Law as …: Theory and Method in Legal History – Conference UC Irvine 16-17 April, 2010
The blog has noticed a lot of recent interest in issues of methodology in legal history. This is always interesting, though too much navel gazing is not always helpful. The most recently advertised conference on this theme is entitled "Law As … ": Theory and Method, in Legal History, to take place April 16-17, 2010 at the University of California, Irvine with a distinguished panel of speakers and a varied programme, including (without in any way wishing to denigrate the others) as a speaker Laura Edwards, who has recently published The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-revolutionary South (2009), a fascinating book that this blogger is currently reading and would strongly recommend. The programme is as follows:
EVENT SCHEDULE
APRIL 16, 2010
8:45-9 a.m.: Welcome and Introduction: Catherine Fisk (Law, UC Irvine)
Session 1: INTERACTIONS – LAW, TEXT, HISTORY
Chair Dirk Hartog (History, Princeton)
9:00-10:45 a.m.: Presentation of Papers
Steven Wilf (Law, Connecticut), “Law/Text/Past”
Norman Spaulding (Law, Stanford), “On the Interdependence of Law, History and Memory”
Kunal Parker (Law, Miami), “Common Law Thought and the Problem of History”
Marianne Constable (Rhetoric, UC Berkeley), “‘In the Name of the Law’: Law as Claim to Justice”
10:45-11 a.m.: Short Break
11 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Commentary and Discussion
Commentator: Christopher Tomlins (Law, UC Irvine)
12:45-1:30 p.m.: Lunch Break
Session 2: INTERSECTIONS – LAW, HISTORY, CULTURE
Chair Ariela Gross (Law, USC)
1:30-3:15 p.m.: Presentation of Papers
Peter Goodrich (Law, Cardozo), “Specters of Law: Why the History of the Legal Spectacle has not been Written”
Shai Lavi (Law, Tel Aviv), “Law as World: Secular History and Jewish Ritual in Nineteenth Century Germany”
Assaf Likhovski (Law, UCLA and Tel Aviv), “Chasing Ghosts: On Writing Cultural History of Tax Law”
Roger Berkowitz (Political Studies & Human Rights, Bard College), “History and the Noble Art of Lying”
3:15-3:30 p.m.: Short Break
3:30-5:15: Commentary and Discussion
Commentator: John Comaroff (Anthropology, Chicago)
APRIL 17, 2010
Session 3: INTERPRETATIONS – LAW, POLICY, ECONOMY
Chair: Risa Goluboff (Law, Virginia)
9:00-10:45 a.m.: Presentation of Papers
Ritu Birla (History, Toronto), “Law as Economy: Convention, Corporation, Currency”
Roy Kreitner (Radcliffe Institute and Law, Tel Aviv), “Money in the 1890s: The Circulation of Law, Politics, and Economics”
Christopher Schmidt (Law, Chicago-Kent), “Conceptions of Law in the Civil Rights Movement”
Barbara Welke (History & Law, Minnesota), “Owning Hazard in the Modern American Consumer Marketplace”
10:45-11 a.m.: Short Break
11 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Commentary and Discussion
Commentator: Morton Horwitz (Law, Harvard)
12:45-1:30 p.m.: Lunch Break
Session 4: INSTANTIATIONS – LAW, SOVEREIGNTY, JUSTICE
Chair Laura Kalman (History, UC Santa Barbara)
1:30-3:15 p.m.: Presentation of Papers
Laura Edwards (History, Duke), “The Peace: The Meaning and Production of Law in the Post-Revolutionary U.S.”
John Witt (Law, Yale), “Escape and Engagement: The Laws of War in the Early American Republic”
Paul Frymer (Politics, Princeton), “Building an American Empire: Territorial Expansion and Indian Removal, 1787-1850”
Mariana Valverde (Criminology Centre, Toronto) “‘The honour of the Crown is at stake’: Aboriginal Land Claims Litigation in Canada and the Epistemology of Sovereignty”
3:15-3:30 p.m.: Short Break
3:30-5:15 p.m.: Commentary and Discussion
Commentator: Robert W. Gordon (Law, Yale)
5:30-7 p.m.: Reception