Legal Histories of Empire: Empires in Touch

Legal Histories of Empire IV: Empires in Touch

Law in Empire. Law among Empires. Law has facilitated, constituted, and enabled connections. People and societies have both suffered and benefitted from the uncertainties produced as empires have spread, imposed themselves on local populations, and competed with each other. Legal ideas have moved with people who had legal training and people without it. Institutions have formed and reformed, succeeded, failed, and produced intended and unintended consequences. In this fourth Legal Histories of Empire conference, we seek to explore these movements and connections, including the construction of illegality and non-legality. We look forward to bringing together historians working in different legal traditions and with a range of different sources to reveal the threads that have bound, ordered, andseparated different empires, places, laws and legal traditions across the globe.

From 10 to 12 July 2025, we will gather at the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. There will be a pre-conference workshop on the digitization of the papers of the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council led by Prof. Charlotte Smith of the National Archives of the United Kingdom on Thursday 10 July at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (registration and schedule TBD). The main conference's first event will be a public-facing presentation on telling stories of law and empire, "Empires in Touch: Comparing Notes," on Thursday evening. Regular panels will begin on Friday 11 July in the morning. We are delighted to share that Prof. Mitra Sharafi will deliver a plenary address on the theme "Studying Secrets in the Legal History of Empire" on Friday evening. Conference activities will conclude by late afternoon on Saturday 12 July. Further details to be posted soon!

Host or Publisher Catherine L. Evans