History and Law: How and Why?

Over the past decades, the fields of international law and European Union law have witnessed a
turn to history. While historians have discovered the archives of international organisations and
key legal and diplomatic actors, lawyers increasingly turn to history as a means of reinterpreting
accepted wisdoms and established canons. Despite this shared turn, important differences between
the field of international law and EU law remain. Debates and controversies in the field of
international law appear more mature than in the field of EU law. For example, the study of
colonial legacies in EU law has only just begun, even though it has been an increasingly central
object of inquiry in the field of international law for numerous decades. Nonetheless, these
similarities and differences offer a fruitful starting point for a conversation between international
and EU legal scholars about the methodologies and purposes of history in legal research.
As postdoctoral fellows working along the fault lines of international and European law, as well as
the disciplines of law and history, we hope to pursue such a conversation at the NYU. Our aim is
to organise a series of informal round-table discussions which focus on possibilities and limits of
history in legal research. Our central question is: what claims about law and legal reasoning can a scholar
substantiate through the use of historical analysis? We are both interested in the ‘added value’ of historical
research from a theoretical perspective, as well as the practical question how historical approaches
(such as archival research) can generate relevant insights for lawyers. Concretely, we aim to invite
a number of scholars to discuss these questions with us in an informal manner based on a draft
paper or a published text.

Programme

Histories of Globalism and World Order
Monday 9 February, 12:30-2:00pm, Remarque Institute (60 5th Avenue, 8th Floor)
Or Rosenboim – NYU Remarque & University of Bologna
Quinn Slobodian – Boston University

The New Legal History of EU law: Past Achievements and Future Directions
Monday 23 March, 16:30-18:00, Jean Monnet Center (22 Washington Square North)
Fernanda Nicola – Washington University
Bill Davies – Washington University

Histories of International law Beyond Europe
Monday 20 April, 16:30-18:00, Jean Monnet Center (22 Washington Square North)
Karin Loevy – NYU Institute for International Law and Justice
Idriss Fofana – Harvard University

*Workshop series convened by Maciej Krogel, Alezini Loxa, Sebastian von Massow,
Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín, & Jacob van de Beeten