We have word of the latest in the Common Law Research Seminar Series of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, entitled
Legal Transfer in the Common Law World. The seminar usually meets from 2:15-3:15 on selected Tuesdays save for November 28, a Thursday.
As the British Empire expanded, English law was being introduced in very different parts of the world. Rules, principles and institutions from England were brought into force in regions and societies as diverse as Australia, Ghana, India, Jamaica and Singapore. In this Special Research Field, we enquire how this process unfolded in various places.
In many cases English law encountered local or regional traditions, both legal and non-legal. To what extent did these encounters differ from each other? Was there ever anything resembling the frequently invoked ‘unity of the common law’? Or did the law of England acquire a distinctive flavour in each territory, depending on the geography, the climate and the prevailing religious, moral and economic views of the inhabitants? And, finally, can we learn anything from the experience of English law for the broader debate on legal ‘transplants’ and, even more generally, legal development as such?
Initially, this research field focuses primarily on the following regions: India, South East Asia and the Caribbean. Specific case studies turn on different areas of law, including constitutional law, the law of contract, land law and intellectual property. Equally important are the modes of conflict management in state courts and beyond.
Here is the schedule:
October 14 Yair Sagy (University of Haifa), Law Reporting in Mandatory Palestine and the British Empire: Methodology, Perspective, and Narrative
November 4 Zeynep Yazici-Caglar (Max Planck Institute for European Legal History), Legal Education as a Tool of Professionalization in England (1850-1900)
November 11 Delores Freda (University of Naples), Across Boundaries: the English Justices of the Peace on the Continent
November 28 (Thursday) Hunter Harris (University of Michigan), The Use of Bills of Exchange in 18th Century Glasgow
December 2 Henry Jones (Durham University), The Meaning of Territory in British Empire Border Disputes
December 16 Victoria Barnes and Niels Pepels (Max Planck Institute for European Legal History), Transferring offer, acceptance and revocation to British Guiana
January 13 Matilde Cazzola (University of Bologna), Master and Servant Regulations and Labour Laws in the Post-Emancipation British West Indies
January 27 Mark Comos (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law), American States of Nature: The Origins of Independence, 1761-1775
February 10 Matthew Waites (University of Glasgow), Same-Sex Discrimination in the Commonwealth
--Dan Ernst
