"Law As ... ": Theory and Method in Legal History
April 16-17, 2010
University of California, Irvine • Calit2 Auditorium and Atrium
Legal historians have long explained law through its relationship to what lies “outside” it: law & society, law & policy, law & economy.
What if we imagine them as the same phenomenon – not law & economy, but law as economy (or economy as law)?
What of law as art, as science, as war, as peace?
We invite all scholars and students of history and law to join us to discuss new developments in the theory and method of legal history.
Conference admission is free. Please RSVP to events@law.uci.edu.
Featured Speakers
Roger Berkowitz
Bard College
Ritu Birla
Toronto
Marianne Constable
UC Berkeley
Laura Edwards
Duke
Catherine Fisk
UC Irvine
Paul Frymer
Princeton
Risa Goluboff
Virginia
Peter Goodrich
Cardozo
Robert W. Gordon
Yale
Ariela Gross
USC
Dirk Hartog
Princeton
Morton Horwitz
Harvard
Laura Kalman
UC Santa Barbara
Roy Kreitner
Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, Tel Aviv
Shai Lavi
Tel Aviv
Assaf Likhovski
UCLA, Tel Aviv
Kunal Parker
Miami
Christopher Schmidt
Chicago-Kent
Norman Spaulding
Stanford
Christopher Tomlins
UC Irvine
Mariana Valverde
Toronto
Barbara Welke
Minnesota
Steven Wilf
Connecticut
John Witt
Yale
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