Abstracts are invited for the 2019 British Legal History Conference taking place at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, 10-13 July 2019. The conference theme is comparative legal history.

The theme builds upon F.W. Maitland’s famous observation that “history involves comparison”, and that those who ignore every system but their own “hardly came in sight of the idea of legal history”.[1] The aim is to examine differences and similarities across a broad time-period to produce better approaches to the subject of legal history, combining depth of analysis with historical contextualization. Rather than comparing individual rules or searching for universal systems, the theme will take an intermediate approach the topic of comparative law, investigating patterns in legal norms, processes, and practice.

The papers accepted for this conference may themselves take a comparative approach. However, there is no requirement that each paper is explicitly comparative, as the sessions will be designed to allow comparative perspectives to emerge between individual papers.

We welcome proposals from historians in all fields of legal history, whether doctrinal or contextual, domestic or transnational. Proposals which inform our understanding of the Common Law through comparison with other legal systems (e.g. civil or canon) as well as geographical comparisons are particularly welcome.

Proposals from postgraduate and early career researchers are encouraged.

Please email abstracts (strict maximum 250 words) to blhc2019@st-andrews.ac.uk by 15 September 2018.

Further information on the conference, travel, and accommodation can be found on the following website: www.blhc2019.uk

[1] F.W. Maitland, “Why the History of English Law is not Written”, In H.A.L. Fisher, ed., Collected Papers (Cambridge, 1911), i, 488.