EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY

CONFERENCE: Justice à la cour, justice pour la cour dans les capitales européennes à la fin du XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle [Versailles: Château de Versailles, 6 octobre 2026]

2026-10-09T12:30:00.000+02:00

(Cour de Marbre du Château de Versailles, image source: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez via Wikipedia)

Le 6 octobre 2026, l’auditorium du Château de Versailles a accueilli, selon le programme annoncé, un colloque international intitulé Justice à la cour, justice pour la cour dans les capitales européennes à la fin du XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle, organisé par Pierre Bonin et Claire Bouglé-Le Roux.
Cette rencontre scientifique s’inscrivait dans un programme de recherche consacré à l’histoire de la justice à Versailles sous l’Ancien Régime, en lien notamment avec le projet GRIFFON, soutenu par la Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine et consacré à la numérisation des registres de grâces à l’époque de Louis XV et de Louis XVI.
Le colloque proposait une approche comparative des rapports entre justice, pouvoir souverain et société de cour dans les capitales européennes de l’époque moderne.
Le programme réunissait des chercheurs autour de trois sessions consacrées aux institutions judiciaires et à leurs relations avec les cours princières et royales.
Les communications portaient notamment sur les tribunaux royaux de Madrid, les institutions judiciaires de Liège, les principautés italiennes, les Sénats de Turin, de Savoie et de Nice, ainsi que sur l’exercice de la justice à Vienne, Berlin, Stockholm, Turku et Saint-Pétersbourg.
À travers ces différents terrains d’étude, le colloque entendait approfondir la compréhension des liens entre organisation judiciaire, représentation du pouvoir et construction des institutions politiques dans l’Europe moderne.
La rencontre associait plusieurs institutions scientifiques et patrimoniales, notamment le Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, la Cour d’appel de Versailles, les Archives départementales des Yvelines, l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne et l’Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Programme scientifique et informations complémentaires : Portail universitaire du droit.

LECTURE: Anthony PAGDEN, From Empire to Federation: Can the European Union Become the Paradigm for a New World Order ? (Geneva: Graduate Institute, 20 OCT 2026) [HYBRID]

2026-10-09T09:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: Graduate Institute)

Anthony Pagden (Distinguished Professor of Political Science and History (UCLA) will hold a talk at the Graduate Institute in Geneva for the Fondation Pierre du Bois pour l'histoire du temps présent on 20 October 2026 from 18:30 to 20:00.

This takes place in the Maison de la Paix, Room A1B or online.

More information and registration here.

BOOK REVIEW: Panikos PANAYI, Legal responses to mass migration: from the nineteenth century to World War II, eds. Luigi NUZZO, Michele PIFFERI, Giuseppe SPECIALE and Cristina VANO (Abingdon: Routledge, 2025) (Comparative Legal History, XIV (2026), nr. 1 (June), pp. 162-165)

2026-10-09T08:30:00.000+02:00

(image source: Taylor&Francis)

This long, edited volume containing sixteen essays tries to address the question of legal responses to mass migration from the end of the nineteenth century until the post-Second World War period, an ambitious task. The editors, all Italian legal or legal history scholars, divide the volume into three sections covering 'Discourses', 'Policies and Institutions', and 'Legal Practices’; although the choice of location of the individual pieces is not always clear, especially in the case of those in sections 2 and 3. The chapters come from a 'collaborative research project on Legal History and Mass Migration' (xvi), focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the editors sought to take an interdisciplinary approach, most of the contributions are written by either legal scholars or legal historians. The main focus is Italy and the Italian diaspora, and most of the authors work in Italian universities.
Section I contains five chapters, beginning with Eliana Augusti's ‘From Vitoria to Kant: A Genealogy of ius migrandi’, an interesting philosophical-legal discussion about the concept of ius migrantis, traced through a series of philosophers down to the present. The author demonstrates command of the evolution of migration policy, and the essay is well conceptualised and clear in its explanation of the various authorities with which it engages, adding an interesting perspective on migration and migration law and rights. Chapter 2, by Giulio Abbate, on 'Emigration and Colonisation: The Debate in Italy at the End of the Nineteenth Century', tackles the issue of legal attitudes towards the relationship between emigration and colonisation, which initially focused upon emigration only taking place as a result of trade but gradually moved towards the idea that it could be linked to conquest because it would bring civilisation. Chapter 3, by Virginia Amorosi, on ‘Leaving Italy: Transoceanic Migration and Legal Discourse in the City of Napoli (1901-1910)’, despite its title and the fact that much of this essay focuses upon Naples, actually covers a wide range of discourse which falls under the broad description of 'legal', focusing not simply on Naples but also more broadly on Italy, including the concern about the loss of people as a result of emigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapter 4, by Francesco Rotondo, on 'The "Peculiar Paradox" of the Criminalisation of Italian Immigrants in Argentina in the Late Nineteenth Century' examines this process by focusing upon a series of individuals who concentrated up on perceived criminality and sickness against the background of a significant increase in the movement of people into Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century [...]

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

DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671635

BOOK: Francesco GAMBINO & Massimo MECCARELLI (eds.), Vittime e senso di giustizia. Processi di elaborazione individuali e collettivi (Bologna: il Mulino, 2026), ISBN 9788815395986, € 26

2026-10-08T09:49:00.000+02:00

(image source: il Mulino)

Abstract:

Nello scenario attuale, dove i rapporti di forza tra individui, poteri e corpi sociali subiscono in vario modo energiche e repentine distorsioni, irrompendo nelle vite dei singoli, è più che mai necessario riflettere sul tema delle vittime. Questo volume presenta gli esiti di una ricerca interdisciplinare che ha coinvolto giuristi, storici, sociologi e studiosi di letteratura, con lo scopo di distinguere le diverse dimensioni del fenomeno: soggettiva, sociale e istituzionale, storica, filosofica, giuridica e processuale, rappresentativa. Si affacciano molte domande: sul rapporto tra paradigma vittimario e società, sulle forme di riparazione, sulla distorsione dell’immagine della vittima nel processo, sul ruolo delle vittime nella memoria collettiva, sull’oblio, e non da ultima sulla psicologia delle vittime. L’obiettivo è intercettare, dietro la diffusa domanda di giustizia, nuove forme di coesione sociale.

Editors:

Francesco Gambino è professore ordinario di Diritto civile nell’Università di Macerata. Finalista del premio Viareggio Rèpaci, sezione saggistica, con «In sala con il diritto» (La nave di Teseo, 2023). Massimo Meccarelli è professore ordinario di Storia del diritto medievale e moderno nell’Università di Macerata. È condirettore di «LawArt. Rivista di Diritto, Arte, Storia».

Read more here.

BOOK: Dante FEDELE & Orazio CONDORELLI (eds.), Droit international et relations interconfessionnelles : étude d'une dynamique historique (XVe-XXe siècle) [Études d’histoire du droit et des idées politiques, vol. 40; dir. Florent GARNIER] (Toulouse: Presses de l'Université Toulouse Capitole, 2026) [OPEN ACCESS]

2026-10-07T09:41:00.000+02:00

(image source: openedition)

Abstract:

Issu d’un projet international mené par le Centre d’histoire judiciaire (CNRS-Université de Lille) et le Département de droit de l’Université de Catane, cet ouvrage explore les relations complexes entre droit international et relations interconfessionnelles du XVe au XXe siècle. À rebours d’une vision longtemps dominante qui faisait de la modernité juridique l’aboutissement d’un processus linéaire de sécularisation, les contributions réunies ici interrogent les modalités selon lesquelles les rencontres et les conflits entre groupes de religions différentes ont contribué à façonner des concepts, des principes et des pratiques ayant structuré le droit international. Adoptant une perspective de longue durée, l’ouvrage envisage le droit international non pas comme un simple ordre interétatique, mais comme un cadre normatif pluriel destiné à réguler les interactions entre des acteurs aux statuts variés. À travers une série d’études de cas couvrant les périodes médiévale, moderne et contemporaine, il montre combien les débats théologiques et canoniques ont nourri la recherche de formes de coexistence et de dialogue entre confessions. En proposant une réflexion historique sur un sujet dont l’actualité demeure manifeste, ce volume contribue à une meilleure compréhension des dynamiques religieuses qui continuent de façonner les relations entre les sociétés humaines.

Editors:

Dante Fedele (dir.) Chargé de recherche HDR au Centre d'Histoire Judiciaire (HMR 8025 CNRS-Université de Lille) Orazio Condorelli (dir.) Professeur de Droit et Religion, Université de Catane

Read the full book on openedition.

BOOK: William MAGNUSON, The Just and the Good. How Law made the Western World (Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 2026), 342 p. ISBN 9781647127428 € 29,28

2026-10-06T09:35:00.000+02:00

(image souce: Amazon)

Abstract:

Explore how the pillars of the rule of law―from the courts of ancient Athens to the Constitution of the United States―were built In The Just and the Good, William Magnuson takes readers on a sweeping tour of the history of the law in Western civilization. He explains how foundational institutions like courts, codes, and constitutions magically transform the worlds they govern. And he argues that if we want to understand the foundations of freedom, justice, and democracy, we need to begin by looking at the history of the law. In each chapter, Magnuson explores how the pillars of the rule of law were built. How did the courts of ancient Athens create the world's first democracy? Why did the barons of medieval England insist that King John sign the Magna Carta? What was so revolutionary about the American Constitution? And why did it take so long to abolish slavery? Magnuson shows that the answers to these questions are not always as simple as they seem. Good laws require ingenuity, problem-solving, and compromise. A landmark work, The Just and the Good teaches us where our ideas of justice came from and why they are worth saving.

Read more here.

CONFERENCE: Harvard Graduate Student Conference on International History (Con-IH) 2027: 'Transimperial Histories' (26-27 MARCH 2027) [DEADLINE 13 NOV 2026]

2026-10-05T12:25:03.966+02:00

(Source: Harvard University)

The 2026-2027 organizing committee for the Harvard Graduate Student Conference on International History (Con-IH) invites graduate students to submit proposals for its annual conference. This year’s theme is Transimperial Histories.

Building on contributions since the 1990s from new imperial history and postcolonial studies, scholars of global and international histories have increasingly looked beyond normative imperial boundaries to incorporate multiple empires within their research. This expansion in scope has allowed for insights into imperial mechanisms otherwise overlooked when empires are studied as singular, contained units or in comparison to other empires. Articulated and popularized most prominently by Daniel Hedinger and Nadin Hée, “Transimperial History” centers on the “3Cs”— connectivity, cooperation, and competition—between and across empires to understand a world in which a multiplicity of imperial powers were, and still are, inextricably linked. A transhistorical approach therefore provides new insights into the production of imperial knowledge, the mobility of anticolonial struggles, and the circulation of people, goods, and ideas across imperial borders. Recent decades have revealed transimperial history to be a timely methodology for contemplating the “crisis of the global” and the resurgence of imperial thinking in our fragmented, multipolar world.

On this theme, Con-IH 2027 seeks to promote cross-disciplinary as well as cross-regional historical approaches. We welcome submissions from individuals at any point in their graduate program, particularly those in the early stages of research, that address one or more of the themes below. It should be considered that this list is only suggestive.

Law
Religion
Textuality
Globalization
Economic and business history
Capitalism
Oceanic and maritime history
Environmental history
Borders and boundaries
Decolonization
Gender
Labor
Race
Migration and diaspora
Culture and identity
Media studies

Accepted papers will be grouped for presentation in roundtables, tentatively scheduled for March 26-27, 2027. Each group will receive individual attention from a faculty commentator. Participation in Con-IH presents an unparalleled opportunity to engage in lively and lengthy discussions with an emerging cohort of researchers-in-training from around the world, as well as with faculty from Harvard and elsewhere.

Graduate students interested in participating in the conference should submit a 300-word proposal and one-page Curriculum Vitae in a single PDF document to conih@fas.harvard.edu. Please title your submission “Lastname_ShortTitle.” Proposals must be received by November 13, 2026 in order to be considered. Please note that funding for travel and accommodations cannot be guaranteed at this time. As the date approaches, additional information will be posted on this page.

More information here.

BOOK: Dan EDELSTEIN, The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2026), 432 p. ISBN 9780691231860, 24,95 USD

2026-10-05T09:32:57.032+02:00

(image source: Princeton UP)

Abstract:

Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come traces how evolving conceptions of history ushered in a faith in the power of revolution to create more just and reasonable societies. Taking readers from Greek antiquity to Leninist Russia, Dan Edelstein describes how classical philosophers viewed history as chaotic and directionless, and sought to keep historical change—especially revolutions—at bay. This conception prevailed until the eighteenth century, when Enlightenment thinkers conceived of history as a form of progress and of revolution as its catalyst. These ideas were put to the test during the French Revolution and came to define revolutions well into the twentieth century. Edelstein demonstrates how the coming of the revolution leaves societies divided over its goals, giving rise to new forms of violence in which rivals are targeted as counterrevolutionaries. A panoramic work of intellectual history, The Revolution to Come challenges us to reflect on the aims and consequences of revolution and to balance the value of stability over the hope for change in our own moment of fear and upheaval.

On the author:

Dan Edelstein is the William H. Bonsall Professor of French and (by courtesy) professor of political science and of history at Stanford University. His many books include On the Spirit of Rights and The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution.

Read more here.

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Crimes et justices de guerre (1430-1945) (Criminocorpus)

2026-10-02T11:06:38.778+02:00

(image souce: Criminocorpus)

Curators:

Bentéboula Maurena, Chinaud-Robert Effie, Dubs Marcel, Dufresne-Taillon Esteban, Fouquet Julien, Mazy Vincent, Rahier Alain, Renard Maxime, Richelle Sophie, Sergent F., Stennier Perrine, Tlili-Bourgeois Guillaume, Vermeersch Romain, Wouters Théo

Abstract:

Ce projet est le fruit d’une école doctorale qui s’est tenue en juin 2026, en collaboration entre l’Université catholique de Louvain, l’Université de Liège et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il est né de l’association de deux projets de recherche, respectivement portés sur les origines médiévales de la notion de crime de guerre et sur le déploiement de la justice militaire du XIVe au XXe siècle. Les jeunes scientifiques ont construit cette exposition virtuelle comme une rencontre entre leurs propres recherches et le partage au public d’un thème encore méconnu, quoique largement fantasmé par la culture populaire.

Consult the exhibition here.

BOOK REVIEW: Elisabetta FUSAR POLI, Law and art in the 19th century. Power in images, eds. Giovanni ROSSI and Pietro SCHIRÒ (Pisa: Pacini, 2024) (Comparative Legal History, XIV (2026), nr. 1 (June), pp. 158-161)

2026-10-02T08:30:00.000+02:00

(image source: Taylor&Francis)

The book edited by Giovanni Rossi and Pietro Schirò (opening the 'Immagini, Diritto e Storia' series directed by Rossi himself) is a collaborative effort that owes its overall value first of all to its editors drawing on their long-standing academic background in the Law and Humanities field. Notably, they sought to explore the intertwining of law, power, and images in the nineteenth century, sparking a broad international debate through the conference (held in Verona, 19-21 October 2022) which gave rise to the book and nurtured its truly appreciable diversity of contents and perspectives.
This plurality has been appropriately structured by the editors into four sections: ‘The Representation of Power', 'Revolutions, Laws, Art', 'The Force of Law and the Tyranny of Power’, and ‘Tangible Forms of Law'. Rossi's introduction ('A proposito di immagini e di diritto. Un percorso tra visual culture e storia legale', 9-31) helps clarify this inner structure and is, at the same time, an integral part of the volume, serving as both a 'map for sailors' and a toolbox for the reader: It is indeed a substantial introduction, which can also be considered partly programmatic. According to Rossi's introduction, the image (artistic or not) takes on an important heuristic value, as a vehicle, a medium of ideas, concepts, and values connected to law and power, if not also an essential part of an affirmative or negative narrative of power itself. The 'gamble' that animates the scientific and editorial project of the conference and book is that of 'guaranteeing depth and historical interpretation to an aspect as pervasive as it is often underestimated, such as that of the translation into images of the values and myths of law and power. In other words, the aim is 'laying bare the colossal operation of […]

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

DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671634

SEMINAR: La relazione fra etica e diritto. Storia e fascino di un enigma (Roma: Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici, 9 Ottobre 2026)

2026-10-01T14:13:06.992+02:00

(Source: Storia del diritto)

BOOK: Zachary HERZ, The God and the Bureaucrat: Roman Law, Imperial Sovereignty and Other Stories [Studies in Legal History] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), 422 p., ISBN 9781009629928

2026-10-01T09:30:00.000+02:00

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

Why is Roman law so boring? In this book, Zachary Herz argues that the bureaucratic, positivistic world of Roman law is not a distraction from the violent autocracy of the Roman empire, but an imagined escape. Lawyers, bureaucrats, and even emperors used legal writing to think about worlds that were safer or fairer than the one in which they lived. This archive of political imagination slowly became a law-code, and now guides readers through a legal system about which its authors could only dream. From Augustus to Justinian, this book shows how law symbolized order in chaotic times, and how that symbol eventually took on a life of its own. From the enlightened judgements of Hadrian to the great jurists and child rulers of Severan Rome, Herz reveals what Romans were really talking about when they talked about law.

On the author:

Zachary Herz, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Table of contents:

Introduction: Did Romans Have Law?
Two Kinds of Thinking About Hay Slouching Towards Bologna
Cicero and the Talking Law
Part I: Nevertheless, We Live According to the Laws
1. Augustus and the Birth of Imperial Legality
Law and Laughter, After Actium
Restoring the New Order
Lampreys and the Higher Law
Sex and the Imperial Subject
2. The Emperors Who Obeyed the Law: Vespasian, Titus, Trajan
The Power of Vespasian's Law
Predictability, Paternity, and the Emperor Titus
Law as Imperial Etiquette: The Case of Pliny
3. Letters from a God: Hadrian and the Rescript System
Hadrian's Revolution
The Perpetual Edict
The Right of Response and Juristic Centralization
The Rescript System
Rescripts and the Language of Power
Part II: Law Without Order
4. Inheritance, Authority, and Alexander Relabeling of Legal Correspondence Methodology: How to Do Things with Justinian
The Rule of Precedent
Law in a World of Children
5. Juristic Reasoning, Citational Practices, and Law at the End of an Empire
Brilliant Cogs
A Severan Notion of Goodness Citation, Anonymity, and Regicide
Part III: New Rules
6. Towards Late-Antique Legalities Settled Law in Unsettled Times Codification: Indexing Sovereignty
How to Build a Rechtsstaat Without Really Trying
The Afterlife of the Severan Jurists
7. The Embodiment of the Civil Law
"The Whole of the Ancient Law:" The Corpus Iuris Ciuilis in Justinian's Words Why Imperial Constitutions Look Nicer in Retrospect
The Death of a Crossdresser and the Life of a Treatise
The Law, Ensouled
Conclusion: What We Talk About When We Talk About Roman Law
The Lawyer in the Maelstrom
What Law Does Instead
Appendix 1 Juristic Citations of Imperial Lawmaking in the Digest
Appendix 2 Precedential Reasoning in the Codex Justinianus
Appendix 3 Rule-Consequentialist Reasoning in the Digest
Bibliography
Index of Terms
Index of Sources

Find more on CUP.

BOOK REVIEW: Jan MARKERT on Eckart CONZE, Friedlos. Die Deutschen zwischen Kriegsgewalt und Friedenssuche von 1648 bis heute (München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2026) (H/Soz/Kult)

2026-09-30T10:07:00.000+02:00

(image source: H/Soz/Kult)

First paragraph:

Die Frage nach der Aktualität historischer Publikationen ist nicht immer leicht zu beantworten. Der wissenschaftliche Blick in die Vergangenheit grenzt jede Gegenwartsbezogenheit meist auf strukturabstrakte Kontinuitätsdebatten oder Forschungskontroversen ein. Nur selten gewinnen Bücher und Studien a posteriori durch tagesaktuelle Entwicklungen explizit den Charakter eines Kommentars des Zeitgeschehens. Einer dieser Ausnahmefälle liegt jedoch mit Eckart Conzes umfassender Darstellung der deutschen Kriegs- und Friedensgeschichte vor. Das Nachwort datiert den Abschluss der Manuskriptarbeiten auf den Januar 2026 (S. 510). Nur einen Monat später wurde auch Deutschland durch den Beginn des Irankrieges vor neue sicherheitspolitische Herausforderungen gestellt. Dieser neue globale Konflikt verleiht dem Buch des Marburger Historikers geradezu ungewollt Tagesaktualität, weshalb es nicht nur für ein geschichtsinteressiertes Publikum von Interesse sein dürfte.

Read more here.

LECTURE SERIES: Société d'Histoire du Droit (Paris: Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, 2026-2027)

2026-09-29T08:43:15.168+02:00

(image source: SHD)

The Société d'Histoire du Droit announced its calendar of public lectures for the academic year 2026-2027. The SHD's members can assist both physically (Salle des Conseils, Place du Panthéon) and virtually (by means of les étranges lucarnes) to these interventions.

The Journées internationales will take place in Aix-en-Provence in June 2027, on the theme La justice dans la cité.

Consult the poster here.

FELLOWSHIPS: Turku Institute for Advanced Studies - Open Vacancies (Turku: Turku Institute for Advanced Studies; DEADLINE 13 NOV 2026)

2026-09-28T11:03:20.918+02:00

(image source: Turku University)

TIAS is currently inviting applications for four Collegium and four Postdoctoral Fellow positions as well as seven TIES2 Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND fellowship positions.

All positions are for three years and will start in September 2027.

TIES2 applicants must meet the EU MSCA mobility rule that they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Finland for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

Calls are open from 18 September – 13 November 2026.

Instructions for applicants TIAS Call 2026-2027 (4 Collegium and 4 Postdoctoral Fellow positions)

Instructions for applicants TIES2 MSCA COFUND Fellows Call 2026-2027 (7 positions)

TIAS currently hosts three types of Fellow:

Postdoctoral (within 5 years of having passed their PhD)
Collegium (early-to-mid career, within 12 years of having passed their PhD).
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (TIES) Fellows (within 8 years of having passed their PhD).

Fellows are appointed for three year periods and in addition to salary receive an annual research allowance (3 800 €).

FELLOWSHIPS: Bourses scientifiques de la Casa de Velázquez (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez; DEADLINE 9 OCT 2026)

2026-09-28T11:00:57.752+02:00

(image source: Casa de Velázquez)

Abstract:

Conformément au décret du 10 février 2011 relatif aux Écoles françaises à l’étranger (art. 25) et au règlement intérieur de la Casa de Velázquez (art. 15), les « bourses » scientifiques sont des aides spécifiques donnant lieu à des séjours de 1 à 2 mois.
Elles sont destinées à de jeunes chercheur.se.s doctorant.e.s dont les projets de recherche se rapportent à l’un des domaines de compétence de la Casa de Velázquez (Sciences humaines et sociales, en lien avec la péninsule Ibérique, le Maghreb et l'espace atlantique) et dont les travaux nécessitent un séjour en péninsule Ibérique.

Profil des candidat·es : être inscrit·e en doctorat et présenter un projet de recherche se rapportant à l’un des domaines de compétence scientifique de l’établissement ou dans le cadre d'un dispositif Recherche-création.
Durée : 1 à 2 mois consécutifs
Conditions de nationalité : aucune
Condition d'âge : être majeur·e
Conditions économiques : mensualité de 750 € pour les bénéficiaires qui solliciteront un hébergement dans l’établissement ; pour les bénéficiaires ne souhaitant pas résider à la Casa de Velázquez, la mensualité est de 1 000 €

Read more here.

BOOK: Grégoire BIGOT, Histoire du droit administratif [Droit fondamental] (Paris: PUF, 2026), 502 p. ISBN 9782130895008, € 36

2026-09-28T09:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: PUF)

Table of contents:

LES PRÉFORMATIONS D'UN DROIT ADMINISTRATIF (AVANT 1799) :
Les paradoxes de l'Ancien Régime
Les ambiguïtés de la Révolution
LES NAISSANCES DU DROIT ADMINISTRATIF (DE 1799 À LA FIN DU XIXe SIECLE) :
La première matrice napoléonienne
Le paradoxal enracinement du droit administratif
La seconde matrice napoléonienne
Au service d'une conception napoléonienne de l'ordre
LES DÉVELOPPEMENTS DU DROIT ADMINISTRATIF (LE XXe SIECLE) :
Redéfinitions
Crises de croissance

On the author:

Grégoire Bigot, professeur à Nantes université.

Read more here.

BOOK: Hervé LEUWERS & Virginie MARTIN (dir.), Quelle souveraineté pour la Nation 1789-1791 ? [Histoire, dir. Frédéric CHAUVAUD, Florian MAZEL, Philippe HAMON, Noëlline CASTAGNEZ & Francis PROST] (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2026) [OPEN ACCESS]

2026-09-25T09:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: openedition)

Abstract:

Dans les récits de l’entrée en Révolution, le 17 juin 1789 marque le passage de la souveraineté du roi à celle de la Nation, par la fondation de l’Assemblée nationale et sa revendication du droit à fixer le montant des impôts. Dans les faits, pourtant, cette transition d’une souveraineté à l’autre n’est que graduelle ; la séance du 17 juin puis le serment du Jeu de paume, trois jours plus tard, ouvrent un temps de débats, de tensions et de construction progressive d’un « nouveau régime ». C’est par un double déplacement du regard que ce livre entend explorer cette transition de souveraineté méconnue. Le premier délaisse les étapes majeures de l’élaboration de la Constitution de 1791, par le travail d’Assemblée, pour s’attacher aux modalités concrètes du passage d’une souveraineté à l’autre. Le second concerne les « souverains ». Plutôt que d’observer prioritairement les députés à l’œuvre, l’ouvrage s’intéresse au « souverain » ancien et nouveau : au roi et à ses défenseurs, qui ne renoncent jamais totalement à la souveraineté royale, même si sa pratique s’efface peu à peu ; aux citoyens, qui expriment, en mots et en gestes, une attente de souveraineté, qui va parfois bien au-delà de ce qui est accepté par la majorité de l’Assemblée.

Contributors:

Alexandre Maral, Virginie Martin, Charles-Éloi Vial, Benoît Carré, Jeanne-Marie Jandeaux, Stanislas de Chabalier, Michel Biard, Gaïd Andro, Juliette Milleron, Serge Aberdam, Samuel Guicheteau, Catriona Seth, Rolf Reichardt, Francesco Buscemi, Frank Laidié, Guillaume Cot, Hervé Leuwers

Read the book in open access: DOI 10.4000/16p1k.

BOOK REVIEW: Roberto CATELLO, Crime and civilization: the birth of criminology in the early nineteenth century, by Janne KIVIVOURI (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024) (Comparative Legal History, XIV (2026), nr. 1 (June), pp. 153-157)

2026-09-25T08:30:00.000+02:00

(image source: Taylor&Francis)

Works of critical historiography have long alerted us to the fact that the search for the origins of various academic disciplines, scientific discourses, and strands of thought can be problematic. More often than not, these sorts of historiographic endeavours have failed to historically locate the birth or beginning of their object of study without causing controversy or inviting fierce criticism. Seldomly do the interpretations or reinterpretations of the past produced via these risky academic undertakings result in enthusiastic and unanimous reception by academic audiences and circles. What often happens, instead, is that authors' ideological stances, intellectual biases, and personalised readings of the past are exposed by the authors own efforts to objectively establish what actually happened in the past. Janne Kivivouri's Crime and Civilization: The Birth of Criminology in the Early-nineteenth Century makes an important contribution to the academic study of criminology's past without, however, fully overcoming this historiographic challenge. Kivivouri's overarching argument is that criminology was born in France in the 1820s and 1830s as a scientific, data-driven, quantitative, politically neutral, and state-sanctioned enterprise focused on conventional, street crime - and particularly on the question of how education and civilisation impacted people's morality and criminality. The data revolution enabled by the publication of the French Compte in 1827 ('the first truly modern crime statistical yearbook') gave life, the author argues, to the 'first criminology'. Criminology, defined by Kivivouri as 'systematic analysis of data corpora designed to enable research' (about crime-related phenomena), then, is an early-nineteenth century phenomenon, as the subtitle of the book makes abundantly clear While Kivivouri is not the first to argue that criminologists have been wrong in tracing the origins of modern criminology back to Enlightenment thinkers like Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, he makes a significant effort in trying to establish why this is so: What separates the first (truly criminological criminology of the early-nineteenth century from the typical ways of thinking about crime from the eighteenth century is 'the systematic use of quantitative data to test hypotheses' […]

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

DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671632

ARTICLE: Arno DAL RI Jr., "François Laurent in Brazil. The defense of the Principle of Nationalities that crossed the Atlantic (1899-1978)" Sartoniana XXXVIII (2025), 53-84 [OPEN ACCESS]

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On the journal:

Sartoniana is a yearly publication that publishes the lectures delivered as part of the Sarton Chair of History of Science at Ghent University. All articles are published in open access, as of volume 40 with a CC-BY licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Read more here: DOI 10.21825/sartoniana.101334.

BOOK: Luigi LACCHÈ & Vincenzo LAVENIA (eds.), Alberico Gentili e Ugo Grozio: i "momenti" del diritto internazionale e il contributo degli internazionalisti alla costruzione e allo sviluppo della disciplina [Atti del convegno della XXI Giornata Gentiliana; Studi gentiliani, eds. Luca SCUCCIMARRA, Paolo PALCHETTI & Vincenzo LAVENIA; 10] (San Ginesio/Macerata: Centro Internazionale di Studi Gentiliani/EUM, 2026) [OPEN ACCESS], ISBN 979-12-5704-107-6, 222 p.

2026-09-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: EUM)

Presentazione (Luigi Lacchè)

Sessione prima. Alberico Gentili e Ugo Grozio: relazione e "momenti" della storia del diritto internazionale

La giustizia, la religione, la guerre: da Vittoria a Hobbes, attraverso Gentili e Grozio (Carlo Galli)

Legal Imagination and International Power: A History of Capitalism (Martti Koskenniemi)

Not Every Road: Roman Law and History in Gentili's De armis Romanis and De iure belli (Mark Somos)

Rappresentazioni di Alberico Gentili nella scienza del diritto internazionale in Brasile (Arno Dal Ri)

Sessione seconda: Il contributo degli internazionalisti nella costruzione e nello sviluppo del diritto internazionale

Scholarly institutions between Research and Authority (Attila M. Tanzi)

Scholarly interventions and the Impact on 20th century International Law: Notes of Caution and Two Vignettes (Christian J. Tams)

'The Teachings of the Most Higly Qualified Publicists' Today: Scholarship in the Work if the International Law Commission on Subsidiary Means for the Determination of Rules of International Law (Serena Forlatti)

Read the book in open access here.

PODCAST: Armin VON BOGDANDY, "European Society: Its Meaning and Its Promise" (Cologne: Max Planck institute for the Study of Societes, 17 JUN 2025)

2026-09-22T09:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abstract:

The European constitutional navigation of the noughties succeeded in stipulating that European integration had ushered in European society (Article 2 TEU). This choice remains underexplored. In light of current European uncertainty, the lecture explores the meaning and promise of European society.

On the speaker:

Armin von Bogdandy | Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg

Listen here.

BOOK: Michael WERNER, Diesseits und jenseits der Nation : Deutsch-französische Verflechtungen 1815-1870 [Deutsch-Französische Geschichte, vol. 6] (Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2025) [OPEN ACCESS]

2026-09-21T09:00:00.000+02:00

(source: HeiUP)

On the series:

Inspired by the »histoire croisée«, the eleven-volume handbook series Deutsch-Französische Geschichte sheds light on the complex history of relations between Germany and France from the 9th century to the present day. The peer review of the volumes was ensured by the GHIP’s international scientific advisory board which acted as a review committee. The German-language volumes are published by the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) Darmstadt and Heidelberg University Press, while the French-language volumes are published by the Presses universitaires du Septentrion (PUS) Villeneuve d'Ascq.

Abstract:

Das 19. Jahrhundert gilt als Zeitalter der Verwandlung. In Deutschland und Frankreich ist der Zeitraum von 1815 bis 1870 von vielfältigen politischen, sozialen und kulturellen Entwicklungen bestimmt, die mit dem Prozess der Nationsbildung zu tun haben. Der Fokus des Bandes liegt jedoch nicht auf nationalen Entwicklungspfaden. Vielmehr beleuchtet er, im Sinne einer histoire croisée, transnationale Verflechtungen, die Frankreich und Deutschland wechselseitig geprägt haben. Dabei wird gezeigt, wie sich die Prozesse auf vielfältigen Ebenen entfalteten: von Politik und Wirtschaft über Bildung und Forschung bis hin zu Medien, Vereinen und den Künsten. Auch prä- und postnationale Entwicklungen werden in den Blick genommen. So entsteht ein vielschichtiges Bild, das die bisherigen Vorstellungen einer „Erfindung der Nation“ zugleich erweitert und relativiert.

See here for a full list of volumes.

Read the full book in open access: DOI 10.17885/heiup.1519.

JOURNAL: Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History, Journal of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Rg 34 (2026)

2026-09-18T13:00:00.000+02:00

(image source: Rg)

Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History 34 (2026) out now
Journal of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory
Last year saw the publication of two significant new books on Rudolf von Jhering, one of the most original legal scholars of the 19th century. In the Research section of this year’s issue of our Institute journal, the books’ authors present their findings for discussion. While Michael Kunze traces Jhering’s life-long quest for a secular foundation of law as an invisible normative order, Mathias Reimann finds both brilliant insights and chaotic tendencies in Jhering’s writings.
Dave De ruysscher’s article on the history of bills of exchange in Western Europe argues that their regulatory framework remained relatively indeterminate between c. 1450 and 1680. Only gradually did a synthesis of Genoese and Dutch methodologies establish itself as the dominant approach. Beate Althammer explores the history of pardoning practices as a part of 19th-century criminal justice reforms. Her analysis of petitions for royal mercy in England and Prussia leads her to question the narrative of a linear change of legal order and pardoning practices. Triin Tark offers a Baltic perspective on the translation of legal texts during the interwar period. She demonstrates how the consistent terminology for ethnic minorities used in the Estonian Law on Cultural Autonomy (1925) was replaced with an eclectic mix of vocabulary by the League of Nations’ translators.
The Research section is completed by Erk Volkmar Heyen taking a closer look at the iconography of the courtroom table from the joint perspective of art and legal history. His analysis of 19th-century French and Belgian satirical images of the judiciary focuses on the relationship between religion and the state.
Art and creativity are also the subjects of this year‘s Forum section. Its 15 short contributions explore the possibilities opened up by creative methods in legal history from a global perspective – with examples from the Americas, Africa and India.
This issue‘s Critique section offers 33 reviews of recent publications relevant to the study of legal history from late antiquity to the 21st century. Under Comptes rendus, we briefly present some key publications by researchers at our Institute.
Thorsten Keiser‘s Marginalia contribution deals with a key characteristic of the Venetian Republic’s constitution from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century: the anonymous denunciation (denuncia segreta). The print issue‘s series of images is also devoted to Venice; the various selected views of the lagoon city all stem from the extensive collections of Frankfurt’s Städel Museum.
Rechtsgeschichte — Legal History 34 is now available in print from the publishers Vittorio Klostermann and online in Open Access via the journal's website.

BOOK: Fupeng LI, Translating Weimar. The Cultural Translation of the Weimar Constitution in China (1919-1949) [Global Perspectives on Legal History; 28] (Frankfurt: MPI für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie, 2025), XIV + 192 p. ISBN 9783944773544, €17,33 [OPEN ACCESS]

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(image source: MPI LH LT)

Abstract:

Wie kann eine Verfassung sich eine soziale Revolution vorstellen? Das Buch beantwortet diese Frage, indem es am Beispiel der sozialen Rechte die lange Reise der Weimarer Verfassung nach China verfolgt. Diese globale Rechtsgeschichte erzählt, wie Juristen und Gesetzgeber die Sprache der Verfassung nutzten, um Projekte sozialen Wandels im 20. Jahrhundert zu konzipieren. Das Buch, das sich zwischen Deutschland und China bewegt, untersucht, wie die Weimarer Reichsverfassung von chinesischen Akteuren gelesen, übersetzt und umgeschrieben wurde. Anstatt den Einfluss der Weimarer Verfassung als einfache „Rezeption“ ausländischer Ideen zu behandeln, rekonstruiert es, wie chinesische Juristen Debatten über Arbeit, Sozialwesen und Wirtschaftsordnung nutzten, um zu überdenken, was eine soziale Verfassung sein könnte – und welche Art von sozialer Revolution sie legitimerweise leiten könnte. Im Zentrum der Analyse steht ein struktureller Wandel: vom rechtebasierten Modell der sozialen Ordnung der Weimarer Verfassung hin zum politikorientierten Konstitutionalismus, der das moderne China prägen sollte. Unter Rückgriff auf mehrsprachige Archivquellen und Verfassungsentwürfe zeichnet die Studie nach, wie der Katalog der sozialen Grundrechte der Weimarer Verfassung schrittweise in „Grundlegende nationale politische Leitlinien“ umformuliert wurde, wodurch soziale Rechte in staatliche Programme, Planungsziele und ideologische Verpflichtungen umgewandelt wurden. Ausgehend von der Trias aus Raum, Zeit und Tradition zeichnet das Buch die Wege nach, auf denen die deutsche Staatsrechtslehre und das Konzept der sozialen Rechte aus der Weimarer Verfassung in chinesischen Debatten aufgenommen wurden. Es zeigt auf, wie sie sich in wechselnden Narrativen von Krise und Revolution verorteten, und untersucht, wie sie im Zusammentreffen mit konfuzianischer Staatskunst, revolutionärem Nationalismus und sozialistischer Planwirtschaft verhandelt wurden. Damit bietet das Werk einen neuen Erklärungsansatz für die Frage, wie Verfassungen soziale Revolutionen durch die kulturelle Übersetzung von Rechten in Politik vermitteln. Das Buch richtet sich an Wissenschaftler*innen und Studierende des Verfassungsrechts, der globalen Rechtsgeschichte und der modernen chinesischen Geschichte, die verstehen wollen, wie soziale Rechte Grenzen überschritten – und wie sie dabei im 20. Jahrhundert still und leise die Bedeutung sowohl von „Verfassung“ als auch von „Revolution“ neu prägten.

Table of contents:

XI Preface
1          Introduction: Perspectives, Questions, and Structure
7 Chapter 1: Reclassifying Legal Knowledge: German Staatsrechtslehre as Intellectual Prelude to the
  Chinese Translation of the WRV
39 Chapter 2: Mapping Each Other: The Embedded Worlds in Compilations of World Constitutions
69 Chapter 3: The Rights-based Model of Weimar
91 Chapter 4: From Translators to Legislators
115 Chapter 5: The Policy-Oriented Model of China: Two Translation Frameworks
153   Conclusion: Translating Weimar through Space, Time, and Tradition
157   Bibliography
171 About the Author

Read the full book here: DOI 10.12946/gplh28.