This exciting symposium might interest members, not least my fellow Louisianians (by birth or naturalization):
Symposium
on Comparative Early Modern Legal History:
Law
and the French Atlantic
Date:
Friday, October 5, 2012
Location:
Newberry Library, Chicago
Organized
by: Allan Greer (McGill University)
and Richard J. Ross (University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign)
The French Atlantic has not yet received the
sustained attention given to the British and Spanish Atlantic, particularly
where the topic of law is concerned. This conference will explore the legal
dimension (broadly conceived) of the French Atlantic empire in the early modern
period. The variegated and rapidly evolving juridical order of ancien régime France was
deeply implicated in the expansion of overseas commerce, the founding of
colonies, and the creation of imperial administrations.
Participants may explore topics such as: legal discourse and imperial
ideologies; the establishment of colonial jurisdictions in Canada, Louisiana,
and the French West Indies; the regulation of slavery; indigenous peoples and
the law; the emergence of colonial land tenures; and the legal framework for
trade and business enterprise. The organizers wish particularly to encourage
comparative approaches that consider more than one French colony and that
examine contrasts and convergences with the British, Spanish and Portuguese
empires. In according due attention to the distinctive features of French law
and the French New World empire, we hope to enrich understandings of Atlantic
history generally.
Allan Greer (McGill
History) and Richard Ross (Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign Law and History) organized “Law and the French Atlantic.” The conference is an offering of the
Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History, which gathers yearly under
the auspices of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago in order to
explore a particular topic in the comparative legal history of the Atlantic
world in the period c.1492-1815. Funding
has been provided by the University of Illinois College of Law.
Attendance
at the Symposium is free and open to the public. Participants and attendees should preregister
by contacting the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library at 312.255.3514,
or send an e-mail to renaissance@newberry.org.
Papers will be precirculated electronically to all registrants.
Here
is the program and schedule:
