Legal History Workshop 2nd term schedule

The winter 2014 schedule for the Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop:


There have been a coupe of changes to the second term schedule. Please note that we will have the first meeting on January 15th, not January 8th as previously scheduled


Wednesday January 15 - Maynard Maidman, York University: "The Practice of Law in Ancient Mesopotamia: Two Cases from ca. 1400-1350 B.C."

Wednesday January 22 - Eric Adams, University of Alberta: “TBA”

Wednesday February 5 - Philip Girard, Osgoode Hall Law School: “A History of Canadian Law, Chapter 2: 1500-1701"

Wednesday February 12 - Bill Wicken, York University: “Residency on the Six Nations Reserve: Legal and Social issues, 1870-1920.”

Wednesday February 26 - Sally Hadden, Western Michigan University:  “Friends, Colleagues, Competitors: Apprenticeship and Communities of Young Lawyers in Colonial America”

Wednesday March 12 - Tyler Wentzell, University of Toronto: “Not for King nor Country: Canada's Foreign Enlistment Act and the Spanish Civil War”

Wednesday March 26 - Don Fyson, Laval University: “TBA”

Wednesday April 9 - Bettina Bradbury, York University: “‘In the event of my said wife remaining in the colonies … all her interest in my will is to cease’: The widow Kearney contests her husband’s final wishes in colonial Victoria, Australia.”

Mohr, Irish perspective on Statute of Westminster

In the most recent issue of the Law and History Review, Thomas Mohr has an article, "The Statute of Westminster, 1931: An Irish Perspective." The Statute of Westminster looms so large in Canadian constitutional history that I for one often forget the larger imperial context, which Mohr's 'Irish Perspective' does much to illuminate.

Here's the abstract:

The enactment of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 represents one of the most significant events in the history of the British Empire. The very name of this historic piece of legislation, with its medieval antecedents, epitomizes a sense of enduring grandeur and dignity. The Statute of Westminster recognized significant advances in the evolution of the self-governing Dominions into fully sovereign states. The term “Dominion” was initially adopted in relation to Canada, but was extended in 1907 to refer to all self-governing colonies of white settlement that had been evolving in the direction of greater autonomy since the middle of the nineteenth century. By the early 1930s, the Dominions included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free State.

Call for Proposals: ASLH meeting in Denver, November 6-8, 2014.

The 2014 meeting of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH) will take place in Denver, Colorado, November 6-8, 2014. The ASLH invites proposals on any facet or period of legal history, anywhere in the world. We also encourage thematic proposals that range across traditional chronological or geographical fields. In selecting presenters, the Program Committee will give preference to those who did not present at last year's meeting.

Travel grants will be available for presenters in need. These resources will nevertheless be limited, and special priority will be given to presenters traveling from abroad, graduate students, post-docs, and independent scholars.

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for both full panels and individual papers, though please note that individual papers are less likely to be accepted. The Program Committee encourages the submission of a variety of different types of panel proposals, including: traditional 3-paper panels (with a separate chair-commentator); incomplete panels lacking either one paper or a chair-commentator (whether 2-paper panels with a chair-commentator, or 3-paper panels without a chair-commentator), which the Committee will try to complete; author-meets-reader panels; and roundtable discussions.

All panel proposals should include the following:

·       A single page listing the panel title, the titles of each paper, complete contact information for each presenter (including chair-commentator), and any special scheduling requests. (Note that we may not be able to accommodate all scheduling requests.)

·       a 300-word description of the panel

·       a c.v. for each presenter

·       for paper-based panels only: a 300-word abstract of each paper

 Individual paper proposals should include:

·       a c.v. for each presenter (including complete contact information)

·       a 300-word abstract of the paper

Please note that AV equipment/powerpoint capabilities will be unavailable at the Denver 2014 conference.

The deadline for submitting proposals is March 1, 2014. Proposals should be sent as email attachments to proposals@aslh.net.  Substantive questions should be directed to Joanna Grisinger (joanna.grisinger@northwestern.edu) or Mitra Sharafi (sharafi@wisc.edu).

Those unable to send proposals as email attachments may mail hard copies to:

2014 ASLH Program Committee

c/o Mitra Sharafi, UW Law School, 975 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI, 53706-1399, USA