Symposium
on Comparative Early Modern Legal History:
Law
and the French Atlantic
Date:
Friday, October 5, 2012
Location:
Newberry Library, Chicago
Organized
by: Allan Greer (McGill University)
and Richard J. Ross (University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign)
The French Atlantic has not yet received the
sustained attention given to the British and Spanish Atlantic, particularly
where the topic of law is concerned. This conference will explore the legal
dimension (broadly conceived) of the French Atlantic empire in the early modern
period. The variegated and rapidly evolving juridical order of ancien régime France was
deeply implicated in the expansion of overseas commerce, the founding of
colonies, and the creation of imperial administrations.
Participants may explore topics such as: legal discourse and imperial
ideologies; the establishment of colonial jurisdictions in Canada, Louisiana,
and the French West Indies; the regulation of slavery; indigenous peoples and
the law; the emergence of colonial land tenures; and the legal framework for
trade and business enterprise. The organizers wish particularly to encourage
comparative approaches that consider more than one French colony and that
examine contrasts and convergences with the British, Spanish and Portuguese
empires. In according due attention to the distinctive features of French law
and the French New World empire, we hope to enrich understandings of Atlantic
history generally.
Allan Greer (McGill
History) and Richard Ross (Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign Law and History) organized “Law and the French Atlantic.” The conference is an offering of the
Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History, which gathers yearly under
the auspices of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago in order to
explore a particular topic in the comparative legal history of the Atlantic
world in the period c.1492-1815. Funding
has been provided by the University of Illinois College of Law.
Attendance
at the Symposium is free and open to the public. Participants and attendees should preregister
by contacting the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library at 312.255.3514,
or send an e-mail to renaissance@newberry.org.
Papers will be precirculated electronically to all registrants.
Here
is the program and schedule:
9:00 Welcome: Allan Greer (McGill, History)
and Richard Ross (University
of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign,
Law and History)
9:05 to 10:35: Panel: The Legal Foundations
of the French Atlantic Empire
Alexandre Dubé (Omohundro Institute of
Early American History and Culture): “The Army, the Navy, the Governor, and the Colony:
Frameworks of Public Law in the French Atlantic”
Brett Rushforth
(William and Mary, History): “‘Governed by the Same Laws, without Distinction
or Difference’: Legal Pluralism and the Construction of Empire in the Early
Modern French Atlantic”
Miranda Spieler
(Arizona, History): “Slaves and the Old
Regime: The View from Paris”
Commentator:
David Bell (Princeton, History)
Chair: Richard
Ross (University
of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, Law and History)
10:35 to 10:50: Refreshment Break
10:50 to 12:20: Panel: Economy and Empire
Allan Greer
(McGill, History): “A Feudal Empire?
Land Tenure in the French Atlantic”
Helen Dewar (University of Toronto,
History): “Company Logic Meets Legal Accountability: The Question of Liability
of Chartered Enterprises in the Mid-17-Century French Atlantic”
Catherine Desbarats (McGill,
History): “Payback for Default:
Legalities of Counterfeit in the French Atlantic”
Commentator: Paul
Cheney (University
of Chicago, History)
Chair: To be
announced
12:20 to 1:40: Lunch: Participants and
audience members are invited to try the restaurants in the neighborhood around the Newberry.
1:40 to 3:10: Panel: Slavery and the Code Noir
Guillaume Aubert (William and Mary,
History): “Beyond the Codes Noirs:
The Making of Slave Law(s) in the Early Modern French Atlantic”
Jean-François
Niort (Université des Antilles et de la
Guyane, Law): “The Code Noir and the
Evolution of the French Slave Colonial Law: A New Perspective”
Malick Ghachem (Maine, Law): “The Afterlife of the Law of
Slavery: The Code Noir and the
Language of Rights in the Era of the Haitian Revolution”
Commentator #1:
Jean Hébrard (Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales; and University of Michigan, History)
Commentator #2 and Chair: Lea Vandervelde (Iowa,
Law)
3:10 to 3:25: Refreshment Break
3:25 to 4:55 Panel: The Seven Years’ War
and After
Christian Crouch (Bard, History): “Indians Out of the Shadows and into the Plot:
Tracing Indigenous Voices in Building a French Atlantic Case for Just War”
Michel Morin (Université de
Montréal, Law): “The Reactions of the ‘New’ Subjects of Quebec
to British Justice for Private Law Matters, 1760-1774”
Hannah Weiss
Muller (Harvard, History and
Literature): “From French to British: Remonstrance, Representation, and
Remediation between Empires”
Commentator #1: Shannon
Lee Dawdy (University of Chicago,
Anthropology)
Commentator #2
and Chair: Robert Morrissey (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, History)
5:00 Adjourn
