ARTICLE: Nancy BERTOLDI, "Property and international relations: lessons from Locke on anarchy and sovereignty" (International Theory) [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: Cambridge Core)

Abstract:

Property has a ubiquitous presence in international practice, but its implications for theorizing world order are not adequately explored. I remedy this by showing how property constitutes the core concepts of anarchy and sovereignty in international relations (IR) as overlapping spaces of right-based governance. I develop my account of a property-based world order in relation to the work of John Locke. Locke is generally overlooked as a core IR thinker, with the unfortunate consequence that anarchy and sovereignty are conceptualized as polar opposites under the enduring shadow of Hobbes. Even prominent critics of Hobbesian anarchy rely on Hobbesian notions of sovereignty, resulting in minimalist conceptions of international society and international ethics. To counter these Hobbesian legacies, I turn to Locke's limited, plural, and fluid accounts of anarchy and sovereignty and show how they are grounded in a normative notion of property that mutually constitutes them. This provides an alternative to the Hobbesian absolutist conceptions of anarchy and sovereignty that many IR theorists still operate with. The result is a distinctly normative vision for IR that condemns the twin evils of conquest and tyranny.

Read the article here: DOI 10.1017/S175297192300012X.

CFP: International Conference "Historicities of Peace and Security" (Marburg: Philipps University Marburg, 9 - 11 OCT 2024) [DEADLINE 27 MAY 2024 for individual paper]

 

(Source: Uni Marburg)

Venue: Philipps University Marburg (Germany)

Date: October 9–11, 2024

Deadline for submission: May 1, 2024

Historicities of Peace and Security

Peace and security are key concepts informing the conduct of politics on both the global level and in domestic and transnational dynamics across different epochs. Yet, concepts of peace and security have been contested throughout history and still cause controversy today. While peace is a fundamental human value and at the heart of the Charter of the United Nations, it has been instrumentalized by imperial powers as well as authoritarian regimes and subsumed under agendas of civilization, social control, development and conquest. At the same time, the very idea of peace, just like scholarship and movements dedicated to it, has faced scrutiny and outright rejection in situations of unprovoked aggression and terrorism. This can currently be seen in the light of the war of aggression against Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza war. In contrast, security research has been epistemically dominated by military, strategic and adjacent fields of scholarship and policy for a long time. Only in recent years, has it been reclaimed by critical and feminist perspectives challenging long-standing ideas and concepts. As both interpretation scheme and repertoire, security is employed to determine relevant threats as well as to shape reactions to them. Such interpretations and practices of security are often contested and change over time. The – at times paradoxical – affinity between peace and security (e.g. they are mentioned together in Art. 1 of the UN Charter), their contested character, their contextuality and, not least, their historicity connects both concepts.

This conference, jointly organized by the Collaborative Research Center “Dynamics of Security” and the Center for Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg, Germany, invites contributions that critically engage with the rich and complicated legacies, epistemic ecologies and practical repertoires of peace and security in either historical perspectives or with a view to present and future challenges and potentials.

We particularly welcome contributions addressing the following topics:

• the relationship of security and peace in a historical and/or historicizing perspective
• understandings of security and peace coexisting in mutually exclusive and contradictive facets of conflict processes (i.e., more security means less peace)
• conceptual understandings of peace and security in conflicts (i.e., first security then peace or vice versa)
• the performativity of peace and security (and their relationship)
• ideas, understandings and concepts of peace and security in varying or different political/social contexts (e.g. in democracies, in authoritarian regimes or between them)
• changing perceptions of global-historical or planetary security frameworks, such as environmental and geopolitical security
• methodological and disciplinary aspects of researching security, peace and order

Submission of Panel Proposals

Please send your panel abstracts of up to 250 words (including names, institutional affiliation and contacts of panel convenors) to sfbevent@uni-marburg.de

Full panel proposals are possible. However, a subsequent Call for Papers will follow, enabling convenors to select up to four papers to their respective panel. If desired, organizers will assist in this process.

Selection Criteria

The selection of panels and the subsequent allocation of papers will be made in accordance with the following criteria while maintaining high academic standards:

• Interdisciplinary composition: bringing together of scholars and approaches from different disciplinary backgrounds
• Scientific contribution: drawing on and advancing of debates and efforts to conceptually capture and understand historical and present-day phenomena, with a particular emphasis on the core concept of historicity and historicization
• Diversity: bringing together scholars from various backgrounds and affiliations both globally (i.e. from the global South and East) and within the context of European academia.

Funding

In order to enable as many presenters as possible to participate in the conference, there is (limited) funding available to scholars without their own funding. Funding will be granted upon prior request to the organizers and on a reimbursement of real costs basis.

Conference schedule

May 1, 2024: Submission Deadline for Panel Proposals

May 15, 2024: Notification of Selected Panels

May 27, 2024: Submission Deadline Call for Papers

June 16, 2024: Submission Deadline Call for Papers

July 1, 2024: Notification of Paper Selection (based on selection by panel convenors, coordinated by organizing team)

July 15, 2024: Confirmation of participation

Dowload Call for Panels

BOOK: Stefan EKLÖF AMIRELL, Hans HÄGERDAL & Bruce BUCHAN (eds.), Piracy in World History (Amsterdam: University Press, 2021). ISBN: 9789463729215, pp. 290, € 124,00 (eBook open access, afterword by Lauren Benton).

 

(Source: AUP)

ABOUT THE BOOK

In a modern global historical context, scholars have often regarded piracy as an essentially European concept which was inappropriately applied by the expanding European powers to the rest of the world, mainly for the purpose of furthering colonial forms of domination in the economic, political, military, legal and cultural spheres. By contrast, this edited volume highlights the relevance of both European and non-European understandings of piracy to the development of global maritime security and freedom of navigation. It explores the significance of ‘legal posturing’ on the part of those accused of piracy, as well as the existence of non-European laws and regulations regarding piracy and related forms of maritime violence in the early modern era. The authors in Piracy in World History highlight cases from various parts of the early-modern world, thereby explaining piracy as a global phenomenon.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Stefan Eklöf Amirell is a professor of global history at Linnaeus University, Sweden, and the director of the Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. His research focuses on colonial encounters and maritime violence during the long nineteenth century.

Hans Hägerdal is a professor of history at Linnaeus University, Sweden. His major fields are East and Southeast Asian history, in particular focusing on early-modern colonial encounters and contact zones, historiographical questions, and the history of slaving.

Bruce Buchan is an intellectual historian specializing in the intersection of colonization with the history of ideas in the late eighteenth century. He is an associate professor in the School of Humanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Hide Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Piracy in World History

Stefan Eklof Amirell, Bruce Buchan, and Hans Hagerdal

2 "Publique Enemies to Mankind": International Pirates as a Product of International Politics

Michael Kempe

3 All at Sea: Locke's Tyrants and the Pyrates of Political Thought

Bruce Buchan

4 The Colonial Origins of Theorizing Piracy’s Relation to Failed States

Jennifer L. Gaynor

5 The Bugis-Makassar Seafarers: Pirates or Entrepreneurs?

Hans Hagerdal

6 Piracy in India's Western Littoral: Reality and Representation

Lakshmi Subramanian

7 Holy Warriors, Rebels, and Thieves: Defining Maritime Violence in the Ottoman Mediterranean

Joshua M. White

8 Piracy, Empire, and Sovereignty in Late Imperial China

Robert J. Antony

9 Persistent Piracy in Philippine Waters: Metropolitan Discourses about Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, and Moro Coastal Threats, 1570–1800

Birgit Tremml-Werner

10 Sweden, Barbary Corsairs, and the Hostis Humani Generis: Justifying Piracy in European Political Thought

Joachim Ostlund and Bruce Buchan

11 "Pirates of the Sea and the Land": Concurrent Vietnamese and French Concepts of Piracy during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Stefan Eklof Amirell

12 Pirate Passages in Global History: Afterword

Lauren Benton

More information with the publisher.

BOOK: Mauricio NIETO OLARTE, Exploration, Religion and Empire in the Sixteenth-century Ibero-Atlantic World. A New Perspective on the History of Modern Science (Amsterdam: University Press, 2021). ISBN: 9789463725316, pp. 330 € 141,00

 

(Source: AUP)

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Iberian conquest of the Atlantic at the beginning of the sixteenth century had a notable impact on the formation of the new world order in which Christian Europe claimed control over most a considerable part of the planet. This was possible thanks to the confluence of different and inseparable factors: the development of new technical capacities and favorable geographical conditions in which to navigate the great oceans; the Christian mandate to extend the faith; the need for new trade routes; and an imperial organization aspiring to global dominance. The author explores new methods for approaching old historiographical problems of the Renaissance—such as the discovery and conquest of America, the birth of modern science, and the problem of Eurocentrism—now in reference to actors and regions scarcely visible in the complex history of modern Europe: the ships, the wind, the navigators, their instruments, their gods, saints, and demons.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mauricio Nieto Olarte is titular Professor at the Department of History and Geography as well as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

List of illustrations Acknowledgments

Introduction

The New World and the problem of Eurocentrism

Science and empire

Summary of the chapters in this book

1. The Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic

Portugal and Spain

Winds, currents, and sailing ships in the Atlantic

Gold, silver, slaves, souls, and a thousand kinds of trees

2. The imperial bureaucracy and the appropriation of the New World

Seville and the Casa de Contratacion

The universal monarchy

3. The piloto mayor: cosmography and the art of navigation

The post of piloto mayor: seamanship and cartography

The navigation manuals

Manuals for the Empire

Publications, dissemination, and secrecy

Humanism and the classics

Experience and authority

Man against the sea: shipwrecks and meteorology

Routes and chorographic descriptions: The New World within the new global order

4. Machines of the empire

The ships

Shipbuilding

War and artillery

Navigational instruments

The astrolabe

The cross-staff

The mariner’s compass

Time and clocks

The sounding/plumb line

The navigation charts

Astronomical tables

Instruments, measurements, precision, and standardization

The crew

The captain/admiral

The pilot

The shipmaster (maestre) and quartermaster (contramaestre)

The boatswain (guardian)

The ordinary seamen (marineros)

Midshipmen (grumetes) and cabin boys (pajes)

The carpenter, steward, cooper, and cook

The scribe, master-at-arms, and overseer

The cannoneer

The barber/surgeon

The priest

Life on board

The argot of the sailors

Overcrowding

Food and health

Men of the sea and men of God

5. The Master Map (Padrón Real) and the cartography of the New World

Nautical charts and how they were made

The making of a chart

The charts of tierra firme: the earliest maps of the New World

Three early maps of the New World

Juan de la Cosa (1500)

Waldseemuller (1507)

Diego Ribero (1520) 6. The creatures of God never seen before: natural history

Nature in the New World

The classics and the Bible

Monsters in paradise

To describe, classify, and name

Medicine, botany, and the knowledge of the natives

The Empire and natural history

7. The New World, global science, and Eurocentrism

Plus ultra

Experience and authority

The Empire and the challenge of standardization

Eurocentrism

Bibliography

About the Author

Index

More information with the publisher.

CONFERENCE: 'El origen del regionalismo en la Europa contemporanea', The origin of regionalism in contemporary europe, International Congress, (May 16-17, 2024, Andújar, Jaén, Spain)

 

(source: https://www.centrodeestudiosandaluces.es/noticias/el-origen-del-regionalismo-en-la-europa-contemporanea)

THE ORIGIN OF REGIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE

 

International Congress

May 16-17, 2024

Location: Andújar, Jaén (Spain)

 

Academic Coordination

Francisco Acosta Ramírez, University of Córdoba

Sara Moreno Tejada, Miguel Hernández University - Elche

Academic Secretariat

Ana López Navío, University of Jaén

 

Thursday, May 16, 2024

: Caballerizas Room, Don Gome Palace 

17:30 - 18:30 Institutional Inauguration Ceremony

Mr. Director of the Center for Andalusian Studies, Mr. Tristán Pertiñez

Mr. President of the Provincial Government of Jaén, Mr. Francisco Reyes, Institute of Giennenses Studies

Mr. Mayor of the City of Andújar, Mr. Francisco Carmona Limón

Mr. Dean of the Faculty of Social and Juridical Sciences, Mr. Félix Grande Torraleja

 

18:00 - 18:30 Opening Lecture

Blas Infante and the Sovereign Board of Andújar in 1835

Javier Delmás Infante, Vice President of the Blas Infante Foundation

 

18:30 - 18:45 Break

 

18:45 - 20:15 Panel 1: "From Region to Autonomy: Considerations for the Spanish Case."

Moderator: Sara Moreno Tejada 

Regionalism or regional idea during the Bourbon Restoration

Isabel Ramos Vázquez, University of Jaén

 

The normative framework of Autonomy: parliamentary debate on its historical milestones

Ana López Navío, University of Jaén

 

The Andalusian process or the disruption of the state autonomy model

Francisco Acosta Ramírez, University of Córdoba

 

Friday, May 17, 2024

10:00 - 11:30 Panel 2: "The Ius Singulare in Spain. Historical Roots Regionalism."

Moderator: Francisco Acosta Ramírez

 

Regionalism in foral version (1839-1893)

Mikel Lizarraga Rada, Public University of Navarra

 

The long journey of regionalism in Catalonia: elements for reflection

Antoni M. Jordà Fernández, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona

 

The origins of Valencian Autonomy: regionalism and projects of commonwealth

José Antonio Pérez Juan / Sara Moreno Tejada, Miguel Hernández University - Elche -

 

11:30 - 11:45 Break

 

11:45 - 13:15 Panel 3: "The Origin of Regional Autonomy in Other Territories."

Moderator: Ana López Navio

 

Galicianism and region: in search of a new territorial organization

Eduardo Cebreiros Álvarez, University of A Coruña

 

Regionalism by grievance: León and Castile or the reaffirmation of a historical political identity

Félix J. Martínez Llorente / Emiliano González Díez, University of Valladolid

 

The Supreme Central Board of the Andalusias in the origin of Andalusian autonomous consciousness

Miguel Ángel Chamocho Cantudo, University of Jaén

 

17:30 - 19:00 Panel 4: "The Origin of Regional Autonomy in Europe. Some Examples."

Moderator: José Antonio Pérez Juan

 

Regionalism and democracy in Italy: from the constituent assembly to the lack of constitutional application (1946-1976)

Marco Fioravanti, University of Rome "Tor Vergata" - Italy -

 

Regionalism in France against the centralist State

Tiphaine le Yoncourt, University of Rennes 1 - France -

 

The regionalist movement in France: the case of Brittany

Thierry Hamon, University of Rennes 1 - France -

 

Regionalism in Portugal

José Subtil, Autonomous University of Lisbon - Portugal -

 

19:00 - 19:30 Congress Conclusions

Sara Moreno Tejada

More information are available here

CONFERENCE: 'L’exclusion et le droit', Journée d’étude organisée par le réseau des doctorants de l’École doctorale n° 8 (Paris: Université Paris Panthéon-Assas - Institut d'Histoire du Droit Jean-Gaudemet, 7 juin 2024)

 

(Source: Institut d'Histoire du Droit Jean-Gaudemet)

Programme

 

09h30-10h00    Accueil des participants

                         Présentation de la journée d’étude par les organisateurs

 

10h00-12h00   «Le champ de l’exclusion : les tentatives de définition par le pouvoir souverain»

                          Modération et présentation : Gaëtan Ravoniarison

Léo Texier (EPHE – PSL)

« Abandonner. Le ban souverain comme exclusion inclusive dans la philosophie politique de Giorgio Agamben. »

Jan Borrego (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas)

« Les tribuns de la plèbe et l’exclusion, avatar d’un pouvoir souverain ? »

 

Discussion

  

12h00-14h00    Déjeuner sur place (buffet)

  

14h00-16h00    «Affirmation et construction de l’État sur le socle de l’exclusion»

Modération et présentation : Vincent Trinidad

Antoine Cognon (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas)

 « L’exclusion des duellistes du champ social par le droit à la fin de l’Ancien régime : les équivoques de la souveraineté. »

  Sara Stauder (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas)

 « La notion d’exclusion des congrégations de la société civile dans un contexte anticlérical : les décrets d’expulsion des congrégations en 1880. »

Discussion

  

16h00-16h30    Pause café

  

16h30-19h00    «Les expressions de l’exclusion dans les mécanismes de sanction»

   

Modération et présentation : Léa Mellouki

 

Claire Laborde-Menjaud (Université Paris Nanterre)

 « L’exclusion du mort par l’interdiction des pratiques commémorative »

 Guillaume Quernet (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas) « L’exclusion des insoumis et déserteurs de l’indemnisation des dommages de guerre (1914-1918). »

Juliette Guiot (Université Paris-Saclay)

 « L’exclusion en droit d’asile : sanction individuelle ou protection d’un statut ? »

 

Discussion

Discours de clôture : Aurelia Ghetivu

 More information and inscription link are available here.

CALL FOR TOPICS: Conference about the Franco-Italian draft for a common Code of Obligations in Regensburg in summer 2025 (Regensburg: Universität Regensburg Deadline: 31 JUL 2024)

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Call:

Almost one hundred years ago, in 1927, the Franco-Italian draft for a common Code of Obligations was drawn up. As is well known, it did not become law in either Italy or France. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a closer look at this important draft, which eminent scholars from both countries have already undertaken. It seems important to me to now also look at the transnational impact history of the draft. In other words, not only the question of whether the new Italian Codice civile, which was created shortly afterwards, or the Code civil, which was reformed decades later, benefited - explicitly or implicitly - from the work of the Franco-Italian commission. In fact, the draft was to a certain extent a reference work for every legislator, which probably influenced the legislation on obligations in numerous states to a greater or lesser extent. Poland, Albania or Greece come to mind spontaneously, for example, but this list is by no means exhaustive. Moreover, the draft was very closely observed and received by German legal scholars - and certainly not only by them. I would therefore like to organise a conference in summer 2025 to examine the history of the draft's impact. Together, we could then publish a monograph with our findings in a reputable publishing house to mark the centenary of the draft. I would be delighted if this topic were to meet with your interest, and I would ask that you kindly acknowledge this call and forward it to other colleagues.

The small print: I request your suggestions for topics by 31 July 2024 (martin.loehnig@ur.de). I will compile the conference programme by 31 August 2024 and submit proposals for the exact date of the conference. The travel and hotel costs of all speakers will of course be reimbursed.

Kind regards

Martin Löhnig

SEMINAR: Un protagonista del diritto comune: intorno alla figura e all'opera di Francesco Accolti (Verona: Università di Verona, 22 maggio 2024)

 

(Source: Storia del diritto)

CFP: TraCe Third Annual Conference: The Excessive Use of Force (Gießen: Justus Liebig University Gießen, 30 OCT - 1 NOV 2024) [DEADLINE 15 May 2024!]

 

(Source: TraCe)

When? Wednesday, October 30 - Friday, November 1, 2024

Where? Justus Liebig University Gießen

Call for Papers

The excessive use of force has been a recurring phenomenon over time and throughout different regions in a broad variety of contexts as part of transformations of political violence. Integral to our agenda as a Research Center are efforts to analyze, to better understand and to reduce or at least manage the many conflicts that have again increased in intensity. We are faced with new forms of war and terrorist violence, and there is a systematic disregard for international humanitarian law (and human rights law). Humankind is under pressure in light of these developments that challenge existing norms and practices for containing political violence. However, historically such excessive uses of force have not been unique. It is challenging to socio-culturally (historically and empirically) understand these phenomena, and to ask for normative responses to such developments.

Our annual conference will be held at Giessen, Germany, from October 30, 2024, until November 1, 2024. We want to organize the conference alongside four sections:

1. socio-cultural (including historical) analyses of excessive use of force;
2. empirical studies of excessive use of force;
3.  the role of international law to avoid excessive use of force;
4. normative responses to excessive use of force beyond international law. In each of the four sections we want to cover a variety of situations extending from revolutionary and post-revolutionary violence, across civil wars, up to international armed conflicts.

Propositions covering history, social science, political theory, international relations and international law (both international humanitarian and international human rights law) can be sent in English (yet, French, German and Spanish can be also accepted) by email to raphael.cahen(at)recht.uni-giessen.de and thilo.marauhn(at)recht.uni-giessen.de. All applications must be sent by May 15, 2024, with an abstract of 250 words and a short CV. Accepted papers will be informed until the end of June 2024.

The Research Center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe) is an inter­disciplinary research network of five Hessian research Institutions: The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), the Goethe University Frankfurt, the Justus Liebig University Giessen, the Philipps University Marburg and the Technical University of Darmstadt. The proceedings will appear in a peer-reviewed publication. We aim at covering transportation and accommodation for accepted panelists.

JOURNAL: Special issue African Legal Abolitions, Law and History Review XLII (2024), n. 1 (Feb)

 

(image source: Cambridge Core)

The Abolition of Slavery in Africa's Legal Histories (Benedetta Rossi) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000585

Abstract:

This introduction contextualizes the special issue's articles in the broader continental dynamics. It discusses the Eurocentric bias of the historiography and suggests that the view that Europe was responsible for the legal abolition of slavery in Africa should be nuanced and qualified. Some independent African polities abolished slavery before Europe's colonial occupation. Nowhere did European abolitionists encounter a tabula rasa: African polities had complex jurisdictions, oral or written, which formed the normative background against which slavery's abolition should be studied. To do so, however, it is misleading to imagine abolitionism as a unitary movement spreading globally out of Europe. What happened differed from context to context. Normative systems varied, and so did abolition's legal processes. This introduction examines the dynamics that led to the introduction and implementation of anti-slavery laws in African legal systems. It recenters the analysis of the legal abolition of slavery in Africa around particular African actors, concepts, strategies, and procedures.

Ahmad Bey's 1846 Istiftāʾ: Its Dual Legislative Framework and Religio-Political Context (Ismael Musah Montana)
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000573

On April 26, 1846, Ahmad Bey signed a historic emancipation decree making the Regency of Tunis the first in the modern Islamic world to formally abolish the longstanding institution of slavery. While the decree marked the first of such unprecedented measures, attracting a barrage of compliments from anti-slavery societies around the globe, it conflicted with the local notions of enslaving practices and thus prompted an earnest process of legitimation for the formal abolition of slavery before the Majlis al Shari (Sharia Council for Judicial Ordinance), without which abolition would have remained culturally and politically contentious. The paper will assess the socio-cultural context and the plural Islamic legal framework that informed both Ahmad Bey's argument favoring abolition and the divergent responses and attitudes of the religious establishment toward the abolition decree.

The Sultans of Zanzibar and the Abolition of Slavery in East Africa The Sultans of Zanzibar and the Abolition of Slavery in East Africa (Michelle Liebst) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000561
Abstract:

In 1890, Sultan Ali of Zanzibar declared in writing that “we wish by every means to stop the slave trade.” Statements like these, in addition to the actual passing of anti-slavery legislation, call into question the generally accepted scholarly understanding that the sultans of Zanzibar only agreed to pass and enforce anti-slavery legislation because they were under duress from European, mainly British, powers, who negotiated favorable political and economic benefits in return for (gradual) abolition. A close analysis of the sources tells a more complicated story of both collaboration and conflict between the Zanzibari sultans, their subjects, and the British agents. Moreover, each sultan had distinctive political and religious beliefs, as well as individual personal experiences and outlooks. This paper explores the anti-slavery legislation passed under three sultans of Zanzibar: Barghash bin Said (1870–1888) who prohibited the transport of slaves by sea in 1873, Ali bin Said (1890–1893) who passed the Slave Trade Prohibition Decree of 1890, and Hamoud bin Mohammed (1896–1902) who passed the Abolition Decree of 1897. By analyzing draft treaties and correspondence before and after the passing of legislation, this paper argues that the sultans and their advisors were not devoid of ideological interest in ending slavery; and that British agents and explorers in the region were too hastily hailed as abolitionists.

Exploring African Abolitionism: Fante Perspectives on Domestic Slavery in the Nineteenth-Century Gold Coast (Michael Ehis Odijie) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000548
Abstract:

This article draws on a variety of primary sources to first illustrate the rise of African abolitionism in the Fante region in the mid-nineteenth century and then situate local abolitionists in the context of colonial legal abolition in the Gold Coast. When the British abolished slavery in 1874, various Fante groups had been developing local anti-slavery views and strategies closely connected to the evolution of a Fante ethnic identity fashioned against the “barbaric” Asante. Tensions arose between the Fante intelligentsia, which spearheaded local abolitionism, and British colonial elites. The article examines the rise of local abolitionism among the coastal Fante through specific ideas, individuals, and events, and discusses subsequent dynamics in the “first age” (1874–1900) of colonial abolitionism in the Gold Coast. It shows that the 1874 abolition was opposed by members of the Fante anti-slavery movement not—as has been argued—because Fante intellectuals were pro-slavery or opposed to the idea of abolition, but because they held different visions of emancipation and were critical of British abolition laws that, unlike in the West Indies, did not compensate slaveowners.

Exploring African Abolitionism: Fante Perspectives on Domestic Slavery in the Nineteenth-Century Gold Coast (Michael Ehis Odijie)
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000548
Abstract:

This article draws on a variety of primary sources to first illustrate the rise of African abolitionism in the Fante region in the mid-nineteenth century and then situate local abolitionists in the context of colonial legal abolition in the Gold Coast. When the British abolished slavery in 1874, various Fante groups had been developing local anti-slavery views and strategies closely connected to the evolution of a Fante ethnic identity fashioned against the “barbaric” Asante. Tensions arose between the Fante intelligentsia, which spearheaded local abolitionism, and British colonial elites. The article examines the rise of local abolitionism among the coastal Fante through specific ideas, individuals, and events, and discusses subsequent dynamics in the “first age” (1874–1900) of colonial abolitionism in the Gold Coast. It shows that the 1874 abolition was opposed by members of the Fante anti-slavery movement not—as has been argued—because Fante intellectuals were pro-slavery or opposed to the idea of abolition, but because they held different visions of emancipation and were critical of British abolition laws that, unlike in the West Indies, did not compensate slaveowners.

Abolitionist Decrees in Ethiopia: The Evolution of Anti-Slavery Legal Strategies from Menilek to Haile Selassie, 1889–1942 (Takele Merid & Alexander Meckelburg)
DOI 10.1017/S073824802300055X
Abstract:

Slavery and the slave trade were fundamental institutions in Ethiopian history. Their abolition was a protracted process that involved developing, debating, passing, and applying multiple anti-slavery and anti-slave trade edicts and decrees under successive rulers. While slavery existed in various societies that were later integrated in the Abyssinian empire since the second half of the nineteenth century and took different forms based on different legal traditions, this article focuses specifically on the Christian kingdom and its successor empire. It analyzes changes and continuities in legal approaches to slavery and its suppression through consecutive Ethiopian governments starting with a discussion of slavery's regulation in the ancient Christian law code, the Fetha nagast (“The Law of the Kings”). The article then considers how successive Christian emperors developed anti-slavery policies in response to both local and global dynamics.

In Pursuit of Freedom: Oaths, Slave Agency, and the Abolition of Slavery in Western Tanzania, 1905–1930 (Salvatory S. Nyanto, Felicitas M. Becker) [OPEN ACCESS[
DOI 10.1017/S0738248023000615
Abstract:

This article examines ways in which slaves and missionaries used public declarations before witnesses to carve out a distinctive space of legal proceedings in pursuit of emancipation in western Tanzania. This way of pursuing emancipation shows slaves deploying their intellectual creativity and cultural knowledge to shape the German and British colonial legal systems. Interviews provide evidence that these public declarations drew on long-standing practices of oathing in western Tanzanian societies, while administrative sources indicate that oaths had been used in Islamic legal practice. Both mission and administrative sources show that these public declarations became a fairly routine means to facilitate slave emancipation between about 1907 and the 1920s. They were seen as legitimate by both (ex)owners and (ex)slaves, and were welcomed by officials as they mitigated tensions between owners and slaves, and between slave owners and missions. This legal practice was not codified in either the gradualist German-era laws on slavery or the more proactive abolitionist laws enacted by the British. It was a bottom-up innovation, developed in a context in which effective emancipation depended on drawn-out struggles and negotiations over personal autonomy and malleable social norms.

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CONFERENCE: Penser le droit des biens hors la propriété (Paris: Ecole Nationale des Chartes/PSL, 11 JUN 2024)

(image source: PSL)

Abstract

Avec la crise du néo-libéralisme, l’exclusivité du droit de propriété connaît aujourd’hui un nouveau moment de déstabilisation : fonction sociale de la propriété et réglementation (par exemple encadrement des loyers, interdiction des locations saisonnières dans certaines zones etc.), remise en cause d’un domaine public « coffre-fort » (par exemple restitution des biens mal acquis, etc.), insuffisance de la propriété pour assurer la protection (par exemple théorie des communs, subjectivisation, etc.).

Le projet naît ainsi du constat que les instruments juridiques inédits imaginés pour pallier la déstabilisation que connaît aujourd'hui le droit de propriété exclusif apparaissent souvent comme des échos, plus ou moins lointains, à des formules employées, sous l'Ancien régime, avant l'émergence d'une propriété exclusive, mais aussi, aux XIXe et XXe siècles, pour en limiter les effets. C'est pourquoi nous avons souhaité rassembler, à l'occasion de cette journée d'études, des travaux menés sur diverses périodes, avec une approche privatiste ou publiciste, juriste ou historienne, mais qui ont en commun de mettre au jour de tels agencements.

Programme

9h30 : accueil des participants

• 9h50 : mot d’ouverture par Christophe Gauthier, directeur du Centre Jean-Mabillon
• 10h : propos introductifs par Katia Weidenfeld et Patrick Arabeyre

Penser les droits sur les choses

Président de séance : Laurent Pfister (U. Paris 2).

• 10h15 : Clément Tisserant (Bibliothèque de l’U. Caen-Normandie), « Fief et emphytéose dans la doctrine méridionale »
• 10h35 : Eva Becquet (U. Paris 2), « Une forme d’organisation foncière dans la longue durée : le bail emphytéotique sous l’Ancien Régime »
• 11h30 : Viviana Persi (U. Lille 2), « Les res nullius par l’image (manuscrits médiévaux du Corpus juris civilis) »
• 11h50 : Xavier Prevost (U. Bordeaux), « Penser le droit des biens par l’amour selon le Cupido iurisperitus d’Étienne Forcadel (1553) »

Interroger la propriété exclusive

Président de séance : Jean-Louis Halpérin (ENS)

• 14h : Aurelle Levasseur (U. Sorbonne Paris-Nord) : « Les concessions d'eau courante dans les immeubles parisiens jusqu'au début du premier Empire : de la propriété à l'abonnement »
• 14h20 : Guillaume Richard (U. Paris-Cité) : « La propriété collective des groupements : petits arrangements avec le droit (XIX^e siècle) »
• 14h40 : Anne-Sophie Chambost (Sciences Po Lyon) : « Proudhon, un précurseur des communs ? »
• 15h30 : Rémi Faivre-Faucompré (U. Picardie Jules Verne) : « Les divisions horizontales de l’immeuble à l'épreuve de la conception exclusive de la propriété (XIX^e-XX^e siècles) »
• 15h50 : Christian Hottin (CY Cergy-Pontoise Paris Université) et Lily Martinet (Ministère de la Culture) : « Le droit de propriété, une catégorie pertinente pour le patrimoine immatériel ? »
• 16h30 : propos conclusifs par Katia Weidenfeld et Patrick Arabeyre

Location: 

More information here.