whether a territorial annexation may constitute a separate object of recognition, and whether a military occupant may be equated with a government recognised de facto). After determining the correct approach to this academic debate, the article suggests how its findings may contribute to studies contrasting the position of the UK with respect to the Baltic annexation with that of other countries.

The Judicial Failsafe: American Legal Colonialism in the Philippines (Timothy J Foley) (DOI 10.1093/ajlh/njac009)

Abstract:

This article evaluates the history of the Filipino judiciary during the period of US rule. It argues that colonial officials used the legal system to ensure US control over the islands by initiating a judicial transition, which contained a series of procedures guaranteeing US officials the power to overrule insular courts or legislatures. The judicial transition refers to the long-term transformation of Filipino law from the Spanish civil law system to an Anglo-American common law system through implementing a new code of civil procedure, changing the official language of legal proceedings to English, and importing US judges to the islands during the first part of the twentieth century. This transition masked a failsafe, which ensured that colonial administrators would retain power despite promises to cede control to the local population. Elements of this failsafe included maintaining a US majority on the Supreme Court of the Philippines, empowering the US Supreme Court to review and overturn decisions of the Filipino Supreme Court, and barring Filipino courts from ruling on matters of importance to the US government such as admiralty cases. The article contends that when taken together, this transition and failsafe constitute a strategy for the United States to maintain substantial control over the Philippines while still maintaining the facade of the benevolent colonizer.

Amnesty and the Limits of Transitional Justice in Brazil: The Case of Expelled Low-Ranking Soldiers, 1964–2014 (Marrilia Corrêa) (DOI 10.1093/ajlh/njac005)

Abstract:

This article shows the continuities of the military dictatorship and the limits of transitional justice in Brazil, arguing that the violations the military regime inflicted on certain groups persisted over three decades after democratization. Between 1964 and 1985 the military officers who took power strived to eliminate opposition to their rule from all sectors of society. Inside the armed forces, they expelled over 6,500 officers and soldiers from their ranks after accusing them of subversion. Between 1979 and 2014 the state created policies to start a democratic transition and address the civil and human rights violations perpetrated during military rule. It offered amnesty and reparations to individuals who had their political rights stripped from them after their names were published in Institutional Acts, legal instruments created by the military government to justify the political persecution of its opponents. Yet, transitional justice policies failed to address different mechanisms the dictatorship used to eliminate opposition, such as Air Force Decree 1,104, which determined that soldiers would be hired on four-year contracts. Masquerading it as a tool to regulate the organization of the Air Force, military officers used Decree 1,104 to expel soldiers whom the regime saw as politically subversives. This article shows how the transitional justice policies created in Brazil were insufficient to deal with the multiple ways the dictatorship punished its political opponents.

Book reviews:

• Susan J. Pearson, The Birth Certificate: An American History (by Teal Arcadi)
• Inge Van Hulle, Britain and International Law in West Africa (by Joyman Lee)
• Anne Gray Fischer, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification (by Marie-Amélie George)

Read more here.

BOOK: Emmanuel HEREDIA GONZÁLEZ, El poder judicial en México durante la primer república central, 1836-1843 ¿Un guardián para los derechos? [Historia del Derecho en América Latina] (Maxico: Tirant lo Blanch, 2022), 304 p. ISBN 9788413976204

 

(image source: tirant lo blanch)

Abstract:

Esta obra estudia un proceso fundamental de la historia de México durante el siglo XIX: el intento por convertir al poder judicial en el guardián de los derechos individuales. Durante la primera república federal mexicana (1824-1835), una vez esfumado el optimismo inicial tras la Independencia, la disputa entre las facciones políticas a nivel nacional reveló un grave problema: la inexistencia de instrumentos jurídicos efectivos a los cuales pudieran recurrir los habitantes cuando sus derechos eran vulnerados por disposiciones ilegales o inconstitucionales. Como planteaba uno de los políticos más relevantes de la época, aunque los derechos estaban reconocidos constitucionalmente, no existían garantías para su cumplimiento en la práctica, garantías que eran "lo más esencial e interesante para el ciudadano, a quien nada le importan promesas sino seguridades, nada palabras sino hechos y realidades". Con el propósito de convertir al poder judicial en el "verdadero garante de los derechos individuales", la constitución de 1836, mediante la cual se estableció la primera república central mexicana (1836-1843), definió que el poder judicial debía estar caracterizado por tres grandes principios: independencia respecto los poderes legislativo y ejecutivo, facultades para organizarse a sí mismo, e integración por profesionales del derecho. Sin embargo, dicho ideal normativo se enfrentaría a una complicada realidad política, económica y social, la cual puso a prueba la capacidad del poder judicial para fungir como el guardián de los derechos.

On the author:

EMMANUEL HEREDIA es Doctor en Historia por El Colegio de México. Ha trabajado en distintos proyectos de investigación y publicado sobre temas del siglo XIX. En 2019 recibió el Premio para proyecto de tesis de investigación histórica del INEHRM y en 2021 obtuvo el Premio de investigación doctoral en historia del derecho de América Latina de la editorial Tirant Lo Blanch. 

(read more with the publisher) 

CONFERENCE: Registration deadline extended (Zürich: 43. Deutscher Rechtshistorikertag, 8-12 AUG 2022)

 

The organisation of the 43. Deutscher Rechtshistorikertag (8-12 August) have announced that the deadline for registration has been extended to 15 July.

More information on the conference website.

FREE CHAPTER/ARTICLES COLLECTION: History of Revolutions and Rebellions in North America (OUP) (OPEN ACCESS)

(image: battle of Yorktown, surrender of Lord Cornwallis; source: Wikimedia Commons)

Oxford university press offers a selection of free chapters and articles on "the history of revolutions and rebellions in North America".

Read more here.

CONFERENCE: Il libro giuridico nell'Europa medievale e moderna, Torino 7-9 luglio 2022

 

BOOK: Deborah BOUCOYANNIS, Kings as Judges: Power, Justice, and the Origins of Parliaments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). ISBN 9781107162792, £ 29.99

 

(Source: CUP)

Cambridge University Press has recently published  Kings as Judges: Power, Justice, and the Origins of Parliaments

ABOUT THE BOOK

How did representative institutions become the central organs of governance in Western Europe? What enabled this distinctive form of political organization and collective action that has proved so durable and influential? The answer has typically been sought either in the realm of ideas, in the Western tradition of individual rights, or in material change, especially the complex interaction of war, taxes, and economic growth. Common to these strands is the belief that representation resulted from weak ruling powers needing to concede rights to powerful social groups. Boucoyannis argues instead that representative institutions were a product of state strength, specifically the capacity to deliver justice across social groups. Enduring and inclusive representative parliaments formed when rulers could exercise power over the most powerful actors in the land and compel them to serve and, especially, to tax them. The language of rights deemed distinctive to the West emerged in response to more effectively imposed collective obligations, especially on those with most power.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah Boucoyannis, George Washington University, Washington DC

Deborah Boucoyannis teaches Comparative Politics at George Washington University. This book is based on a dissertation that received the American Political Science Association's Ernst Haas Best Dissertation Award in European Politics and the Seymour Martin Lipset Best Dissertation Award from the Society for Comparative Research. She has published in Perspectives on Politics, Politics and Society, and other journals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface and acknowledgments
Part I. The origins of Representative Institutions: Power, Land, and Courts:
1. Introduction
2. A theory of institutional emergence: regularity, functional fusion, and the origins of parliament
3. Explaining institutional layering and functional fusion: the role of power
Part II. Origins of Representative Rractice: Power, Obligation, and Taxation:
4. Taxation and representative practice: bargaining vs compellence
5. Variations in representative practice: 'absolutist' France and Castile
6. No taxation of elites, no representative institutions
Part III. Trade, Towns, and the Political Economy of Representation:
7. Courts, institutions, and cities: Low Countries and Italy
8. Courts, institutions, and territory: Catalonia
9. The endogeneity of trade: the English wool trade and the Castilian mesta
Part IV. Land, Conditionality, and Property Rights:
10. Power, land, and second-best constitutionalism: Central and Northern Europe
11. Conditional land law, property rights, and 'Sultanism': premodern English and Ottoman land regimes
12. Land, tenure, and assemblies: Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Part V. Why Representation in the West: Petitions, Collective Responsibility, and Supra-Local Organization:
13. Petitions, collective responsibility, and representative practice: England, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

 

More info here

JOURNAL: Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis/Revue d'histoire du droit/The Legal History Review 90 (2022), afl. 1-2

 

(source: TRG)

• Front matter
  
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-09001-02000
• Criminal prosecutions of the deliberate killing of a new-born child in the Belgian province of West Flanders, 1796-1867
  
• J. Monballyu
  

• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220001

• In Belgium, from 1796 until 1867, infanticide was a crime which was legally defined as the deliberate homicide of a new-born child and punished with the death penalty. In the province of West Flanders, for a long time the second most populous province in Belgium, this crime was strongly women-related. As in the other Belgian provinces and abroad, this crime was mainly committed by unmarried domestic servants who lived with their employer and with whom there was no time nor a place for a mother with a child. Infanticide was a crime that was prosecuted before the Court of Assizes of West Flanders and its predecessors. Such prosecutions happened rather exceptionally (109 people in all were prosecuted in West Flanders over a period of 70 years, i.e. an average of 1.5 per year), albeit in a steadily increasing line and with a peak during the years 1850-1867. The Court of Assizes punished this crime only very exceptionally with the statutory death penalty (only in 34 cases, i.e. 31% of the 109 accused). The other 75 accused were either acquitted (58 cases, i.e. 53% of the accused) or punished for another offence (17 cases, i.e. 15.5% of the accused). The acquittals and the punishments for another offence were not the result of the jurors’ or professional judges’ inclination to accept the puerperal insanity of the accused women, but a consequence of the fact that it was exceedingly difficult to prove that a child had been born viable, had lived independently of the mother for a while, and had been killed with the clear intention of killing it, when the child’s mother had given birth without assistance and claimed that the child had been still-born or died from a natural cause.
• Creditor fructus percepit, Sul pegno con patto anticretico
  
• R. Perani
  
• https://doi.org/10.5117/PM2022.1.003.WYME
• Creditor fructus percepit, On pledge with a pactum antichreticum. – May the pledgee take the benefits of the res? Pledge did not allow it, there would have been theft (furtum usus). In fact, the thing given as pledge was excluded from any economic use. However, Roman law attests an agreement called ἀντίχρησις, which allowed the creditor to have the fruits of the res, under some conditions. Among the jurists only Marcianus uses this Greek term (in D.13,7,33 and D.20,1,11,1).  In this paper, I wish to demonstrate that the antichresis has become part of Roman legal thought. The legal sources attest a late appearance of the antichresis (very late 2nd and early 3rd century AD), but some Severian constitutions suggest that it may already have been known in practice. The Greek word indicated its foreign origin, but Roman jurists called it simply pignus.
  
• Problemas probatorios de la exceptio doli
  
• Patricia Lazo
  
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220002
• The objective of this paper are the proof issues of the exceptio doli in the formular process. The author examines different texts from Roman lawyers regarding not only the proof of the exceptiones, but of the dolus as well, turning back to the problem of onus probandi in the classical process. One of the premises of this work is that the Exceptio doli has a bigger complexity than other exceptiones. These issues found a safer treatment when created the exceptio non numeratae pecuniae. The hypothesis is that this Exceptio should be seen as an alternative to the Exceptio doli every time the defendant has no chance to prove the facts that constitute the plaintiff’s Dolus (a positive fact). And this situation would be related to the fact that the reversal of burden of proof in case of negative facts was sufficiently known in the classic process and therefore the rescript of C. 4,30,3 was unnecessary for that goal.
• Epistula Honorii: note esegetiche e riflessioni storico-giuridiche
  
• Lorenzo Lanti
  
•  https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220011
• More than 430 fragments contained in the Theodosian Code can be traced back to laws by Honorius. The reason for this immense amount of costitutiones is to be found in the variety of issues he had to face during his rather long empire (395–423). Beyond those passed down in official Codes, a number of other laws issued under Honorius are attested by literary or historical sources. The purpose of this paper is to present, analyze and comment on the Epistula Honorii, a quite neglected rescript copied down in a Spanish volume of miscellaneous manuscripts from the end of the 10th century. The document, addressed to troops stationed in the city of Pamplona, grants certain benefits to these soldiers, namely an increase of their stipendium and the hospitium. After focusing on its dating and the problematic interpretation of its text, it will be compared to other laws by Honorius on similar topics.
• The capture of the Ponte: the development of vicarious liability of shipowners and its limitation in Roman-Dutch law
  
• Tim Lubbers
  
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220012
• In 1599, Dutch privateer Melchior van den Kerckhoven unlawfully captured the Venetian merchantman Ponte, which resulted in extensive legal proceedings before the Supreme Court of Holland, Zeeland and West-Friesland. The Ponte case soon became the centrepiece for discussions about vicarious liability of shipowners for unlawful acts of their shipmasters, and – more importantly – about limitation of this liability to (the value of) their ship and cargo. Within these discussions, a secondary role was reserved for the case arising from the capture of the French ship Levrette by a Dutch merchantman in 1610. Based on extensive archival research, the present article offers a detailed reconstruction of the facts and proceedings of the Ponte and the Levrette case, and sets out how these cases were employed by Roman-Dutch lawyers to give shape to limited liability of shipowners for unlawful acts of their shipmaster.
• Jurisdiction and its attribution in the works of Diodorus Tuldenus (1594-1645)
  
• Geert Sluijs
  
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220003
•  Diodorus Tuldenus (1594-1645) as a professor of the Digest at the University of Leuven is one of the most representative figures for legal academia in the Southern Low Countries in this period. After a brief biography, this article deals with a classic subject in the field of public law as discussed by Tuldenus in his works: jurisdiction and its attribution. In chapter one, the genealogy of the terms iurisdictio and imperium is traced until Tuldenus’ treatment of the subject, situating his position vis-à-vis the state of the art. In the second chapter the same is done for the conditions under which this jurisdiction can be attributed. In the conclusion, a tentative link is drawn between Tuldenus’ positions and their broader political ramifications.
• Network analysis in legal history: an example from the Court of Friesland
• Hylkje de Jong & Gijs van Dijck
  
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220004
• This article focuses on the references (allegations) made by the lawyers in a selected number of cases to Roman and customary law as well as to court decisions when arguing their case. The analysis focuses on three similar civil litigation records from the Court of Friesland from 1716, 1718 and 1720. Network analysis was used to examine whether certain sources were more dominant (i.e. more central) in the network than others and to explore the relationship between the references. The lawyers in the three cases from the Court of Friesland appear to have used some references in common when arguing whether security rights (i.e. mortgages) included a right of pursuit and whether the auctioneer could recover the object if the buyer failed to pay.
• Le vir bonus en droit romain, written by Elena Giannozzi
• Hylkje de Jong
•  https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220006
•  Jurists and jurisprudence in medieval Italy, Texts and contexts, written by O. Cavallar and J. Kirshner
• Dante Fedele
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220007
• Ἐντολή (mandatum) in den Basiliken, written by Hylkje de Jong
•  Philipp Scheibelreiter
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220008
• Quatrième Livre des procurateurs de la nation germanique de l’ancienne Université d’Orléans 1587–1602, Texte des rapports des procurateurs [= Les Livres des procurateurs de la nation germanique de l’ancienne Université d’Orléans 1444–1602, [tome iv]], edited by C.M. Ridderikhof [et] H. de Ridder-Symoens
•  A.J.B. Sirks
• https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220009
• Bundels / Recueils / Collections
•  https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220014 
• Ontvangen werken / Ouvrages reçus / Publications received
•  https://doi.org/10.1163/15718190-20220015

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Meer info/davantage d'informations: hier/ici.

(source: Standen&Landen/anciens Pays et Assemblées d'Etats)

BOOK: Elisabetta D'AMICO, Andante ma non troppo. Luigi Majno e la scuola positiva tra moderazione e riforma (Torino: Giappicchelli Editore, 2022). ISBN: 9788892143067, pp. 288, € 40,00

(Source: Giappichelli Editore)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Collana: Università degli Studi dell'Insubria. Facoltà di Giurisprudenza

Il volume ripercorre, grazie anche a scritti inediti e alle corrispondenze rinvenute, le scelte di vita, le opere e l’attività professionale di Luigi Majno, indiscusso protagonista della Milano tra Otto e Novecento, avvocato, cultore del diritto penale e processuale penale, professore, politico e convinto interprete della beneficenza laica. L’adesione di Majno al positivismo penale dà l’occasione, sotto il profilo più spiccatamente giudico, di rapportare il contributo di Majno al dibattito penalistico sollecitato da Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri e Raffaele Garofalo e di vagliare impostazioni e rapporti della scuola positiva con la scienza, anche con riguardo alle dinamiche processuali.

More information with the publisher.

CONFERENCE: IX convegno nazionale della ISLL: Le ispirazioni del giurista. Storie, miti, favole, archetipi, e altre dimensioni della narratività - 30 giugno e 1 luglio 2022 - Università degli studi del Molise

(Source: Storia del diritto)