Panel Historicidagen 2024: Undisciplining Legal History

The panel departed from the observation that studies of legal history have traditionally been conducted from within strict disciplinary boundaries. The historical trajectories of legislation, judgements, and legal scholarship lend themselves easily to the confines of doctrinal scholarship. However, we propose that such disciplinary rigidity leads to a severely parochial understanding of historical processes of how law comes into being. The actors who were involved in law-making and legal scholarship often traversed disciplinary boundaries and the centricity of doctrinal scholarship often obscures the multi-sited makings of law. As the actors of legal history moved within capricious networks of lawyers, judges, scholars, politicians, and activists, a multidisciplinary, multi-sited approach is needed to unravel the socio-legal layers of law-making. The dynamic shifts in legal arguments can, thus, only be traced by placing those engaged in the development of law within broader contexts of institutional change, cultural contests, and the transnational movement of ideas. Therefore, we argued that studies of legal history should, therefore, be undisciplined and entangled in wider webs of historical inquiry. 

The various contributions of our panelists illustrated the need to unshackle the study of legal history through four distinct case studies. We highlighted the multi-sited making of law, the complex social environments on which law leaves its imprint, and the need for disciplinary synergies. 

Agustín Parise (Maastricht University, Faculty of Law) kicked off the session exploring the divide that exists in approaching Legal History from History or from Law. On the one hand, monodisciplinary scholars traditionally approach Legal History from one of the two disciplines, many times taking watertight views that are detrimental. On the other hand, interdisciplinary scholars tend to leave behind the archaic view that calls for only historians or only jurists when looking at the law in the past. Parise, by looking at different actors, will address the benefits of undertaking a blended approach to Legal History. 

Consequently, Moritz Koenig (independent researcher, Law & History Research Network) situated the making of international law in Turkey in the complex social networks of Ahmed Reşid, the country’s most prominent international legal practitioner of the early 20^th century. He argued that non-European conceptions of international law can only be uncovered through a combination of legal autobiography, colonial history, and archival ethnographies. Koenig ultimately advocated for an abandonment of purely doctrinal research. 

Karin van Leeuwen (Maastricht University, Fasos) addressed the impact of law and legal institutions beyond the strictly legal domains of courtrooms and casebooks. Drawing on research into international law in the League of Nations, she explored how legal frameworks, even where they are considered a failure in the strict sense, nevertheless left an imprint on political decision-making as well as on public expectations regarding the future of international politics.

Pablo Del Hierro (Maastricht University, Fasos) discussed the multi-faceted role played by individual legal actors witin international institutions (not mere brokers). By focusing on the origins of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the discussion around the European Convention for Extradition (finally approved in 1957), he evidenced the potential of legal history, especially when it comes to analyzing the actions and motivations of certain key officials (in this case from the juridical committee of the CoE) that are central in the creation and passing of international legislation. Furthermore, he demonstrated how the incorporation of collective biographies (including the working careers, political background, ideologies and networks) enriches our understanding of the intricacies of the legislative process. 

The panel was moderated by Cornelis Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee (Maastricht University, Faculty of Law).