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"Law As ... ": Theory and Method
in Legal History

April 16-17, 2010

University of California, Irvine
Calit2 Auditorium and Atrium (map)

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.

SPEAKERS

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