EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Jurisdictional Complexity Workshop

2012-02-03T04:57:00.000-08:00

Jurisdictional Complexity Workshop

Ghent University (Belgium) - 6-7 July 2012

As part of a project on ‘jurisdictional complexity’ in Western legal history (c1600-1900), led by Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (Limerick) and Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent), a workshop will be held in Ghent from 6-7 July 2012.

Participants in the workshop need not be part of the project and are free to discuss other periods and places.

The workshop will focus on the historiographical methods necessary for the study of jurisdictional complexity, the attempt to capture a sense of the legal-normative whole in context studied. As described in the project statement, to do this:

[t]hose working on the project will be encouraged to utilise a number of interdisciplinary methods—comparative, contemporary theories of interpretation, as well as historical anthropology, geography, and sociology …. [The project] is, in effect, an analysis of the both the ‘law in action’ (per Roscoe Pound) and the ‘living law’ (per Eugen Ehrlich) of the past. Concentrating on limited geographical areas, its case studies will investigate, in a form akin to modern comparative ‘country reports’, both the legal and normative complexity of the past. It will do so, however, in light of the realities of the past, avoiding the imposition of modern national and juridical boundaries [and will] serve as instantiations of wider intellectual and institutional developments….

For additional information, contact Dr Seán Patrick Donlan (sean.donlan@ul.ie) or Dirk Heirbaut (Dirk.Heirbaut@UGent.be). Those interested in participating should contact Dr Donlan with a short abstract (approximately 250 words) and a curriculum vitae, ideally before 1 May 2012. Depending on the number of participants, presentations are likely to be approximately 15-20 minutes and should be in English.

There is no fee for participation, but participants will be expected to cover their own travel, accomodation, and meal costs.

Finally, note that this gathering immediately precedes the European Society for Comparative Legal History Conference to be held in Amsterdam (9-10 July 2012). Participants in that conference might consider visiting us in advance of that event.

NOTICE: ESCLH Conference Registration

2012-02-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

REGISTRATION

Second Biennial Conference of the

European Society for

Comparative Legal History

The Second Biennial Conference of the ESCLH will take place on 9 and 10 July 2012 in Amsterdam. The venue is the campus of the VU University.

The Conference theme is “Comparative Legal History - Definitions and Challenges”: how do we delineate the landmarks which fruitful legal historical comparison requires and which are the specific problems that a comparative-historical approach of the various branches of law may encounter?

Subthemes are Fascist Criminal Law (coordinator Stephen Skinner) and Corporate Law (coordinator Dave De ruysscher).

Enrolment/Registration is possible through the conference website until June 11: http://www.rechten.vu.nl/comparativelegalhistory

The fee (including coffee/tea during the breaks, drinks on Monday afternoon, the lunch and canal round trip on Tuesday) is €100 for non-members and €50 for students and PhD-students. ESCLH-members enroll free of charge. For the Buffet-Diner on Monday night an additional fee of €40 per head will be required for all participants (members, non-members and companions).

For additional information, please see the original notice.

NOTICE: Radding on Justinian

2012-02-02T06:26:00.000-08:00

The Projet Volterra, UCL & the Earlier MiddleAges Seminar,IHR present:

THE VOLTERRA LECTURE

PROFESSOR CHARLES RADDING (Michigan State University)

The Recovery and Use of Justinian’s Code In Eleventh-Century Italy

Wednesday, 29th February 2012, 5.30pm
Chancellor’s Hall,
First Floor, South Block, SENATE HOUSE,
Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

All Welcome

To be followed by a reception
Any enquiries please to Dr Simon Corcoran.
Tel: 02076793614. Email: s.corcoran@ucl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/history2/volterra

2012-01-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

This interesting request recently appeared in H-Net:

Dear legal historian:

The American Society for Legal History's Graduate Student Outreach Committee seeks your legal history syllabi. If you have taught a legal history course, please send me a copy of your syllabus. All fields (U.S., non-U.S., ancient, modern) and all levels (graduate, undergraduate, law school, advanced seminar, introductory survey) accepted. Please send syllabi as e-mail attachments to: John Wertheimer, Davidson College, jowertheimer@davidson.edu

NOTICE: The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Prize for American Legal History

2012-01-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

H-Net has circulated the following notice:

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation has generously funded a prize of $2,500 for an excellent article in American legal history published by an early career scholar in 2011. Articles published in 2011 in the field of American legal history, broadly conceived, will be considered. There is a preference for articles in the colonial and early National periods. Articles published in the Law and History Review are eligible for the Surrency Prize and will not be considered for the Cromwell Article Prize.

The Cromwell Foundation makes the final award, in consultation with a subcommittee from the American Society for Legal History. This subcommittee invites nominations for the article prize; authors are invited to nominate themselves or others may nominate works meeting the criteria that they have read and enjoyed. Please send a brief letter of nomination no longer than a page, along with an electronic or hard copy of the article, by May 31, 2012, to the subcommittee's chair, Alfred Brophy, University of North Carolina School of Law, Campus Box #3380, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380 or via email abrophy@email.unc.edu

NOTICE: Law and History Review Editorship

2012-01-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Law and History Review Editorship

After seven years of exceptional service, David Tanenhaus has decided to step down as editor of the Law and History Review, which is sponsored by the American Society for Legal History and published by the Cambridge University Press. The ASLH Publications Committee invites applications for the position. Applicants should be members of the Society who are accomplished legal historians, have the intellectual range to work with manuscripts from different periods and regions in legal history, and are conversant with both law and history. The departmental or institutional support required for the position is usually modest.

The editor's responsibilities include soliciting manuscripts in all fields of legal history, shepherding submitted manuscripts through the peer review and editorial processes, working with the journal's print and electronic publisher Cambridge University Press, and maintaining collaborative relationships with the journal's Editorial Board and the Board ASLH Board of Directors. Production management is the responsibility of the Cambridge University Press. Appointment is for an initial five-year term.

Interested scholars should send an electronic version of their current c.v. and a statement of what they would like to accomplish as editor of the journal by March 30, 2012, to the Chair of the Publications Committee: Michael Grossberg, grossber@indiana.edu. Inquiries about the position should be directed to the same email address or by phone at: 812-855-3882.

Call for Nominations - Honorary Fellows of the American Society for Legal History

2012-01-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

The following Call for Nominations for Honorary Fellows of the American Society for Legal History was recently circulated:

In 2011 the American Society for Legal History made some important changes to its processes for electing Honorary Fellows of the Society. First, it abandoned the distinction it had formerly drawn between Honorary Fellows (limited to residents of the U.S. and Canada) and Corresponding Fellows (the rest of the world). Recognizing that we live in an increasingly globalized world, from now on there will be only one category of Honorary Fellows for all legal historians wherever they may be. (Existing Corresponding Fellows may maintain that title or choose to become Honorary Fellows.) Second, recognizing that the number of legal historians both in the United States and world-wide has greatly expanded in recent years, the society has abandoned any upper limit on the total number of Honorary Fellows that may be recognized at any given time. The only limitation is that no more than three Honorary Fellows may be elected in any given year.

Honorary Fellows are elected by the ASLH Board of Directors on the recommendation of the Society's Honors Committee. In making its recommendations, The Honors Committee considers all those scholars who should be honored for their scholarship and contribution to the field of legal history. The Honors Committee has now adopted a procedure that offers ASLH members at large the opportunity to bring worthy candidates for honors to its attention. Specifically, the Honors Committee invites members of the Society to submit the names of appropriate nominees together with brief statements of support (300 word maximum). Member nominations should be submitted confidentially to the Chair of the Honors Committee, Chris Tomlins ctomlins@law.uci.edu. They must be received no later than March 31st.

Between April 1st and May 31st The Honors Committee will consider all member nominees, along with nominees proffered by members of the Honors Committee itself. Following the close of deliberations the Committee will proceed to prepare and submit up to three fully documented recommendations for approval by the Board of Directors during the summer months. Elected fellows will be inducted at the Society's annual meeting.

Further information about the Society's Honorary Fellows can be found on the ASLH web page at http://www.legalhistorian.org/honors.shtml.

NOTICE: Raoul Berger-Mark DeWolfe Howe Legal History Fellowship

2012-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Raoul Berger-Mark DeWolfe Howe Legal History Fellowship

Harvard Law School is seeking fellows who have a J.D. degree, who have completed the required coursework for their doctorate degree, or who have recently been awarded the doctorate degree. A J.D. is preferred, but not required. We will also consider applicants who are beginning a teaching career in either law or history. The purpose of the fellowship is to enable the fellow to complete a major piece of writing in the field of legal history, broadly defined. There are no limitations as to geographical area or time period.

Fellows are expected to spend the majority of their time on their own research. They are also asked to help coordinate the Harvard Law School Legal History Colloquium, which meets five or six times each semester. Fellows are invited to present their own work. Fellows will be required to be in residence at law school during the academic year (September through May).

Applicants for the fellowship for 2012-13 should address a letter to Professor Bruce H. Mann at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA 02318.

Applications should outline briefly the fellow's proposed project (no more than five typewritten pages) and should contain a writing sample and a curriculum vitae that gives the applicant's educational background, publications, works in progress, and other relevant experience, accompanied by official transcripts of all academic work done in college or at the graduate level. The applicant should arrange for two academic references to be sent. Applications by e-mail are preferred (the transcripts may be sent by regular mail): criley@law.harvard.edu

The deadline for applications is February 15, 2012, and announcement of the award will be made by March 15, 2012.

Additional information is available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/fellowships/raoul-berger-mark-dewolfe-howe-legal-history-fello.html.

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS: ESCLH Conference

2011-12-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

The ESCLH Conference will be held in Amsterdam from 9-10 July 2012. The theme is 'Comparative Legal History - Definitions and Challenges' and the deadline for proposals is this Sunday, 1 January 2012.

For additional information, see the original conference notice and the conference website.

REMINDER: European Society for Comparative Legal History Conference (9-10 July 2012)

2011-12-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

The Second ESCLH Conference will be held in Amsterdam from 9-10 July 2012. The deadline for proposals is fast approaching (1 January 2012).

The theme is:

COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY

Definitions and Challenges

The conference:

will try to delineate the landmarks which fruitful legal historical comparison requires and to trace the specific problems that a comparative-historical approach of the various branches of law may encounter. The keynote address will be delivered by David Ibbetson, Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Cambridge.

The deadline for proposals is 1 January 2012. For additional information, see the original conference notice and the conference website.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Irish Constitution: Past, Present and Future

2011-12-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

The Constitutional Studies Group at University College Dublin invites submissions for a conference on “The Irish Constitution: Past, Present and Future”. The conference is being organised to mark the 75th anniversary of the enactment of the current Irish Constitution and will take place in Dublin between June 28th and 30th, 2012.

The conference line-up will feature a range of distinguished speakers from Ireland and other jurisdictions. Confirmed participants so far include:
• The Chief Justice of Ireland, the Hon. Mrs. Justice Susan Denham
• The Hon. Mr. Justice Donal O'Donnell of the Supreme Court
• Prof. Philip Pettit (Princeton)

• Prof. Mark Tushnet (Harvard)

• Prof. Cheryl Saunders (Melbourne)

• Prof. Deirdre Curtin (Amsterdam)

• Prof Gerry Whyte (TCD)

• Prof. Martin Loughlin (LSE)

• Dr. Aileen Kavanagh (Oxford)

• Dr. Colm O’Cinneide (UCL)

The conference organisers welcome proposals from all disciplines on any topic relevant to Irish constitutionalism. Proposed papers are not required to focus on Irish law alone. The organisers particularly welcome submissions from a comparative, conceptual or inter-disciplinary perspective.

The organisers also welcome submissions from early career researchers. A small number of bursaries are available to cover the travel costs of researchers who have been conferred with their most recent qualification in the five years before June 1 2012 and whose proposals are regarded by the organisers as a leading example of innovative research.

Possible areas of interest might include:

• The implications of the IMF/EU bailout for domestic constitutionalism

• The European Union, the Constitution and the Irish courts

• Calls for constitutional reform in Ireland: economic crisis as a constitutional moment?

• How to organise a process of constitutional reform

• Property rights and the property crash: is there a relationship between constitutional theory and economic policy?

• Republican thought and the 1937 Constitution

• Popular sovereignty and the use of the referendum in Ireland

• The relationship between the common law and a written Constitution

• Ireland’s relationship with the Commonwealth between 1921 and 1937

• Defining the state: National identity and territorial claims under the 1937 Constitution

• The influence of religion and religious identity on Irish constitutional law

• The 1937 Constitution and its commitment to the idea of natural law

• The right to education in the Irish Constitution and the judicial enforcement of socio-economic entitlements

• The relationship between the Irish and Indian Constitutions

• The influence of American constitutional thought on Irish constitutionalism

• The horizontal application of constitutional rights: lessons from the Irish experience?

Persons interested in participating in the event should submit an abstract of no more than 800 words together with a covering letter and CV. Submissions should be made to ucd2012@gmail.com.

Early career researchers should state in their covering letter if they wish to be considered for a travel bursary. They should also include a short explanation of why they feel they should be provided with one of the available bursaries.

Submissions should be received by February 29th, 2012.

Once a selection is made by the organisers, final papers must be submitted by June 1st, 2012.

NOTICE: Rivista di Diritto Ellenico

2011-12-18T05:31:00.000-08:00

The Rechtsgeschiedenis Blog just announced the following:

A few days ago the French legal history blog Nomôdos, the twin sister of the e-journal Clio@Themis, announced the first issue of the Rivista di Diritto Ellenico, a journal devoted to the study of ancient Greek law.

This new journal is edited by scholars at Torino, Isernia and Verona. The Rivista di Diritto Ellenico is published in open access, but there is a connection with the publishing firm Edizioni dell’Orso in Alessandria. The first issue of the Rivista di Diritto Ellenico contains eleven articles and seven book reviews. The translation in Italian of an article from 1963 by Hans-Julius Wolff, ‘Verjährung von Ansprüchen nach Attischen Recht’, is a service which could very well be inspired by the translation into French of classic articles in each issue of Clio@Themis. All contributions in the first issue are in Italian. However, the editors invite authors to submit articles in Italian, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and modern Greek.

In the section Rara et dissertationes you will find digitized versions of articles and theses which are difficult to trace; at this moment you will find just two items. The Foglio Giusgrecistico is the news bulletin of the review, with announcements of conferences and details on the contents of new publications. The section Collana announces the republication of Diritto greco antico by Arnaldo Biscardi (Milano 1982). In the links section you can download either as a PDF or as a text document a useful commented list of links for the study of ancient Greek law.

The creation of a new platform for scholars working in the field of legal history is an enterprise for which the founders need great courage, stamina and discernment. The choice for an e-journal in open access seems a promising one. Let’s hope the editors and all people involved with the Rivista di Diritto Ellenico succeed in making this new e-journal a success!

NOTICE: 66th Session of the Société Internationale ‘Fernand de Visscher’ pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité (SIHDA)

2011-12-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

The following notice on 66th Session of the Société Internationale ‘Fernand de Visscher’ pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité (SIHDA) will take place from 18-21 September 2012 in Oxford.

The notice reads:

First circular
Oxford
14 December 2011

Dear colleages,

I am very pleased to invite you to the 66th Session of the Société Internationale ‘Fernand de Visscher’ pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité (SIHDA), which will take place from 18 to 21 September 2012 in Oxford. In accordance with the decision taken by the last General Assembly, the theme of the congress will be Reception of Law.

In this First Circular I shall provide you with general information regarding the congress. In the course of January you will receive a Second Circular with information on how to registration.

The congress will start in the afternoon of Tuesday 18 September and end on Friday 21 September with the General Assembly. A Banquet dinner is foreseen for that Friday night, and excursions are planned for Saturday 22 September.

The theme is ‘Reception of Law’. It is a wide theme, which covers, e.g., the reception of Assyrian law by the Mesopotamians, Greek law by Egyptians, Roman law by the Greeks in the 4th and 5th century, by the Gallic population in the 6th century, but also, as the name of our association implies (‘Histoire des droits de l’Antiquité’), the reception of Roman law after 1100, and I welcome particularly contributions concerning the reception of Roman law after 1100 in Europe, the ‘Civil Law’. Yet, as is the custom of our association, papers on other themes than the proposed are of course always welcome and appreciated, in one of the five accepted languages (French, English, German, Italian and Spanish).

Oxford as a city is well known and needs no further recommendation. Its colleges, of which those in the centre are centuries old, are a major tourist attraction, as is the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Ashmolean Museum. And of course it is always interesting to combine the congress with a visit or short stay at London. London itself has several airports, of which Heathrow and Gatwick have a regular and direct bus connection with Oxford. Likewise the train connection is very good with the Eurostar going straight from Paris to London-St Pancras through the Channel Tunnel; and a taxi or underground will take you from there to Paddington Station for a good train connection to Oxford.

The congress will be held in St Catherine’s College. It is a college, built in 1962 in splendid Sixties style after the design of Arne Jacobsen and it is excellently suited for a congress of the size of SIHDA. Actually, it is, of all the colleges in Oxford, the only one with sufficient conference accommodation for us; all its rooms have a private shower and toilet. You will receive with the Second Circular the possibility to book an arrangement for the congress in the college.

I hope I have provided you with enough information for the moment. If there are any questions, I am happy to answer these, but otherwise I would like to ask you to wait till the Second Circular when more information will be provided. All further communications will be done through email. If you happen to know of somebody who is or might be interested but has not received this circular, please let me have their email address and I shall take care that he or she is included in the address list and will receive this and further notifications. Likewise I would appreciate it greatly to know of changes in email addresses.

All that remains for me now is to wish you a good Christmas holidays and an auspicious New Year,

Best wishes,

Boudewijn Sirks
Regius Professor of Civil Law
University of Oxford

NOTICE: Griffith Law School’s Legal History Seminar Series

2011-12-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

Information on the Griffith Law School (Australia) Legal History Seminar Series. The Series:

is a gesture to the interdisciplinary turns in legal history, and a contribution to the innovation at the heart of much contemporary legal history scholarship.

The LHSS aims to showcase legal history’s international and comparative flavour; it welcomes all who are interested in legal history’s present and future significance. Its aim is to participate in reinvigorating, and enlivening, an interest in the critically reflective directions of legal history, both in Queensland and elsewhere.

The Organising Committee hopes that the LHSS will draw, as an audience, practitioners, judges, students, academics and members of the public with an interest in new directions in legal history. We will welcome your attendance.

The LHSS’s program bridges a significant time – 2011 to 2012 marks the sesquicentennial of the Queensland Supreme Court (2011), the twentieth-year anniversary of the Griffith Law School (2012), and the thirtieth Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society (2012).

Topics and Speakers

The LHSS will comprise six seminars by leading legal history scholars on new directions in legal history topics, with an interdisciplinary turn. Our sixth topic and speaker will be confirmed in the future. The current program is outlined here.

The first seminar is especially interesting to ESCLH members. Professor Emeritus John McLaren (University of Victoria, Canada) topic is "Widening the Lens from Local to Comparative Colonial Legal History: The Growth of Legal Cultures in Australia and Canada". The date of the seminar is 13 December 2011.

Hat tip to the Legal History Blog.

CALL FOR PAPERS: New Historia et Ius Journal

2011-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Historia et Ius is an on-line International journal dedicated to medieval, modern and contemporary historical legal studies. Founded after the initiative of a group Italian legal historians, the journal is supported by an editorial board composed by European legal historians of high scientific profile.

The journal’s main purpose is to provide an agile and easy to use tool aimed at disseminating the results of legal-historical researches at the international level, as well as facilitating the exchange of ideas and methods.

Historia et Ius, International journal of medieval and modern legal history, invites interested scholars to send articles and texts for publication in the No. 1 of the journal, which will be posted on the web on the 1st of July, 2012. Articles and texts for publication should be sent to the editorial board by the 29th of February, 2012.

The journal is is a semi-annual publication. It is divided into two sections:

1) Studies. This section exclusively publishes articles evaluated through a double blind peer review system. Each article will be anonymously assigned, for evaluation, to two specialists in the subject matter, who will provide their assessment for a course of action. The assessment can be: - positive (the text will be published) - positive with corrections (the text will be published if corrected) - negative (the text will not be published). The result of the evaluation of the reviewers will be communicated to the author within two months from the date of receipt of the text. In the event of disagreement between the two reviewers regarding the assessment of the text, the article will be given to a third reviewer. Annually the journal will show the names of specialists who carried out the assessment of texts published.

2) Interventions. This section concerns various material (e.g. communications, research projects, book reviews) not submitted to the assessment procedure. Texts will be published according to the approval of the editorial board.

Interested scholars shall send manuscripts specifying in which section they desire to publish within the 29th of February 2012 to the following e-mail address: info@historiaetius.eu. Texts may be written in Italian, French, English, Spanish and German. In drafting the article, the authors must follow the criteria listed here.

REMINDER: ESCLH Conference (9-10 July 2012)

2011-11-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

The Second ESCLH Conference will be held in Amsterdam from 9-10 July 2012. The theme is:

COMPARATIVE LEGAL HISTORY

Definitions and Challenges

Under the heading “Definitions and Challenges” the confernce will try to delineate the landmarks which fruitful legal historical comparison requires and to trace the specific problems that a comparative-historical approach of the various branches of law may encounter. The keynote address will be delivered by David Ibbetson, Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Cambridge.

The deadline for proposals is 1 January 2012. For additional information, see the original conference notice and the conference website.

NOTICE: The Irish Legal History Bursary

2011-11-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

The Irish Legal History Bursary

The Irish Legal History Society administers the Irish Legal History Bursary which was established to subvent the travelling expenses of postgraduate students undertaking research into any aspect to Irish legal history.

There is a fund of up to €1,000 available annually. The closing date for applications for the new round is 30 January 2012. Further details may be obtained from one of the Joint Secretaries of the Society (Dr. Níamh Howlin: n.howlin@qub.ac.uk or Dr. Thomas Mohr: thomas.mohr@ucd.ie):

1. Eligibility:

1.1 Applicants for the Bursary should normally hold at least a second class degree in law or history.

1.2 The Bursary is restricted to student members of the Irish Legal History Society; student membership costs €20 / £15 per annum. Details and membership forms are available at: http://www.ilhs.eu/become_a_member.asp

1.3 The award may be made to any postgraduate student undertaking research into any aspect of Irish legal history. Preference will be shown to postgraduate research students, but others are eligible to apply, including those pursuing taught postgraduate degree programmes provided that such programmes have a substantial research component.

1.4 ‘Legal history’ includes the development or history of legal rules, legal institutions, legal procedures or the legal profession; biographical sketches of legal personalities; the development of legal theories or ideas; comparative legal history.

2. Rules:

2.1 The purpose of the Bursary is to support travel for the purpose of carrying out research into Irish legal history. This includes travel to Ireland, travel within Ireland and travel abroad. Funding will not be awarded for:

i. Travel to national or international conferences, or similar events

ii. Travel for the purpose of attended seminars, classes or meetings with supervisors.

2.2 Funds awarded for a specific purpose should not be spent in other ways without the Society’s express permission.

2.3 The award of the bursary will be determined by a Sub-Committee of the Society and ratified by the Council.

2.4 The Committee may decide to award a lesser amount than that sought, or may divide the fund between several applicants, as it deems appropriate.

2.5 There is no minimum amount which may be sought; the maximum is €1,000.

2.6 The Society reserves the right to make no award in a given year.

2.7 Applicants will need to demonstrate that the funded research will lead to dissemination (such as publication or conference presentation)

2.8 Applicants must include details of one academic referee in their application.

2.9 Awardees undertake to acknowledge the Society in any disseminations (such as publications or presentations) arising from the funded research.

2.10 Awardees will be expected to furnish the Society with a short report within one year of the award, describing the research undertaken and how the bursary facilitated this work.

3. The Application Process

3.1 Applicants should complete the Application form and send it by email to one of the Society’s Joint Secretaries before the closing date.

3.2 After the expiry of the closing date, a Sub-Committee of the Society’s Council known as the Bursary Committee will consider all applications.

3.3 The Sub-Committee will make recommendations for the award of bursaries, and these will be ratified by the Society’s Council.

3.4 Once a final decision has been made, all applicants (whether successful or unsuccessful) will be contacted by email by the Bursary Committee. This should be no more than 8 weeks after the expiry of the closing date.

3.5 Unsuccessful applicants may request brief feedback on their applications; this can be done by emailing one of the Joint Secretaries.

3.6 Successful applicants will be asked to confirm their acceptance of the bursary, and the bursary will be paid by cheque.

3.7 For accounting purposes, awardees must confirm (by email) receipt of the cheque.

3.8 Within one year of the award, awardees are required to provide a short report (less than 1,000 words) to the Bursary Committee, outlining how the funds have been used, and how the research will be disseminated. This should be emailed to one of the Joint Secretaries.

4. What Types of Application will be Successful?

4.1 Applicants need to satisfy the Bursary Committee that their work is likely to constitute a scholarly contribution to the knowledge and understanding of Irish legal history, as defined in 1.3 (above)

4.2 Applicants should required to show that the completion of their research requires the consultation of source material which is not otherwise available locally; that is, in or near the place in which they normally reside.

4.3 Applicants are advised to be as specific as possible in their costings; funding awarded by the Society should represent value for money.

4.4 Applicants should ensure that their application falls within the eligibility criteria set out in 1 (above)

4.5 Applicants should outline any other sources of funding of which they are in receipt.

Call for Papers: 2012 Meeting of the American Society for Legal History

2011-11-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

The 2012 meeting of the American Society for Legal History will take place in St. Louis, Missouri, November 8-11, 2012. The ASLH invites proposals on any facet or period of legal history, anywhere in the world. In selecting presenters, the Program Committee will give preference to those who did not present at last year’s meeting. Among the people selected to present, limited financial assistance will be available for those in need—with special priority given to graduate students and post-docs, as well as scholars traveling from abroad.

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for both full panels and individual papers, though please note that individual papers are less likely to be accepted. As concerns panels, the Program Committee encourages the submission of a variety of different types of proposals, including:

• classical 3-paper panels (with a separate commentator and chair)
• incomplete 2-paper panels (with a separate commentator and chair), which the Committee will try to complete with at least 1 more paper
• panels of 4 or more papers (with a separate commentator and chair)
• thematic panels that range across traditional chronological or geographical fields
• author-meets-reader panels
• roundtable discussions

All panel proposals should include the following:

• A 300-word description of the panel
• A c.v. for each presenter (including complete contact info)
• In the case of paper-based panels only, a 300-word abstract of each paper

Individual paper proposals should include:

• A c.v. for each presenter (including complete contact info)
• A 300-word abstract of each paper

The deadline for submitting proposals is February 29, 2012. Proposals should be sent as email attachments to Kaitlin Burroughs at kburroughs@law.harvard.edu.

Substantive questions should be directed to Michael Willrich (willrich@brandeis.edu) or Adriaan Lanni (adlanni@law.harvard.edu).

Those unable to send proposals as email attachments may mail hard copies to:

2012 ASLH Program Committee
c/o Adriaan Lanni
Harvard Law School
1525 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
U.S.A.

CALL FOR PAPERS: British Crime Historians Symposium 3

2011-11-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

Call for papers: British Crime Historians Symposium 3

6-7 September, 2012, The Open University, Milton Keynes

Following on from the success of the British Crime Historians Symposia at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2008 and Sheffield University in 2010, the Open University is pleased to host the next in Milton Keynes on September 6th and 7th, 2012.

We would like this to be an opportunity for all those who work on the criminal justice history of the British Isles, or on other topics illuminated through criminal justice archives, to participate. We would like therefore to invite papers on any aspect of the history of criminal justice in the British Isles.

We are also especially keen to accept papers which:

* survey the historiography of this field,

* discuss methodological questions with a broader applicability,* analyse historiographical developments in other countries with a view to informing the research agenda in the British Isles, or
* assess the public history of criminal justice.

Given the gratifyingly large number of historians studying this topic and the need to keep the meeting as affordable as possible while not fragmenting it into an excessive number of parallel sessions, it is unlikely that we will be able to give a verbal presentation slot to everyone who has something interesting to say. Thus we are also keen to receive proposals for poster presentations: we would particularly like to give space to posters from graduate students at any stage in their research. We will make sure that there is a critical mass of posters and that they are a central feature of the conference. We are also open to being approached with proposals for panels of papers on a linked theme.

The deadline for (200-word) abstracts for (15-20 minute) papers, panels (of 3-5 speakers) and (A1) posters is January 31st 2011. Please submit to BCHS2012@open.ac.uk. For further information, contact Paul Lawrence (p.m.lawrence@open.ac.uk) or Chris Williams (chris.williams@open.ac.uk). We will distribute a preliminary version of the programme by February 29th 2012.

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law - Revue d'histoire du droit international XIII (2011), nr. 2

2011-11-11T03:22:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. XIII (2011), nr. 2) appeared earlier this week:

Contents:

John Quigley, Britain's Secret Re-Assessment of the Balfour Declaration. The Perfidy of Albion

Yang Zewei, Western International Law and China's Confucianism in the 19th Century. Collision and Integration

Awalou Ouedraogo, La neutralité et l'émergence du concept de due diligence en droit international. L'affaire de l'Alabama revisitée

Frederik Dhondt, From Contract to Treaty. The Legal Transformation of the Spanish Succession 1659-1713

William E. Butler, David Bailie Warden and the Development of American Consular Law

CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS: IMéRA and IEA

2011-11-03T02:46:00.001-07:00

Dear colleagues,

Are you looking for a new job or challenge? Good news! I can draw your attention to the following calls for application in France:

- l'Institut Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées (IMéRA)

- l'Institut d'Etudes avancées (IEA) Paris

Follow the links for more information.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Violence Studies Conference 2012

2011-11-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to post the following:

Violence Studies Conference 2012

Call for Papers

The Humanities Research Institute at the University of Newcastle invites academics from a wide a variety of disciplines — including anthropology, art, criminology, history, international relations, law, literature, psychology, philosophy, political science and sociology — to submit proposals for panels and individual papers at its conference, Histories of Violence, to be held in the city of Newcastle from 21-23 August 2012.

Plenary speakers:

Arjun Appadurai, New York University
Rosemary Gartner, University of Toronto
Gyanendra Pandey, Emory University

The program committee welcomes panels and paper proposals that deal with the history of violence in the broadest sense, in all parts of the world, from the fifteenth century to the present day. In order to complement the Humanities Research Institute’s continuing strengths in the history of violence, the Committee encourages proposals that involve histories of gender and race, cultural history, and religious history. The Committee also invites submissions from scholars working in war, murder, mass murder and atrocity.

We invite prospective participants to submit a presentation proposal for one of the following parallel session options: 30-minute panel presentations; a 90-minute workshop; or a jointly presented 90-minute round table session. For more information refer to Conference website. http://www.newcastle.edu.au/institute/humanities-research/historyofviolence/ViolenceStudiesConference2012.html

To defray travelling costs for postgraduate students, the Humanities Research Institute is offering competitive scholarships.

All submissions should be electronic and should be submitted before 1 May 2012. Participants will be notified by 1 June 2012. Please include the following information:

1. Panel title & short, one paragraph description.
2. Paper proposals for each paper (no more than half a page).
3. The CVs of all participants.
4. Email address of designated contact person.

All inquiries and submissions should be sent to:

A/Prof Philip Dwyer, Philip.Dwyer@newcastle.edu.au
Prof. Lyndall Ryan, Lyndall.Ryan@newcastle.edu.au

CALL FOR PAPERS: Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches to Global Legal History

2011-11-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to post the following exciting conference:

Entanglements in Legal History:

Conceptual Approaches to Global Legal History

Conference of Legal Historian, Lucerne – 2-6 September 2012

Conference MPI, Frankfurt -

Global History, World History, Imperial History, Atlantic or Pacific History: the variety of transnational historiography is growing ever larger. Hitherto, legal historians have rarely participated in these discourses. On a favourable interpretation, one could argue that legal historians have always thought, researched and worked transnationally – yet this might have different reasons.

It is certain that, in legal history, the exchange and overlapping of different normative spheres beyond territorially-constrained statehood has been the norm: the tiered territorial and legal spheres of influence of antique empires, stratified societies with their regulations tied to civil status, the coexistence of secular normativity and clerical normativity intersecting the secular realm, and finally the complex processes of the period of the ‘Reception’ belong to the classic objects of legal historical research. It has also become clear that the encounter of two hitherto co-existing normative orders, through the intensified exchange and communication since the 16th and particularly during the 19th century in two waves of globalisation, has attracted the interest of legal history.

Legal historians can resort to an ample body of older and more recent research on entanglement processes. However, the growing amount of research also gives rise to the disparity between the terminology used in the description and analysis of these processes. There is a broad range of material on offer, often absorbed without major reflection. Frequently, there is a discourse on ‘reception’ without ever reaching the historiographical complexity of this concept, often reverting to terms such as ‘legal transplant’, ‘transfer’, ‘mixed legal systems’ or ‘legal pluralism’. In recent years, there have been augmented allusions to ‘mestizaje’, ‘pluralisation’ or ‘hybridisation’. In addition, there are manifold interpretations from the field of cultural sciences, such as the concept of ‘cultural translation’.

In light of this, there seems to be an urgent need for a reflection on the analytical and heuristic value of such terms. It could lead to an understanding, or at the very least to a raised awareness of the images and models associated with these concepts but also of the epistemic risks inherent in the multitude of images and metaphors for the description and analysis of entanglement processes. The discussion of these questions appears all the more important given that the work of legal history does not only depend on the accuracy of its analytical instruments but that it could offer concepts developed from historic-empirical research to the discourse with other disciplines, especially vis-à-vis the legal sciences.

The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History will discuss these questions within the framework of a conference in Frankfurt and a panel discussion at the 39th Rechtshistorikertag (Conference of Legal Historians) in Lucerne. Both events will take place in September 2012.

We ask all interested colleagues to submit proposals for approximately 20-minute contributions to these events which deal with the analysis of the above-described questions on the basis of case studies of (legal) history.

Please submit your proposals by 15 December 2011 in the form of an abstract of approximately 6,000 characters (including spaces = 2 A4 pages) in English or German. Please submit the proposals electronically (sekduve@rg.mpg.de).

We will select a small number of contributions for the 39th Rechtshistorikertag (Conference of Legal Historians) in Lucerne (2-6 September 2012) and, if applicable, a larger number for a conference at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, (planned in the week of 20 August 2012) by 15 January 2012.

The elaborated version of the contributions for both events should be on hand on 1 July 2012 so they can be made available to the participants of the events. A comprehensive English abstract is to be added to any German language publication. It is foreseen that selected contributions will be published after peer review.

The Max-Planck Institute will provide accommodation expenses for both conferences. It may be possible to obtain financial aid or even full coverage for travel expenditures.

For questions and any further correspondence, please contact Ms. Nicole Pasakarnis, Email: sekduve@rg.mpg.de.

NOTICE: Becker on Medicine, Law, and the State in Imperial Russia

2011-10-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Elisa M Becker (George Washington University)'s Medicine, Law, and the State in Imperial Russia, from the Central European University (CEU) Press might be of interest:

Examines the theoretical and practical outlook of forensic physicians in Imperial Russia, from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, arguing that the interaction between state and these professionals shaped processes of reform in contemporary Russia. It demonstrates the ways in which the professional evolution of forensic psychiatry in Russia took a different turn from Western models, and how the process of professionalization in late imperial Russia became associated with liberal legal reform and led to the transformation of the autocratic state system.

Demonstrates the processes by which legal, social, and institutional authority was invested in disciplinary, scientific knowledge, and how these processes were linked to the shaping of a particular vision of legality tailored to Russia’s social and political conditions. Identifying the ways in which social actors merged legal reform efforts with their professional objectives, it argues that this interrelationship was productive of a particular occupational perspective and course of reform, rather than an underdeveloped shadow of developments in Western, liberal states.

Call for Papers: XVIIIth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians (30 May-2 June 2012)

2011-10-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

The XVIIIth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians of the Association of Young Legal Historians (AYLH) will be held in Vienna from 30 May-2 June 2012. The theme is “Making things legal”: Law-making and procedural reality in the European legal traditions:

The secular tradition of modern European jurisprudence agrees on the basic assumption that law is actually ‘made’ in one way or another. The conditions and procedures of law-making are subject to constant change and, accordingly, the creation of legal norms is one of the major areas of research for legal historians. The questions they ask relate to the legitimacy of normative acts, their economic, political and social impetus or even the media of their representation. Scholars direct their attention at all stages of the legislative process, i.e. from the very first considerations to the publication of a legal act.

Some traditions are even characterised by a unity of law-making and the administration of justice where one can hardly be considered without the other. In ancient Rome, for instance, the highly significant figure of the praetor combined both the enforcement of the law and its advancement in his role as a magistrate. According to Papinianus’ famous definition of the praetor’s office his task was to further, amend and correct the civil law for the common good – adiuvandi vel supplendi vel corrigendi iuris civilis gratia propter utilitatem publicam (D 1.1.7.1.). The Common Law tradition of most of the English-speaking world continues to be based on case-law.

In all legal traditions however and also in all fields of law, the positive law requires transformation into social reality. There the concept of ‘proceedings’ occupies a central position: In Roman antiquity the term ius originally referred not only to the law but also to the place where the law was administered, thus reflecting the interconnectedness of substantial law and legal proceedings. Over time the handling of the law by specialised experts was established as a particularly efficient mode of law-enforcement. Today it is widely accepted that their role amounts to more than that of a mere “Subsumptionsautomat”; still, the idea of the judge as a “Richterkönig” (R. Ogorek) is equally rejected. The Roman jurist Ulpian referred to lawyers as the “priests of justice” (D.1.1.1.), which hints at the ethical dimension of their position in society. The significance attributed to these specialists finds its manifestation in the interest legal historians take in the legal professions and their members – including their social backgrounds, their education and their roles in the exertion of state power – and the material remains of their past actions. With the latter, researchers often face the methodological challenge that the traces of legal practice tend to be less tangible than the normative texts on which they are based.

Obviously not everyone who is 'in the right' will eventually obtain justice. The problems of legislative injustice and miscarriages of justice have become central themes in legal history. The relationship between unjust, man-made laws on the one hand and norms that might rank higher than those on the other has also been discussed at great length – notwithstanding the insight that sometimes an unjust decision may have to be accepted in the interest of peace and order in society.

Given the fact that all law-making necessarily takes the form of proceedings of some sort, while all proceedings create new law, we invite the community of young legal historians to call this dichotomy into question. Besides that, papers that deal with any of the matters addressed above will be very welcome. Following a long-standing tradition at the University of Vienna we are also looking forward to participants who want to discuss related matters of legal theory from a historical perspective.

Please send your application, i.e. an abstract of not more than 2,000 characters in either English or German and your CV to forum2012@aylh.org (until 31 December 2011). The participation fee for participants giving a paper will be 75 €, for all others 100 €. We are trying to arrange scholarships.

Further information on the Association of Young Legal Historians and past Forums as well as up-to-date information is available on www.aylh.org.

We are looking forward to receiving your application and to welcoming you in Vienna in spring 2012.