Call for Papers
The conference “Variety of Legal Spaces in Ruthenian Lands of Poland-Lithuania during the Medieval and Early-Modern Times” (21-22 November 2023) is organized by the Humanities Faculty of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv and the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Legal Unity and Pluralism” (EViR) at the University of Münster (WWU).
The recent research has shown that forms of legal plurality can be observed at all times and places. But even as an overarching phenomenon the legal plurality becomes tangible in very different forms and facets. In other words, it is worthwhile to ask about spatiotemporal settings and, in the course of this, about the factors for the emergence of certain forms of legal plurality, but also of legal unification.
The aim of the conference announced here is to examine the emergence and development of plural legal spaces using the example of Poland-Lithuania. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is particularly suitable for this purpose for it was not only one of the largest political formations in pre-modern Europe, but it was also characterized by a great cultural and religious diversity as well as by a certain range of local and regional ruling constellations. This made it a perfect example for studying the organization of legal plurality. To assess how pluralism manifested itself in the legal space, we invite papers that will deal with the following aspects:
- Adoption of western legal systems on Ruthenian lands, features of implementation and transformations during the centuries.
- Rights of ethnic and/or religious communities as a factor in the formation of legal diversity.
- Church laws in Ruthenian lands, their interactions and influence on the formation of the secular law.
- Factors that led to a unification and standardization of law: transition from oral to written law, arrival of educated jurists and dissemination of scholarly texts, translations, and book printing, etc.
- Legal pluralism in everyday jurisdictional practices. Case studies on “legal everyday”.
To enhance the participation from the Ukrainian side, the conference is planned as fully online event with presentations (duration ca. 20-25 min.) delivered via Zoom. Working languages of the conference are English, German, Ukrainian, and Polish, but participants are encouraged to present the research in English. Non-English presentations will be translated simultaneously.
The deadline for paper proposals (ca. 300-400 words including the title) is June 1, 2023. Papers written in languages other than English should be sent to the organizers by Sept. 15, 2023.
Abstracts of the papers will be published online on the EViR website in the section “Working Papers”. The organizers are planning an edited volume based on a selection of revised conference papers (in English) in the series “Einheit & Vielfalt im Recht | Legal Unity & Pluralism” published by Böhlau Verlag also available online (open access).
Please send your proposal to Prof. T. Hoshko (hoshko@ucu.edu.ua) and Dr. O. Kozubska (kozubska@uni-muenster.de) together with a short CV outlining research interests relevant to the topic.