Vasconcelos Vilaça on Broken April, Narratology, Legal Normativity, and the Experience of Law

Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Law School, has published Broken April: Narratology, Legal Normativity, and the Experience of Law, in Law and Critique (2024). Law and Critique, 0[10.1007/s10978-024-09400-w]

This article delves into the intersection of literature and legal normativity through the lens of Ismail Kadare’s novel Broken April. It explores how literary theory enhances philosophical analysis of law by examining the novel’s portrayal of the Kanun, a set of customary laws in Albania, highlighting the complexity of legal normativity and the impact of law on individual subjectivity and social order. The core argument posits that Broken April serves not only as a reimagined narrative of Albanian customary law, but also as a device to question and reflect on the broader implications of law’s normative force, and its reliance on a plethora of aesthetically effective symbols, in constituting both human behavior and the social imaginary. Through the literariness of Broken April, this article explains how law infiltrates and molds the social and psychological dimensions of life, ultimately shaping legal experience. It argues that literature offers a unique vantage point to reassess our understanding of law’s role in society, challenging conventional and nonconventional legal theories that overlook the cultural and emotional dimensions of law.

Access available via subscription.

Law and Society Association, Graduate Student & Early Career Workshop Call For Applications @law_soc

From the Law and Society Association (LSA): Call for Applications, Graduate Student and Early Career Workshop

The Law and Society Association (LSA) is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Graduate Student & Early Career Workshop. The workshop will convene on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, immediately preceding the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

We welcome applications from students in graduate/doctoral programs in the social sciences, humanities, and law, as well as early career scholars who received their highest degree after May 1, 2021, including post-doctoral fellows, adjunct faculty, and pre-tenure faculty. Preference will be given to doctoral candidates and early career faculty. Especially where career breaks exist due to family obligations, eligibility will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Equity, diversity, and inclusion as well as representation of the Global South are priorities for the workshop.

The workshop will take place May 21, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago, IL, USA.

Applications are due November 6, 2024.

More information is available here.

Newly Published: Pierre Schlag, Twilight of the American State (University of Michigan Press, 2023) @ColoLaw @UofMPress

Pierre Schlag, University of Colorado Law, has published Twilight of the American State (University of Michigan Press, 2023). Here from the publisher's website, is a description of the book's contents.

The sudden emergence of the Trump nation surprised nearly everyone, including journalists, pundits, political consultants, and academics. When Trump won in 2016, his ascendancy was widely viewed as a fluke. Yet time showed it was instead the rise of a movement—angry, militant, revanchist, and unabashedly authoritarian.

How did this happen? Twilight of the American State offers a sweeping exploration of how law and legal institutions helped prepare the grounds for this rebellious movement. The controversial argument is that, viewed as a legal matter, the American state is not just a liberal democracy, as most Americans believe. Rather, the American state is composed of an uneasy and unstable combination of different versions of the state—liberal democratic, administered, neoliberal, and dissociative. Each of these versions arose through its own law and legal institutions. Each emerged at different times historically. Each was prompted by deficits in the prior versions. Each has survived displacement by succeeding versions. All remain active in the contemporary moment—creating the political-legal dysfunction America confronts today.

Pierre Schlag maps out a big picture view of the tribulations of the American state. The book abjures conventional academic frameworks, sets aside prescriptions for quick fixes, dispenses with lamentations about polarization, and bypasses historical celebrations of the American Spirit.

 

UM Press has made the book available for reading online or downloading here. Excellent!

 

New Initiative at the University of Helsinki: The Helsinki Legal History Series @CoCoLawProject @HelsinkiLaw @helsinkiuni @eurostorie

 

From Professor Airton Ribeiro, University of Helsinki, an announcement of an exciting new initiative:

 

 

During 2023, the CoCoLaw Project and EuroStorie Centre of Excellence will host the Helsinki Legal History Series. The initiative gathers both established scholars and younger researchers who all work at the intersection of law, society and history. The aim is to promote legal historical research and to illustrate the merits of historical approach in analyzing fundamental questions regarding law's embeddedness in society and the mechanisms of legal change. The seminar series consists of 9 lectures taking place at the University of Helsinki (and streamed online), according to the following program:

January 31st

National Styles beyond Boarders. A Travelogue of Migrating Legal Stories in the Nineteenth Century

Cristina Vano (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

 

February 28th

European Union and its founding values – a legal history autopsy

Tuuli Talvinko (University of Helsinki)

 

March 28th

From the university-based ius commune to a potentially universal law. A lecture in honour of Mireille Delmas-Marty (1941-2022)

Alain Wijffels (KU Leuven)

 

April 25th

Homesteading and the American Dream

K-Sue Park (Georgetown University)

 

May 30th

The English ‘Law of Succession’ as an expression of European Legal Culture: The Story of its Development

Reinhard Zimmermann (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law)

 

September 26^th 

Transnational Legal Transfers: the extraordinary life of JP Benjamin QC (1811-1884)

Catharine MacMillan (Kings College London)

 

October 31^st  

The History of Cultural Heritage in International Law

Pauno Soirila (University of Helsinki)

 

November 28^th

Usus Theologicus Pandectarum: The Civilian Tradition in a Theological Context

Wim Decock (UCLouvain)

 

December 12^th 

Tombos: How registering the Past became Normative and Why it Faltered in the Nineteenth Century

Tamar Herzog (Harvard University)

 

 

CoCoLaw Project

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/comparing-early-modern-colonial-laws

EuroStorie Centre of Excellence

https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/law-identity-and-the-european-narratives)

 

Forthcoming, June 2022: Jessica Silbey, Against Progress: Intellectual Property and Fundamental Values in the Information Age (2022) @JSilbey @stanfordpress @BU_Law

Forthcoming: Jessica Silbey, Professor of Law, Boston University, is publishing Against Progress: Intellectual Property and Fundamental Values in the Information Age (Stanford University Press, 2022). Here from the publisher's website is a description of the book's contents.

When first written into the Constitution, intellectual property aimed to facilitate "progress of science and the useful arts" by granting rights to authors and inventors. Today, when rapid technological evolution accompanies growing wealth inequality and political and social divisiveness, the constitutional goal of "progress" may pertain to more basic, human values, redirecting IP's emphasis to the commonweal instead of private interests. Against Progress considers contemporary debates about intellectual property law as concerning the relationship between the constitutional mandate of progress and fundamental values, such as equality, privacy, and distributive justice, that are increasingly challenged in today's internet age. Following a legal analysis of various intellectual property court cases, Jessica Silbey examines the experiences of everyday creators and innovators navigating ownership, sharing, and sustainability within the internet eco-system and current IP laws. Crucially, the book encourages refiguring the substance of "progress" and the function of intellectual property in terms that demonstrate the urgency of art and science to social justice today.

Matoshi and Berisha on Social Norms and Legal Culture

Shyrete Matoshi, Independent Researcher, and Fejzulla Berisha, University of Kadri Zeka, Gjilan, have published Social Norms and Legal Culture. Here is the abstract.

Moral, as well as the right, in their implementation, are based in the consciousness of citizens, but the difference between the right and moral stands in the fact that unlike moral, the right is set and sanctioned by the state, while moral norms are set by the public opinion and can treat moral as an internal sanction in the context of psychological consciousness and with this people know the done and undone actions, respectively the purposes of action or inaction. It is understood that the norms issued and sanctioned by social organizations can’t be contrary to the legal order, with norms that have higher legal power. It is understood that the norms that are issued – adopted by social organizations can’t be contrary to the legal order – the positive right, with norms with higher legal power that in this context are issued – adopted by the state as a strong social organization. With the term ‘right’ we mean the norms that are created by the organized society and that are applied by that society which is called state, and the norms that are applied by the state are called the right. The state is an organization of organized violence based on legal norms is distinguished by other organizations, mostly thanks to its external element – physical force. In the state and right there might be slow changes that happen in the society, which we can call evolutionary changes, ongoing changes, for example the change of some legal clauses in the acts of some laws. Simply, only some clauses change. All these, in one way or another, change the state and law, (but partly) the essence remains the same. The state and right in essence remain unchangeable and within these changes of state and right are: changes called reforms, coup and conspiracy. The reform is also a promoter of changes of the function of state and right, by following and incorporating the results, contemporary achievements in general social relations. Coup – these kinds of changes are unacceptable for the society, don’t coincide with the principles of the democratic order, because they don’t bring important favors for the society in general, but only for a certain group of people. The difference between coup and state conspiracy stands in the fact that state coup is done by a certain group of people in the state hierarchy, while the conspiracy is done by people that are not part of this hierarchy, that are outside state structures, respectively persons that are not part of state hierarchy. But it is also a characteristic of the conspiracy to emphasize that it doesn’t change the state and right in essence, in this context it remains unchanged. The revolution entails two meanings, respectively two notions: the revolution exercised by violence, and the revolution exercised peacefully. The revolution exercised by violence, physical violence, means armed conflicts between the carriers of state power and the ones that depend from this power, when an organization goes after the old state organization until the seizure of power, the political and economic one. The economic revolution is also reflected in the state and right in general, because it also changes the system of property, which means that, the state and right also change. According to the new democratic principles, starting from the system of property with different revolutions different property holders appear.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Daniel and Woude on Making Sense of the Law and Society Movement @LeidenLawBlog @Maartje_W @LeidenLaw

Daniel Blocq, Leiden Law School, and Maartje van der Woude, Leiden Law School, Institute for Criminal Law & Criminology, are publishing Making Sense of the Law and Society Movement in volume 11 of the Erasmus Law review (2018). Here is the abstract.

This article aims to deepen scholarly understanding of the Law and Society Movement (L&S) and thereby strengthen debates about the relation between Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) and L&S. The article departs from the observation that ELS, understood as an initiative that emerged in American law schools in the early 2000s, has been quite successful in generating more attention to the empirical study of law and legal institutions in law schools, both in- and outside the US. In the early years of its existence, L&S – another important site for the empirical study of law and legal institutions – also had its center of gravity inside the law schools. But over time, it shifted towards the social sciences. This article discusses how that happened, and more in general explains how L&S became ever more diverse in terms of substance, theory and methods.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Suuberg on Buck v. Bell, American Eugenics, and the Bad Man Test: Putting Limits on Newgenics in the 21st Century @alessuube

Alessandra Suuberg, indepdendant scholar, has published Buck v. Bell, American Eugenics, and the Bad Man Test: Putting Limits on Newgenics in the 21st Century. Here is the abstract.

With its 1927 decision in Buck v. Bell, the Supreme Court embraced the American eugenics program, which was then at its peak. An association with fascism and a discredited pseudoscience was one reason why the Buck case would later became infamous. Another reason was that, rather than resolving a true conflict, the case was seen as contrived: designed strategically to validate a particular Virginia law and ensure the success of the eugenics movement. Because the strategists were a close-knit group of elites and eugenics proponents, and the guinea pig at the center was poor and disadvantaged, the case provided a striking example of the way that a legal system intended to protect the most vulnerable members of society can instead be manipulated and used against them in the name of reform. Today, it is important to remember Buck and its legacy in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

Download the article froM SSRN at the link.

Call For Applications: Postdocs at Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University

The Newcomb College Institute of Tulane University seeks two postdoctoral
fellows in law and society. We seek applicants whose research takes an
intersectional approach to law and society, reflecting how gender, race,
class, disability, sexuality, ethnic, community, immigration status, and
national identities shape law and, in turn, how law shapes those
identities. We will consider applicants beginning in the Spring of 2019,
Summer of 2019 or Fall of 2019 for a single semester, a calendar year, or
for the 2019-2020 academic year for up to two years of support per person.
We prefer a two-year appointment, but are open to shorter terms.



The fellows will receive mentoring from senior faculty, participate in our
interdisciplinary community focused on intersectionality, and mentor
undergraduate student research assistants. We expect fellow to participate
in brown bag seminars, receptions, and other programming, mentor one or
more undergraduate research assistants, and help to organize a workshop in
the fall of the second year of the fellowship. We especially invite
applicants whose research and teaching interests focus on and/or contribute
to increased understanding of law, intersectionality, and identity in New
Orleans, Louisiana, and/or the Gulf Coast South, as well as those with a
demonstrated commitment to building interdisciplinary community.



Applicants should apply via Interfolio (https://apply.interfolio.com/56162)=
and
should include:

=C2=B7     A cover letter explaining their research interests, length of ti=
me
they would want to be in residence, when they would want to start, and
identifying the Tulane faculty member or members they would work most
closely with

=C2=B7     A C.V.

=C2=B7     A list of three references

Questions may be addressed to Laura Wolford, Assistant Director of the
Newcomb College Institute at lwolford@tulane.edu. Screening will begin
November 15, 2018 and continue until the positions are filled.

Tulane University is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative
action/persons with disabilities/veterans employer committed to excellence
through diversity. Tulane will not discriminate against individuals with
disabilities or veterans. All eligible candidates are encouraged to apply.



Qualifications:



1.     PhD in Political Science, History, American Studies, Sociology,
Women and/or Gender Studies, Psychology, or other closely related fields.
Ph.D must be in hand when appointment starts.

2.     Demonstrated research interests which an intersectional approach to
law and society, reflecting how gender, race, class, disability, sexuality,
ethnic, community, immigration status, and national identities shape law
and, in turn, how law shapes those identities.

3.     Preference given to applicants whose research and teaching interests
focus on and/or contribute to increased understanding of law,
intersectionality, and identity in New Orleans, Louisiana, and/or the Gulf
Coast South, as well as those with a demonstrated commitment to building
interdisciplinary community.

Cummings on the Puzzle of Social Movements in American Legal History @UCLA_Law

Scott L. Cummings, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, has published The Puzzle of Social Movements in American Legal Theory at 64 UCLA Law Review 1552 (2017). Here is the abstract.

In one of the most striking developments in American legal scholarship over the past quarter century, social movements have become central to the study of law. In constitutional theory, movements have emerged as key drivers of legal reform, creating new constitutional ideals and minimizing concerns of activist courts overriding the majority will. In lawyering theory, movements have appeared as mobilized clients in the pursuit of social change, leading political struggle and shifting attention away from concerns about activist lawyers dominating marginalized groups. In a surprising turnabout, social movements — long ignored by legal academics — have now achieved a privileged position in legal scholarship as engines of progressive transformation. Why social movements have come to play this dramatic new role is the central inquiry of this Article. To answer it, the Article provides an original account of progressive legal theory that reveals how the rise of social movements is a current response to an age-old problem: harnessing law as a force for social change within American democracy while still maintaining a distinction between law and politics.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

ICYMI: Being Social: Ontology, Law, Politics (From Counterpress Publishing) @2counterpress

ICYMI:

Being Social: Ontology, Law, Politics (Daniel Matthews and Tara Mulqueen, eds., Counterpress Publishing, 2015). Here is a description of the book's contents, from the publisher's website.

Being Social brings together leading and emerging scholars on the question of sociality in poststructuralist thought. The essays collected in this volume examine a sense of the social which resists final determination and closure, embracing an anxiety and undecidability of sociality, rather than effacing it. Through issues including queer politics, migration, and Guantanamo, recent events such as the occupation of Gezi Park in Istanbul, and theoretical explorations of themes such as writing, law, and democracy, contributors assess how a reconfigured sociality affects thinking and practice in the legal and political realms. With a particular emphasis on Jean-Luc Nancy, whose work brings questions of community to the fore, these essays explore how the consistent ‘unworking’ of sociality informs the tenor and form of political debate and engagement.

ISA RCSL PODGÒRECKI PRIZE 2018: Call for Nominations

From the mailbox:

CALL FOR NOMINATIONSISA RCSL PODGÒRECKI PRIZE 2018 FOR YOUNG SCHOLAR’S PUBLICATION The Podgòrecki Prize The ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Law established the Podgòrecki Prize in 2004, to honour the memory of Adam Podgòrecki, the founding father of RCSL and a leading figure within the inter­national sociological community. The Prize Committee awards the prize annually for outstanding achievements in socio-legal research, in alternate years for either distinguished and out­standing lifetime achievements, or outstanding scholarship of a socio-legal researcher at an earlier stage of his or her career.  The prize for emerging socio-legal scholars will be a commemorative certificate and a money prize, to honour and encourage colleagues that have yet to leave a mark on the international level of production of socio-legal research but who have published one or more significant works within no later than 10 years of his or her doctorate. Publications can be in any language. For works in languages other than those familiar to the Prize Committee, the nominations should give some indication of the value of the work and provide selected translations. To consider works in less well-known languages, the Prize Committee can co-opt and consult other members of the research committee. General information about the prize and the Podgò­recki Prize rules can be found at:
http://rcsl.iscte.pt/rcsl_apodgpr.htm Call for 2018 nominationsIn 2018, the Prize will be awarded for an outstanding published study by an emerging socio-legal scholar. Previous winners of this prize have been Leonidas Cheliotis (2016), Iker Barbero (2014), Fatima Kastner and Stefan Larsson (2012), Flora di Donato (2010), Liora Israël (2008) and Kiyoshi Hasegawa (2006). The Study may be in the form of a book, an article or a series of articles. Nominations of emerging socio-legal scholars are invited for the 2018 Podgòrecki Prize. Candidates are eligible if they have published one or more significant works within 10 years of their doc­torate. Nominations require support from at least two members of the RCSL. Publications can be in any language. For works in languages other than those known by the prize committee, the nominations should ideally provide selected translations. It is desirable, but not essential, that nominees are members of RCSL. Nominations must include:・the candidate’s CV・a short statement from each nominator on the value of the candidate’s work・copies of relevant publications The members of the 2018 Podgòrecki Prize Com­mittee are Professor Hakan Hyden (Chair, Sweden), Professor Stefan Machura (U.K.) and Professor Susan Sterett (U.S.A.).

Nominations should be sent to the Chair of the committee, Hakan Hyden (hakan.hyden@soclaw.lu.se) to be received by 1 May 2018. The prize will be awarded at the ISA World Congress in Lisbon 10-13 September, 2018. 

Cuéllar on Three Pivotal Transitions in American Law and Society Since 1886

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Stanford Law School; Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, is publishing Adaptation Nation: Three Pivotal Transitions in American Law & Society Since 1886 in volume 70 of the Oklahoma Law Review. Here is the abstract.

Drawing on perspectives from administrative law as well as the study of law and development, this article analyzes three important transitions in American law and society since the Chicago Haymarket Square Riot of 1886. First, between the Haymarket Square Riot and 1950, the United States made great strides in the use and capacity of its institutions. At the outset, Americans lived in what could be reasonably described as a developing country constrained by violent labor conflicts, fragile institutions, and economic uncertainty. By the end of this period the United States was a preeminent global power making routine use of courts and agencies to resolve societal disputes. Second, in the latter half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, Americans saw their country experience major demographic changes arising from the United States' distinctive approach to immigration. To implement its distinctive approach to mass immigration following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act amendments, the United States relied on elaborate mechanism for administrative adjudication and enforcement on a massive scale, as well as a more decentralized mechanism of regionally-based integration that could further both social cohesion and geopolitical aims. And third, the United States now faces emerging governance and regulatory challenges as technological developments involving networked computers and so-called “artificial intelligence” increasingly affect society and the nature of work. Once associated with the public contracting infrastructure used to support defense-related research and development, this transition is now catalyzing interest in regulatory and liability-related frameworks to govern the division of responsibility between human decision-makers and machine intelligence. I reflect on some of the similarities and differences associated with these transitions. I place them in the context of related legal developments, and assess what they reveal about the United States’ historical legacies and arrangements for pluralist governance. Ultimately, an understanding of these transitions provides not only indispensable context for the United States’ early twenty-first century institutional dilemmas, but also an appreciation of how a pivotal geopolitical power adapted to forge –– however imperfectly –– legal arrangements incorporating norms of non-arbitrariness in different settings where law affects development.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Ortuoste on Literature, Society, and Law: A Three-Sided Mirror: The Basque Case

Lorena Ortuoste, Independent, is publishing Literature, Society and Law: A Three-Sided Mirror. The Basque Case. How Contemporary Literature Reflects Identity, Conflict and Memory in the 'Spanish' Basque Country: A Tridimensional Mirror in volume 7 of Oñati Socio-Legal Series (2017). Here is the abstract (in English and Spanish).

English Abstract: The aim in this thesis is to show how the Basque-culture identity struggles are reflected within the Basque literature and how their actions, behaviour, traditions, culture, memory, language, etcetera, define them as a community or minority. In order to show the reflection of the law in five chosen novels written in Basque, firstly I will try to explain the link between law and literature, and afterwards, a double analytical construction will take place: on the first hand, a descriptive and historical explanation to provide the audience with the meaning of the three basic concepts which constitute the Basque culture -identity, conflict and memory-, and with a socio-historical context; on the second hand, this analysis will be based on the content analysis of the five novels that have been chosen, and contextualized or in relation to the period that goes from the Civil War (1936-1939) to the post-war and nowadays, with special insistences in the decade of the 1980s and 1990s.

Spanish Abstract: El objetivo de esta tesis es mostrar cómo los conflictos identitarios de la cultura vasca se reflejan en la literatura, y cómo sus acciones, comportamiento, tradiciones, cultura, memoria, lengua, etc., lo definen como comunidad o minoría. Para mostrar la manera en que se refleja lo jurídico en cinco novelas seleccionadas escritas en lengua vasca, primero intentaré explicar la relación entre derecho y literatura, y después, llevaré a cabo una doble construcción analítica: de un lado, una explicación descriptiva e histórica, para proporcionar tanto un significado de los tres conceptos básicos que constituyen la cultura vasca -identidad, conflicto y memoria- como un contexto sociohistórico; y, por otro lado, este análisis se basa en el análisis de contenido de las cinco novelas seleccionadas y contextualizadas en, o en relación con el período entre la Guerra civil (1936-1939) y posguerra, y la actualidad, con especial insistencia en la década de los 80 y los 90.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Via @maksdelmar: Conversation In Law and Society, a Project from the Center for the Study of Law and Society @CSLSatBerkeley

Of interest: Conversations in Law and Society, a project from the Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley Law.

These discussions began in 2010, and include interviews with Joseph R. Gusfield, Stewart Macaulay, Lawrence Friedman, Laura Nader, Marc Galanter, Jerome Skolnick, Sally Falk Moore, Sanford H. Kadish, William K. Muir, Harry N. Scheiber, Richard D. Schwartz, David M. and Louise G. Trubek, Robert A. Kagan, Sally Engle Merry, John and Jean Comaroff, Malcolm Feeley, Susan S. Silbey, Austin Sarat, and Kitty Calavita.

Via @maksdelmar. 

Sugarman on Promoting Dialogue Between History and Socio-Legal Studies: The Contribution of Christopher W. Brooks and "Legal Turn" in Early Modern English History @LancasterUni

David Sugarman, Lancaster University Law School, has published Promoting Dialogue between History and Socio-Legal Studies: The Contribution of Christopher W. Brooks and the ‘Legal Turn’ in Early Modern English History at 44 Journal of Law & Society 37 (October 2017) (Special Issue: Main Currents in Contemporary Sociology of Law). Here is the abstract.

This paper argues that the work of socio-legal scholars and historians would benefit from greater dialogue, and from taking the social history of law itself more seriously. It points up the benefits and the difficulties that might arise from greater cross-fertilization. By way of a case study, it focuses on the ‘legal turn’ in recent history writing on early modern England, particularly, Christopher W. Brooks’s ground-breaking analysis of the nature and extent of legal consciousness throughout society, and the central role of law and legal institutions in the constitution of society. The paper critically reviews Brooks’s principal ideas and findings, the contexts within which they arose, their theoretical underpinnings, and their larger significance. It highlights Brooks’s engagement with diverse scholars, including John Baker, Marc Galanter, Jürgen Habermas, Robert W. Gordon, J.G.A. Pocock and E.P. Thompson. It is proposed that Brooks investigated both elite and popular legal consciousness on an almost unparalleled scale, adopting top-down and bottom-up approaches that revealed the trickle-up, as well as trickle-down, diffusion of legal ideas, transcending the boundaries of social, political, and legal history. More generally, the paper seeks to demonstrate that the turn to law in early modern English history has enlarged the field in terms of subject-matter, methodologies and the range of sources utilised, deepening understanding of the workings of law and its wider importance. Indicative subject areas and topics enhanced by the legal turn are outlined including: law, gender, agency and social hierarchy; legal consciousness; trust, contractual thinking, and capitalism; governance and the growth of state power; and the decline in the participation of ordinary people in the legal system, and the so-called ’vanishing trial’. The paper concludes that a convergence between history, legal history and socio-legal studies has been underway in recent decades, that it provides opportunities for greater cross-fertilization, and that this would enhance our understanding of the role of law in society, and of society. For that greater dialogue to happen there would need to be better institutional support, changes in the cultures and mind-sets of history, socio-legal studies and legal history, and greater self-reflexivity. It would also generate difficult questions and controversy as to what sort of rapport might be appropriate, when, how and to what effect.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Swanson on "Great Men," Law, and the Social Construction of Technology @KaraWSwanson

Kara W. Swanson, Northeastern University School of Law, is publishing 'Great Men,' Law, and the Social Construction of Technology in Law and Social Inquiry. Here is the abstract.

Alexander Graham Bell is famous as the inventor of the telephone. Is his fame owing to law and lawyers? Two recent histories argue that some popular tales of invention originated with lawyers and judges as part of patent litigation battles. (Stathis Arapostathis and Graeme Gooday, Patently Contestable: Electrical Technologies and Inventor Identities on Trial in Britain (2013); Christopher Beauchamp, Invented by Law: Alexander Graham Bell and the Patent that Changed America (2015)). Bringing law into the historical project of understanding the social construction of technology, the authors unsettle great man narratives of invention. A tale of a recent patent war, however, is a case study in the persistence of such narratives, highlighting the uses of legal storytelling. (Ronald K. Fierstein, A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War (2015)). Together, these works invite consideration of the cultural power possessed by invention origin stories, the role of narratives in law and history, and the judicial performance of truth-finding in Anglo-American law.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A Realistic Theory of Law: A New Book From Brian Z. Tamanaha

Brian Z. Tamanaha, Washington University, St. Louis, has published A Realistic Theory of Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Here from the publisher's website is a description of the book's contents.

This book articulates an empirically grounded theory of law applicable throughout history and across different societies. Unlike natural law theory or analytical jurisprudence, which are narrow, abstract, ahistorical, and detached from society, Tamanaha's theory presents a holistic vision of law within society, evolving in connection with social, cultural, economic, political, ecological, and technological factors. He revives a largely forgotten theoretical perspective on law that runs from Montesquieu through the legal realists to the present. This book explains why the classic question 'what is law?' has never been resolved, and casts doubt on theorists' claims about necessary and universal truths about law. This book develops a theory of law as a social institution with varying forms and functions, tracing law from hunter-gatherer societies to the modern state and beyond. Tamanaha's theory accounts for social influences on law, legal influences on society, law and domination, multifunctional governmental uses of law, legal pluralism, international law, and other legal aspects largely overlooked in jurisprudence.

Presents the only contemporary version of a holistic theory of law within society

An excellent resource to learn a great deal about legal theory from a social scientific perspective

Traces the development of law and society, providing an account of the transformation of modern law.

Reminder: Call For Papers, AALS Section of Law and the Humanities Panel on Robots and AI in the Humanities, 2018 Annual Meeting

 Reminder:

 

Call for papers for an AALS Section of Law and the Humanities panel at the 2018 Annual Meeting, San Diego, January 3-January 6, 2018,  on the theme of the image of robots and AI in the humanities, communication, film, tv, art, commercials, philosophy, and related disciplines. Should robots and AI have rights? If so what rights? 

Intrigued by the image of robots in film? Have you thought about what norms or law should govern the behavior of AI in society? Input your thoughts into a laptop, or on paper,  or get an android to co-author something with you and send your expression of interest, affiliation, and a short description (100-250 words) of  your proposed paper by May 15, 2017 to

Christine Corcos (christine.corcos@law.lsu.edu) at LSU Law Center. See you in San Diego!

Legal Conversations As Signifier: A New Book From Elgar Publishing @ElgarPublishing

Forthcoming from Elgar Publishing:

Legal Conversation as Signifier (Jan M. Broekman and Frank Fleerackers, ed., September 2017) (Elgar Studies in Legal Theory). Here is a description of the book's contents.

Conversation and argument concerning laws and legal situations take place throughout society and at all levels, yet the language of these conversations differs greatly from that of the courtroom. This insightful book considers the gap between everyday discussion about law and the artificial, technical language developed by lawyers, judges and other legal specialists. In doing so, it explores the intriguing possibilities for future synthesis, a problem often neglected by legal theory.

Analysing the major components of law and legal procedure across both common and civil law, this book reveals how legal conversation on the ‘street’ contributes to our understanding of law as well as our democratic citizenship. Jan M. Broekman and Frank Fleerackers consider the impact of multiculturalism and the threat of terror on our impressions of legal conversation and the importance we place upon it, arguing that anarchism and legalism are hostile neighbours sharing many themes and motives. Exploring the meaning and sense of the concept of ‘street’ in ancient and modern times, the authors pose the question: is law just a discourse or should it be classified as one of the major narratives in human life?

Unique and discerning, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the language of law. Legal educators will find their scope broadened whilst researchers, activists and politicians will find themselves captivated by the focus on social activism and citizen motivation.