Sunday, August 25, 2019

CFP: "The Past is Prologue: The Impact of Law’s History"

[We have the following call for papers.]

The Past is Prologue: The Impact of Law’s History : A New Edited Collection of Essays on Legal History

The Book.  Legal rules, decisions, institutions, and individual actors have had an enormous impact on our cultures and societies today. The leaders that govern us, the crimes that are committed, and the freedoms that we cherish are part and parcel of the enduring legacy of legal history. Despite its diminishing presence in legal education in recent decades, the study of legal history is on an upswing as its importance gains renewed recognition. The availability of new techniques and resources allow scholars to develop new insights and supplement, contextualise, or challenge our previous understandings of the causes and consequences of developments in law and society.

We are assembling a special collection of essays that consider how legal history in Aboriginal, British, Australian, American or wider contexts have shaped our shared present. The essays in this collection will be more than just discussions of particular aspects of legal history in the abstract; instead, each will draw a clear and significant connection to a meaningful feature of our lives today. With this Call for Papers, we are now soliciting contributions from the academy and members of the public more generally.

Advice for contributors.  This edited collection will be initially offered to an Australian academic press.  Please submit an abstract of up to 250 words explaining the focus and approach your proposed essay would take to ensure appropriate academic rigour. The proposed volume is intended to be scholarly but accessible in tone and approach. Each contribution should be in the area of 6000 to 10000 words. Please email abstracts to marcus.harmes@usq.edu.au by 30 September 2019.

About the editors. Associate Professor Marcus Harmes is Associate Director (Academic Development) in the University of Southern Queensland’s Open Access College and teaches legal history in the law degree.  Dr. Jeremy Patrick is Acting Associate Head of School (Research) in the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice. He has published on the historical aspects of various subjects in the area of law and religion.  Ms Sarah McKibbin is Lecturer (Law) in the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Law and Justice. She was instrumental in developing the legal history course in the law degree.

--posted by Dan Ernst