History, Law and Nationalism

Date: 
16.09.2019 (All day) to 20.09.2019 (All day)

Location: 
School of Law, University of Tartu, Näituse 20, Tartu

Seminar/course for PhD students 

Lecturer: Professor Marcel Senn, University of Zürich

Lectures will be delivered during September 16-20, each day 2 academic hours. 

Monday, September 16 at 14:15-15:45, Näituse 20-103;
Tuesday, September 17 at 10:15-12:00, Näituse 20-203; 
Wednesday, September 18 at 10:15-12:00, Näituse 20-203;
Thursday, September 19 at 10:15-12:00, Näituse 20-212;
Friday, September 20 at 10:15-12:00, Näituse 20-212 and at 12.00-12.30 Coffee Break (discussions, conclusions and future collaborations), Näituse 20-316. 

Abstract:

Although it may seem that dealing with contemporary law does not expose one to history, including legal history, it need not actually be true. Rather, experience shows that lawyers tend to read historical texts as if they were modern, forgetting to account for their historical and philosophical context. We are inclined to disregard the fact that medieval law had many ties to theology despite the impact of the latter to the law. Nor do we acknowledge that not only during the Soviet regime but also in the 1930’s the Estonian legal thinking was influenced by collective ideology. On the other hand, researchers such as historians, philosophers and linguists, as well as social, economic and political scientists have to frequently deal with original legal texts, the interpretation of which has its own specific character, whether it be a contemporary or historical text.

In order to develop a better understanding of texts and their context and to enable a mutually fruitful interdisciplinary discussion an interdisciplinary seminar titled “History, law and nationalism”  will take place in Tartu on 16-20 September 2019. The main course coordinator will be professor Marcel Senn from University of Zurich (https://www.ius.uzh.ch/de/staff/professorships/alphabetical/senn.html).

During the course numerous example texts from the medieval times up to the middle of the 20th century will be analysed. Also the examples from the jurisprudence and legal practice will be discussed. The course will be held in English.

The course will consist of 5 lectures:

 

1. Introduction to the problem of "nationalism for law & history" and to the method of analysing a text from the Middle Ages as an example, how a text has been instrumentalised by an actualising political interpretation.

2. Emancipation of the women.

3. Historical School and racial thoughts in the 19th century.

4. Social responsibility and Law.

5. Racial Jurisprudence and Law in national-socialism with a short summary on the theme of "history, law and nationalism".

 

 

Please register here

 

SEMINAR/COURSE MATERIALS:

text_1.pdf

text_2.pdf

text_3.pdf

text_4.pdf

text_5.pdf