The meeting aims at crossing perspectives of urban and law history, resorting to a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach that enables to capture key aspects of the relation between law, city and jurists over the long term.

Rome, 15 May 2024 Università ‘Roma Tre’ – Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

Argument

The meeting aims at crossing perspectives of urban and law history, resorting to a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach that enables to capture key aspects of the relation between law, city and jurists over the long term. Presentations may focus on the topic of the convergence between city and law in the broadest and most comprehensive meaning: from the valorisation of legislative, doctrinaire or judicial sources on the spatial organisation of the city (walls, palaces, streets, relics), to the influence of law on urban planning and building, to investigations of historical, juridical, literary, artistic, sources on the political and institutional framework of lawyers in urban history (presence in government agencies, propositional force and decision making power on urban issues, dialectics with other social components and professional categories) or on the link between law schools and legal universities in the urban space. How has law contributed to the physical image of cities? Is law a predominantly urban science? Is there a specific political role played in certain contexts by jurists in city administration? What relation did lawyers establish with other social components in cities and in what forms did they represent themselves? And what are the geographical variations of all these factors?

By bringing into dialogue a wide variety of answers from anyone who has come across these questions in the course of his or her doctoral and post-doctoral research, the aim is to recompose a mosaic, from ancient history to the contemporary age, that encompasses the many and varying facets of the profound relationships that have existed over the centuries between the city, the law and the lawyers.

The call for papers is now open to proposals on any topic in line with the above guidelines, in any Italian, European or global context. However, in selecting the proposals, the scientific committee will give priority to studies that are presented in a comparative perspective and that raise cross-cutting interests. Topics could include, but are not limited to:

• The role of jurists in urban magistracies.
• The stone city and its rules: civic uses, building and planning regulations...      
• The redaction of local laws and customs as a means of building city identities
• Citizenship rights and their suspension for exceptional reasons
• The circulation of legal knowledge-formal and informal-in cities and between cities
• Legal processes of social inclusion/exclusion    
• Legal uses, abuses and delimitations of land and urban spaces 
• Property regimes, family uses and their consequences on the practices of urban settlement 
• Legal training, construction practices, and speculative dynamics: regulating building processes
• Topographies of justice: courts, prisons, ‘ban stones’, places of executions...
• Property rights, exceptions and sanctions: expropriations, demolitions, compensation, building obligations 

Submission guidelines

Proposals must be sent to the Scientific Committee by e-mail (segretario@aisuinternational.net)

by the deadline of 2 December 2024,

accompanied by a title, a short abstract (max 1000 characters) and the author’s CV (max 1000 characters). Acceptance will be notified by 9 December 2024. 

Participation fees

Participation in the seminars is reserved for PhD students, new PhD graduates or young researchers members of AISU. 
• For members: free of charge 
• For non-members: 2025 membership fee (https://aisuinternational.org/register/)

Deadlines

• Opening of the call for papers 21 October 2024

• Closure of the call for papers 2 December 2024 

• Notification of the acceptance of proposals 9 December 2024 

Organization

• Sara Menzinger, Università ‘Roma Tre’
• Marco Folin, Università di Genova

Scientific Committee

• Sara Menzinger, Università ‘Roma Tre’
• Alfredo Buccaro, Università di Napoli Federico II
• Giovanni Cristina, Università Roma Tre
• Cristina Cuneo, Politecnico di Torino
• Marco Folin, Università di Genova
• Andrea Longhi, Politecnico di Torino
• Andrea Maglio, Università di Napoli Federico II
• Elena Manzo, Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli
• Luca Mocarelli, Università di Milano Bicocca
• Heleni Porfyriou, CNR-ISPC
• Marco Pretelli, Università di Bologna
• Massimiliano Savorra, Università di Pavia
• Donatella Strangio, Sapienza Università di Roma
• Elena Svalduz, Università di Padova
• Ines Tolic, Università di Bologna
• Stefano Zaggia, Università di Padova