REGISTRATION: Legal Theory and Legal History - A Neglected Dialogue? Conference

Online Registration for the 2013 UK IVR Annual Conference - Legal Theory and Legal History: A Neglected Dialogue? – has opened. 

The conference will be held from 12-13 April 2013 in the Law Building of Queen Mary, University of London. The IVR is the International Association of Legal and Social Philosophy. 

The conference description reads:

The 2013 annual conference of the UK Branch of the IVR is designed to bring together legal theorists and legal historians (including historians of legal theory and political thought) in an attempt to facilitate and encourage dialogue between the two disciplines.

     Apart from some notable exceptions, much of contemporary legal theory is uninformed by history, including legal history. This is deeply regrettable, for legal theories may be vastly improved by being informed, and perhaps more importantly, challenged by historical contexts. Theories of law, one might say, are better if they are forged at the coal-face of historical research. Similarly, one could argue that legal histories are better when they draw on, and themselves contribute to, the conceptual resources of legal theory.
     Somewhat more radically, if one agrees law does not have a nature, but a culture, then one must account for how the culture of law changes, and has changed, over time. This, by necessity, demands a historically-informed methodology. Similarly, the problem of change is an unavoidable one in legal theory, whether that be change in legal regimes or changes in certain areas of the law – here, again, the resources of history, including the philosophy of history, are invaluable. Putting things a little more colourfully, one could say that legal ideas cannot but be understood historically.
     Further, legal theory has, of course, its own history: legal theories are not disconnected islands, but rather interventions in a long series of dialogues and polylogues amongst theorists. As many have observed, and described, legal theory’s history needs to be informed not only by such dialogues and polylogues amongst theorists, but also by awareness of the theorist’s immersion in political, economic and other conditions of his or her time and place – there, once more, a serious engagement with history is important.

The Programme (as of 7 February 2013) includes:

Friday 12 April 2013

9.30am: Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

9.55am: Welcome from:

·    Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Head of Department, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London; and

·    Dr. Maks Del Mar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and Convenor of the UK IVR

10am – 11am: Keynote, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre 

Chair: Professor Roger Cotterrell, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Quentin Skinner, The Concept of the State in Legal History and Theory

11am – 11.30am: Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

11.30am – 1.pm: Open Paper Session I, Lecture Theatre and Breakout Rooms in ArtsTwo  

Group I.1: The State: Universal and Particular

• Chair: Professor Michael Lobban, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Pierre Brunet, Eric Millard, and Jean-Louis Halpérin, Can Legal Theoreticians and Historians Agree About a Definition (or Characterisation) of the State?
• Speaker 2: Donal Coffey, Postcards from the Dominions: Legal Theory as Legal History in Australia and Ireland

• Speaker 3: Michal Galedek, Theories of Modern Administration on the Polish Territories in the First Half of the 19^th Century – Polish and Foreign Traditions

Group I.2: The Methodology of Legal Theory

• Chair: Dr. Maks Del Mar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and UK IVR Convenor
• Speaker 1: Peter Cserne, From Legal History Through Descriptive Sociology to Legal Theory: Weber, Hart and Beyond
• Speaker 2: Kevin Walton, Legal Philosophy and the Social Sciences: Nicola Lacey on the Hart-Fuller Debate
• Speaker 3: Mariano Croce, How History Shapes the Legal Field: The Autonomy of Jurisprudence as a Historical Effect

Group I.3: A Historical Turn in Jurisprudence

• Chair: Dr. Brenna Bhandar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Christopher Tomlins, For a Materialist Jurisprudence
• Speaker 2: Eric Heinze, Ahistoricism as Strategy and Mask
• Speaker 3: Jonathan Gorman, Legal Metahistory

Group I. 4: International Law and Legal History

• Chair: Dr. Stephen Allen, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Jessie Hohmann: The Past is the Future: The Uses of History by the International Legal Left
• Speaker 2: Surabhi Ranganathan, International Law between Philosophy and Anxiety: Two (Re)Constructions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
• Speaker 3: Richard Collins, Classical Positivism and the Problem of Legal Autonomy in Modern International Law

Group I.5: History and Theory of Crime

• Chair: Professor Wayne Morrison, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Tony Ward, Insanity and Sovereignty: The Austinian Theory of Criminal Liability
• Speaker 2: Kevin Crosby, The Legal Theory and Legal History of the Criminal Trial Juror
• Speaker 3: Arlie Loughnan, The Asymmetry of Responsibility and Non-Responsibility in Criminal Law

1pm – 2pm: Lunch, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

2pm – 3pm: Keynote, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre 

Chair: Professor Zenon Bańkowski, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and Treasurer of the UK IVR

Professor John Bell, Is Comparative Law Necessary for Legal Theory?

3.15pm – 4.45pm: Open Paper Session II, Lecture Theatre and Breakout Rooms in ArtsTwo  

Group II.1: The History of Concepts

• Chair: Dr. Maks Del Mar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and UK IVR Convenor
• Speaker 1: Hubert Schnueriger, The Ambivalent Relation between Concepts and Their History: The Example of Dignity and Rights
• Speaker 2: Sean Patrick Donlan, First Things First: Of Philosophy and Folk Concepts
• Speaker 3: Mario Ricciardi, Two Concepts of Status

Group II.2: Legal Theory and the History of Ideas

• Chair: Professor Michael Lobban, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Kaius Tuori, Schmitt and the Sovereignty of Dictators
• Speaker 2: Matthew Crow, Forms of Life: The Culture of Law as a Culture of Use
• Speaker 3: Daniel Lee, Delegating Sovereignty: Jean Bodin on Imperium, Iurisdictio, and the Rights of Magistracy

Group II.3: Particular Cultural Contexts for Collaboration between Legal Theory and Legal History

• Chair: Professor Burkhard Schafer, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and UK IVR Secretary
• Speaker 1: Ernest Caldwell, ‘New’ Perspectives on Socio-Legal Change: Contributions from Early Chinese Legal History
• Speaker 2: Rafal Manko, Legal Transfers and Legal Survivals: Theoretical Implications on the Continuity of the Socialist Legal Tradition in Poland
• Speaker 3: Tatiana Borisova, Jane Henderson and Boris Mamlyuk, What was ‘Soviet’ in Soviet Legal Theory?

Group II.4: Law, Pathology and Politics

• Chair: Professor Wayne Morrison, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Herlinde Pauer-Studer, The Role of Morality in Nazi Conceptions of Law
• Speaker 2: Nicholas Gervassis, History of a Patient: Drafting and the Subconscious of Law in Action
• Speaker 3: Arudra Burra, Political Neutrality and the Continuity of Law

Group II.5: The Relevance of History for Legal Theory

• Chair: Catharine MacMillan, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Adolfo Giuliani, Legal History, Legal Theory and the Historical Problem of the Ius Commune
• Speaker 2: Joseph David, Risks and Odds in Integrating Legal Theory and Legal History
• Speaker 3: TT Arvind and Lindsay Stirton, Strategy, Doctrine and the Emergence of Legal Theories

4.45pm – 5.15pm: Afternoon Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

5.15pm – 6.15pm: Keynote, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre 

Chair: Catharine MacMillan, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Joshua Getzler, Law and Self-Interest

6.15pm - 6.45pm, UK IVR Annual General Meeting, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre

7pm: Drinks Reception and Conference Dinner, Tayyabs Restaurant (http://www.tayyabs.co.uk/)

Saturday 13 April 2013

9.30am: Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

10am – 11.30am: Plenary Session, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre

Chair: Professor Richard Nobles, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

• Dr Eric Descheemaeker, Legal Rationality as Legal History, with commentary by Professor William Lucy
• Dr Ian Williams, The Role of Rules: Legal Maxims in Early-Modern Common Law Principle and Practice, with commentary by Dr Thomas Poole

11.30am – 12pm: Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

12pm – 1.30pm: PhD Paper Session (III), Lecture Theatre and Breakout Rooms in ArtsTwo  

Group III.1: History of Legal Ideas

• Chair: Professor Zenon Bańkowski, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and Treasurer of the UK IVR
• Speaker 1: C.J. (Niels) de Bruijn, The Argument from Authority in Late Medieval and 16^th Century Legal Thought
• Speaker 2: N.W. Sage, Hegel on Legal Philosophy Versus Legal History
• Speaker 3: Tobias Schaffner, Hugo Grotius’ Use of History in his De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625)

Group III.2: Crime and Slavery

• Chair: Professor Wayne Morrison, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Tom Goldup, The Treason Trials Act 1696: The Origins of Defence Counsel as a Technique of Control
• Speaker 2: Pedro Jimenez Cantisano, In-between Slavery and Freedom: Legal Fictions with Real Consequences in 19^th Century Brazil
• Speaker 3: Rafael Van Damme, At the Crossroads of History of Criminal Law and Philosophy of Religion: the Disruption of Scapegoat Mechanisms

Group III.3: Particular Theories, Particular Histories

• Chair: Professor Burkhard Schafer, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and UK IVR Secretary
• Speaker 1: Zhu Mingzhe, The Laicisation of Natural Law Theory in Belle Époque: How the Political Matters in Legal Scholarship
• Speaker 2: Younsik Kim, Understanding Global Investment Law as a Legal ‘System’ in its Theoretical and Historical Perspectives
• Speaker 3: Toon Moonen, Institutional History and Constitutional Theory: A Story of Obsession, Rejection…and Perfection?

Group III.4: Legal Theory and Legal History: Imagining Possibilities

• Chair: Dr. Maks Del Mar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and UK IVR Convenor
• Speaker 1: Panagia Voyatzis, The Unbearable Forgetfulness of Law
• Speaker 2: Paul Tiensuu, On the Concept of Fundamental Contradiction: A Co-Operation Between Legal Theory and Legal History I
• Speaker 3: Juhana Salojärvi, On the Concept of Fundamental Contradiction: A Co-Operation Between Legal Theory and Legal History I

Group III.5: Foucauldian Legal History

• Chair: Dr. Brenna Bhandar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Henrique Carvalho, Liberty and Insecurity in the Criminal Law: A Genealogy of Responsibility
• Speaker 2: Michael Kelly, Visigothic Law in Seventh Century ‘Spain’: the Legal World as Episteme
• Speaker 3: Erika Fontanez-Torres, A Genealogy of Law and ‘the Political’ in a Post-Democratic Era

1.30pm – 2.30pm: Lunch, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

2.30pm – 4pm: Open Paper Session IV, Lecture Theatre and Breakout Rooms in ArtsTwo  

Group IV.1: The Importance of History for Legal Scholarship

• Chair: Catharine MacMillan, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Stephen Waddams, Legal History, Legal Theory and Practical Considerations in Legal Reasoning
• Speaker 2: Steve Hedley, Is an Ahistorical Corrective Justice Theory Useful in Explaining Modern Private Law?
• Speaker 3: Scott Styles, The Triumph of the Will

Group IV.2: Legal Theory, Legal History and the Common Law

• Chair: Professor Michael Lobban, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Anna Taitslin, The Legal History Debate on ‘Absolute Ownership’ at Common Law and the Changed Notion of Ownership in Legal Theory: Form Bartolus’ Ownership as Right to Hohfeld’s Legal Relations
• Speaker 2: Joshua Tate, Competing Jurisdictions and Dispute Settlement in Medieval England

Group IV. 3: Comparing Disciplines: Legal Reasoning, Legal Theory, and Legal History

• Chair: Dr. Maks Del Mar, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and UK IVR Convenor
• Speaker 1: James Hackney, Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory
• Speaker 2: Jonathan Rose, The Nature and Development of Legal History as an Academic Discipline
• Speaker 3: Larry DiMatteo, Unframing Legal Reasoning

Group IV.4: Historicising Philosophical Problems

• Chair: Professor Richard Nobles, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
• Speaker 1: Roger Cotterrell, The Politics of Jurisprudence Revisited: Swedish Realism in Historical Context
• Speaker 2: Andre Santos Campos, Between Theory and History: Is There Room for a Philosophy of Law?
• Speaker 3: Corrado Roversi, Mimetic Law (vs. Natural Law): A Philosophical Problem Turned into a Historical One

Group IV.5: History and Theory of Sources

• Chair: Professor Burkhard Schafer, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and UK IVR Secretary
• Speaker 1: Karlijn van Blom, The Use of Foreign Sources of Law: A Historical Approach
• Speaker 2: Pierre-Olivier de Broux, Sources of Law, Sources of Power
• Speaker 3: Tom Cornford, Cultural Consensus and the Rule of Recognition in English Law

4pm – 4.30pm: Afternoon Tea and Coffee, ArtsTwo (outside Lecture Theatre)

4.30pm – 5.30pm: Closing Panel

Chair: Professor Michael Lobban, Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Professor David Ibbetson and Professor Philip Schofield