Sharma and Pareek on Colonial Constructs and Legal Myths: The Erasure of Hindi Jurisprudence and Dicta on Criminal Law Under the Shadow of English Legal Superiority

Prakash Sharma, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, and Animesh Pareek, IIT Kharagpur, have published Colonial Constructs and Legal Myths: The Erasure of Hindu Jurisprudence and Dicta on Criminal Law Under the Shadow of English Legal Superiority. Here is the abstract.

The British colonial enterprise in India restructured political and economic institutions and fundamentally altered the subcontinent's legal landscape. The systematic marginalisation and erasure of intangible Bhartiya heritage, especially in criminal law, was a crucial aspect of this transformation. This chapter examines the colonial imposition of the English legal system, viewing it not only as an administrative mechanism but also as a cultural and ideological initiative based on the belief in the inherent superiority and modernity of English law. The chapter examines the evolution of colonial legal discourse from the late 18th century, highlighting the portrayal of English criminal law as rational, secular, and progressive, in stark contrast to the depiction of Hindu law as irrational, archaic, and overly devoid of logic. The colonial state selectively codified elements of Hindu legal tradition that aligned with its administrative requirements, while disregarding extensive bodies of nuanced jurisprudence, especially those found in Dharmaśāstra literature and community-based justice practices. This chapter examines the suppression of Hindu criminal law as an aspect of broader epistemic violence, in which legal modernity is aligned with Western legal norms, thereby delegitimising non-Western legal systems. This chapter examines legislative developments and judicial opinions to elucidate the lasting effects of this erasure on postcolonial legal consciousness in India. Ultimately, the chapter contests the herrschendeErzählung(dominant narrative) that the English legal system represented a neutral or inevitable advancement over Bhartiya systems. This necessitates a critical reassessment of the influence of colonial legal constructs on current interpretations of law, justice, and legal modernity in India.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Johnson on Frederick Douglass: D.C. Recorder of Deeds

Randall K. Johnson, University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, is publishing Frederick Douglass: D.C. Recorder of Deeds in volume 28 of The Green Bag (2026). Here is the abstract.

Frederick Douglass' surprise nomination, as the first Black D.C. Recorder of Deeds, represented yet another career milestone for the most photographed U.S. citizen of the nineteenth century. As head of the local agency responsible for registering property interests, Douglass played an important role in advancing local economic development, mostly by letting the world know who owns what real estate within the geographic boundaries of D.C. This point is underscored by the fact that Douglass earned the second highest salary in the U.S. federal government, which some have estimated to be as high as $40 per work day in 1886 dollars. My essay, further, builds upon this analysis by focusing on a third indicator of importance: the type, quality and quantity of local press coverage that Douglass received during his time as the D.C. Recorder (1881 to 1886).

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Seong-Hak Kim on Legal Pluralism That Wasn't: State and the Plurality of Law in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Marie Seong-Hak Kim, Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Einheit und Vielfalt im Recht", has published Legal Pluralism That Wasn't: State and the Plurality of Law in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Legaal Hre is the abstract,

Legal pluralism has seemingly become a new orthodoxy. Its core proposition is that law has no privileged relationship with the state. Students of legal history have reason for paying attention, as legal pluralism, a corollary of colonialism, has come to project back onto European history its cultural and social-scientific paradigm and arrogate to itself the role of explaining the evolution of normative orders in the continent's past. This article argues that applying to European history a theory premised on a contest between legal monism and pluralism brings more confusion than clarity. The difference between historically grounded legal pluralism and the contemporary theory of legal pluralism revolves around the question of whether multiple legal orders existed as part of state law or state law was merely one among many legal orders. In late medieval and early modern Europe, law was foremost equated with jurisdictional power, that is, authority to rule. Various kinds of laws, including custom, Roman law, church law, and legislation, operated in a plurality of practices within the state-centered hierarchy, and it was on this framework of state law pluralism that the European countries, while remaining under the doctrinal unity of the jus commune, each followed a discrete path of legal development shaped by political and institutional changes. The history of Europe provides little support for the theory that an imposed Romanitas or state sovereignty displaced and distorted good old customary law. Modern legal pluralist views may be in need of reconsideration not just in light of what was happening in late medieval and early modern Europe but also in terms of how Europe's ideas of legal order spread to the colonies in the late nineteenth century. Recent debates on legal pluralism serve as a reminder that history is distinct from an anemic version of the more theoretical social sciences. Still, the binary of unity and plurality in law can offer an unaccustomed yet useful direction in approaching the legal past.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Call For Applications, Witteveen Memorial Fellowship in Law and Humanities, Tilburg Law School

From Michel Bot, Associate Professor of Law and Humanities
Department of Public Law and Governance, Tilburg Law School
Program Director, Major Law in an International Context, University College Tilburg

Tilburg Law School (The Netherlands) is accepting applications for this spring’s one-month Witteveen memorial fellowship in Law and Humanities. Application deadline: September 21.

The Witteveen Memorial Fellowship in Law and Humanities aims to promote research and teaching on law and rhetoric, narrative, image, performance, sound, and/or culture.

The fellowship enables a junior scholar (PhD or postdoc level) to share and develop their research in the field of law and humanities during a residency at Tilburg Law School for one month in February-May 2026. There is a 5000 euro budget to cover travel and accommodation costs.

We expect the fellow to participate actively in the academic life of Tilburg Law School by presenting their research in a research seminar and by teaching a guest class to students. Past Fellows have also introduced film screenings, have organized a reading of their play with students, have read their poetry, have given a lecture performance, participated in a teach-out, in addition to participating in various research seminars.

Scholars who are in the final stages of their PhD research or who obtained their PhD in the field of law and humanities within the last five years are eligible.

Please apply via this link.

 

See past fellows via this link.

 

Call for Applications: Law/Justice/Ethics Positions, Haverford College

 

Call For Applications: Interdisciplinary Positions at Haverford College

Two tenure-track interdisciplinary law/justice/ethics jobs at Haverford College

Haverford College invites applications for two tenure-track Assistant Professors in its Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program, to begin Fall semester 2026. The positions are open to humanists and social scientists at all pre-tenure levels (including new PhDs through those who currently hold a tenure-track position) whose work is interdisciplinary and focuses on questions of justice, law, human rights, and related fields. Position 1 seeks scholars specializing in justice- or law-oriented work that engages with theory and can contribute to the vibrancy of an interdisciplinary program. Position 2 seeks scholars specializing in ethics-oriented work who are able to engage with the college’s new Kim Ethics Institute as well as contribute to the PJHR curriculum. Successful candidates for both positions will be required to teach an introductory course on peace, justice, and human rights and/or an applied ethics course emphasizing diplomacy over winning an argument, and also offer more specialized courses in their area of expertise. Scholars knowledgeable in both theory and practice in their fields will be best suited for these positions. Candidates should also be well-versed in inclusive pedagogy and prepared to mentor a diverse student body. Haverford College embraces the teacher-scholar model and supports faculty research through programs and funding opportunities such as a pre-tenure sabbatical after a successful 3rd year review. Candidates must have a PhD by August 31, 2026.  Peace, Justice, and Human Rights (PJHR) is an interdisciplinary concentration attracting students from many different disciplines; it offers students the opportunity to study the history, philosophy, and critiques of the rights tradition, examine issues of justice in their local and international contexts, and apply humanistic, social scientific, theoretical, and ethical reasoning to real-world problems. The program’s goal is to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and new perspectives on entrenched problems. For more information, see http://www.haverford.edu/pjhr/  Still in the planning stages, the Kim Ethics Institute takes a holistic approach to ethical inquiry across the liberal arts, teaching students to address and evaluate competing goods and the consequences of choices in a global context. It brings scholarship, coursework, experiential learning, and collaborative action together, transforming theory into practice; and ethical inquiry into participation and leadership. For more information, see https://catalog.haverford.edu/programs/kim-ethics-institute/ Applicants should submit the following via Interfolio (https://apply.interfolio.com/171862): A cover letter indicating which position(s) are being applied for and addressing qualifications for the position(s), including a paragraph description of a course you’d like to teach in PJHR  A curriculum vitae A writing sample (up to 25 pages) or statement of research Applicants should arrange for three confidential letters of recommendation to be submitted directly by the recommenders via Interfolio. All application materials must be received by the end of the day on October 24, 2025 in order to receive consideration. Haverford College is a leading liberal arts college serving highly motivated students on a nationally recognized arboretum in suburban Haverford, just outside Philadelphia. For more information about Haverford and this position, please see here: https://www.haverford.edu/provost/available-positions/tenure-track-search-peace-justice-and-human-rights-pjhr-additional-information  Questions about the application process should be directed to hc-pjhrsearch@haverford.edu. For technical questions, please contact Interfolio directly at 1-877-997-8807 or help@interfolio.com.  Haverford College is an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and providing equal opportunities and access to all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status. Women, non-binary and transgender individuals, people of color, Indigenous people, and those with other or multiple historically marginalized and/or underrepresented identities are especially encouraged to apply. Haverford College and our consortial partners are located on Lenape lands.

Serafin on The Corruption of Blood as Metaphor

Nicholas Serafin, Santa Clara University School of Law, has published The Corruption of Blood as Metaphor. Here is the abstract.

Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood.” Corruption of blood was a common law punishment according to which individuals adjudged guilty of treason were deemed to possess “corrupt” blood and thus were stripped of the right to transmit property to any heirs. Conversely, their descendants lost the ability to inherit property or titles through the corrupted ancestral line. The punishment was typically imposed via attainders, that is, parliamentary determinations of an individual’s guilt without recourse to a trial. Legal authorities and legal scholars have offered a number of interpretations of the Clause. According to one interpretation, the Clause simply bans the corruption of blood, as this punishment was understood in common law. According to another interpretation, the Clause prohibits the punishment of children for the sins of their parents. According to yet another, the Clause stands for the principle that individuals should not be singled out on the basis of stigmatized group characteristics. Legal scholars remain divided over how to interpret the Clause. Part of the problem lies in the fact that while a number of legal scholars have examined the history of attainder, few have investigated the origins and meaning of the corruption of blood. In fact, much of the history of the punishment, including significant legal precedents discussing the corruption of blood, has not made its way into existing legal scholarship. This Article breaks new ground by tracing the origins of the Corruption of Blood Clause to the Roman law of infamy. I demonstrate that the punishment was imposed not simply for treason but rather for conduct or physical characteristics that were thought to be morally shameful. As the punishment was adopted in feudal Europe, the idea of corrupt blood became associated with individuals and groups who possessed stigmatized physical characteristics. In American law, this sense of corrupt blood was retained and applied particularly in cases involving immigration, integration, and intermarriage. In these cases, non-white groups were deemed to possess corrupt blood and so were excluded from the American body politic. Drawing on this history, I defend a “group-status” interpretation of the corruption of blood. I argue that the principle prohibits state action that singles out outcast groups, particularly groups defined by stigmatized physical characteristics. Because stigmatized physical characteristics are often shared by group members and passed down through generations, the principle is especially relevant when children are threatened with intergenerational punishment. The corruption of blood principle thus provides a separate foundation for important antidiscrimination doctrinal tools, such as the Court’s animus and stigma jurisprudence. Yet I also argue that the Clause itself bears directly upon issues like felon disenfranchisement and the Trump administration’s child-separation policy at the United States- Mexico border.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Molina Bustos on Cultural Analysis of the Legend of the Alligator Man

Francisco Fabiany Molina Bustos, EDUKIVOTOS, has published Cultural Analysis of the Legend of the Alligator Man. Here is the abstract.

This academic work explores the multifaceted dimensions of the Colombian legend El Hombre Caimán, analyzing its social, ethical, emotional, territorial, and economic functions. Through interdisciplinary lenses—myth theory, semiotics, pedagogy, cultural transmission, and symbolic economy—the study examines how the legend adapts across generations, media formats, and cultural contexts. It highlights the role of the myth in community identity, emotional processing, moral teaching, and cultural tourism, while critically reflecting on the risks of commodification.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Molina Bustos on Cultural Analysis of the Legend of the Whistler

Francisco Fabiany Molina Bustos, EDUKIVOTOS, has published Cultural Analysis of the Legend of the Whistler. Here is the abstract.

This academic project explores the Colombian legend of El Silbón through multidisciplinary lenses, examining its role as a myth in shaping ethics, emotions, social norms, identity, and economic potential. Analyzed from theories by Durkheim, Aristotle, Plutchik, Moscovici, and Harvey, El Silbón is shown to function as a pedagogical, symbolic, and cultural resource. The study reveals its adaptability to modern media, its emotional and psychological depth, and its use in tourism, ritual, and intergenerational transmission. It argues that the legend is not only a vessel of fear but also of identity, memory, and community resilience.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Rocheton: Among the Voices of the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges' Political and Legal Pamphlets

Julie Rocheton, Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, has published Among the Voices of the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges’ Political and Legal Pamphlets as the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory Research Paper Series No. 2025-11. Here is the abstract.

This article explores the often overlooked political and legal pamphlets of Olympe de Gouges, a French revolutionary thinker whose contributions extend far beyond her renowned Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. In her prolific writings between 1788 and 1793, de Gouges crafted a nuanced blueprint for social justice aimed at protecting vulnerable populations, advocated for women’s rights, and proposed progressive reforms in family and criminal law. Her work consistently foregrounded themes of equality, civic responsibility, and the moral obligation of the state to support its citizens, particularly those marginalized by poverty, gender, and social hierarchy. Throughout her writings, de Gouges was both ahead of her time and constrained by it. Her proposals embodied an Enlightenment-inspired belief in “natural law,” which she used to validate her ideas in the face of societal limitations on women’s intellectual contributions. While she championed equality, her moral framework sometimes restricted the inclusivity of her proposals, particularly in her critique of women. As a political thinker, her stance towards the monarchy was complex, sometimes even paradoxical. She initially advocated for a constitutional monarchy but adjusted her views as the revolution progressed, mirroring the complexities of the French population’s loyalties and the radical shifts of the revolutionary era. This study brings de Gouges’ political and social philosophies to light, assessing their historical impact and looking at her pamphlets as a coherent body of work in order to underscore her lasting legacy as a pioneering thinker.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Concepcion on The First American Law Libraries

Cattleya M. Concepcion, Georgetown University Law Library, has published The First American Law Libraries at The Green Bag Almanac and Reader 80 (2025). Here is the abstract.

A brief history and bibliography of the first American law libraries, including lawyers’ personal law libraries, bar association or membership law libraries, county law libraries, state law libraries, court law libraries, federal law libraries, law school libraries, law firm libraries, and prison law libraries.

Download the article from SSRN at the link. Note: This work is (or will be) published by the Green Bag (www.greenbag.org), which hopes you will find it useful.

Upcoming Conference: Melville's Legacy For Law and the Humanities, University of Cincinnati Law School, October 24-25, 2025

Upcoming Conference at the University of Cincinnati Law School, October 24-25, 2025

Melville's Legacy for Law and the Humanities

Co-sponsored by the University of Cincinnati Law School and the Law and Humanities Institute

See the website link below for a list of speakers and more information about registration. Speakers will include Brook Thomas, Richard Weisberg, Paul Finkelman, Marguerite Allen, Jenny Doctor, Sanford Levinson, and Robin West. 

 

https://www.lawandhumanitiesinstitute.org/events/melvilles-legacy-for-law-and-the-humanities-2

Paradise on Agape and Law in Byzantium

Brandon L. Paradise, Rutgers Law School, Newardk, has published Agape and Law in Byzantium. Here is the abstract.

This study focuses on agape love and Eastern Orthodox soteriology as master narratives in the Byzantine legal imagination. It is an approach to the conference theme that inspired this chapter--the "sacred arts of Orthodoxy" in so far as the "art of legal disputation," so central to Byzantine literature, is a much neglected area of study, where rhetoric, ethics, legal theory and theology all coincide in a symphonia which is distinctively "Orthodox." As scholars have recently argued, law in Byzantium is better understood as a rhetorical, literary negotiation of broad, extra-legal religious, cultural and philosophical narratives than as an autonomous, formalist-positivist discipline that mirrors the scientific aspirations of modern western legal systems.560 Rather than attempting to generate formally correct "legal" solutions derived exclusively from rule or formalist discourse, Byzantine law seeks to render 'substantive justice' as measured by extra-legal narratives, including—and perhaps most importantly for this study—the master narratives of the gospel and Orthodox theology.561 Concretely put, this means that law in Byzantium is more an exercise in literary negotiation and applied morality than an exercise in technocratic and autonomous rule reasoning. Thus, unlike modern western legal systems, Byzantine law clearly imagines itself less as legal science and more as artistic practice. The praxis of this artistic endeavor is the shepherding of society on the basis of agape-love and in the direction of Orthodox soteriology, so that law becomes a force for realizing these two extra-legal cultural ideals.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.