The 38th Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society will be held on 11-14 December 2019 at Victoria University College of Law & Justice, Melbourne, Australia. The conference theme is Does Law’s History Matter? The Politics of our Disciplinary Practices.
Writing law’s history has long been understood as a purposeful practice, both necessary and never complete, as the eminent British historian F.W. Maitland noted more than a century ago. Today with the flourishing of imperial and postcolonial scholarship, Maitland’s advocacy of researching law’s past prompts renewed attention to the progenitors, methods and politics of our disciplinary practices. The imperative of capturing and presenting that knowledge seems greater than ever before. Yet for those of us engaged in historical study it can often appear that what we do, and why we do it, is not always well recognised or as valued as it should be. Simultaneously, questions abound about the implications of our practice and its political impact or purpose.
For this conference, we invite those who bring an historical perspective on law to consider together the many ways our work has in the past, and continues into the future, to matter. For example: what is the politics in our chosen methods, or the value in our choice of subject matter? Does it matter how we present and produce work for different audiences (court, academy, or public), or has it mattered in the past? Does it matter to the reception of our work what sources we find and why we use them? And does it matter with whom we write; and whose laws, and experiences of law, we write about? What can we learn from critical study, however incomplete? This historical perspective on law is broadly defined – and includes those who position law in a temporal frame, who write legal history or histories of laws, lawmaking, legal ideas, jurisprudence, jurisdiction or legal institutions and their personnel.
On behalf of ANZLHS, the Conference Organizing Committee cordially invites papers on this theme from any period, geographical area, and from all disciplines – including but not limited to law, history, indigenous studies, environmental studies, legal theory, and gender studies. Please note presenters must be members of ANZLHS before their paper is accepted; and all presenters are invited to submit their papers after the conference to the ANZLHS journal, law&history.
Conference website: https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/events/2019-anzlhs-conference.
Proposals for papers/panels:
Please email proposals for either individual papers (20 mins) or panels of 3-4 speakers or both to anzlhs2019@deakin.edu.au by 21 July 2019.
Individual paper proposals must include an abstract (no more than 300 words) and a biographical statement (no more than 100 words). Panel proposals should include the above, plus a title and brief rationale for the panel as a whole (no more than 300 words) .
Note: All presenters must be financial members of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society for 2019. Please go to the ANZLHS website to register or renew your membership: https://anzlhs.org/.
Kercher Scholarships
Details can be found at https://anzlhs.org/prizes-and-scholarships/kercher-scholarships/. Please email applications to the Conference Convenor, Dr Jason Taliadoros at jason.taliadoros@deakin.edu.au by 31 August 2019.
