[Urbanstudy] FW: CFP Spaces of law: territories, boundaries, corridors and beyond, Kolkata, 11-13 Dec. 2012

[Deb Ranjan Sinha]

via the h-asia listserv....


-----Original Message-----
From: H-Net Announcements <announce at MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>

Spaces of law: territories, boundaries, corridors and beyond

Workshop at CSSSC, Kolkata, India, 11-13 December 2012
Organisers: Prof. Lakshmi Subramanian, Dr. Nandini Chatterjee

This event seeks to examine the role of space  geographical, imagined 
and claimed, in shaping ideas and practices of imperial law, and those 
subject to that law. The network organisers welcome paper proposals 
from researchers working on themes such as, but not limited to, race, 
migration, slavery, nationhood, diplomacy, extra-territoriality, 
piracy and security, and within the disciplines of history, law, 
literature, anthropology and geography. While the principal focus of 
the workshop is the British empire, comparative insights from other 
imperial/colonial contexts would be very warmly welcomed.

This workshop is organised jointly by the Centre for Studies in Social 
Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), and Plymouth University, UK. It is one of 
the four academic events planned within the AHRC funded research 
network Subjects of law: rightful selves and the legal process in 
imperial Britain and the British empire'.

The historiography of imperial law and space has developed along 
multiple lines. Scholars have noted both the expansive claims to 
universal law, facilitating unhindered European mobility and commerce 
(Pagden), but also the imagination of Europe as a uniquely lawful 
space beyond which not only could slavery be permissible but 
constitutional government problematic (Gould). From a different angle, 
such powerful Eurocentric claims have been demonstrated to have been 
based on no more than the ephemera of fractured spots or corridors of 
sovereignty, unevenly traversing borderlands and high seas where 
alternative moralities, markets and power structures prevailed 
(Benton). Studies of penal regimes and colonies in Australasia further 
complicate this story by pointing to the multiple roles played, in 
different locations, by the subjects of those regimes (Ford, Anderson) 
thus raising more questions about the locus of power and how to read 
it through the record of legal events.

In this event, we wish to investigate the following issues in 
particular:

1) How did empire and colony as spatial entities shape the theory and 
praxis of law in discrete contexts?

2) What other spatial or non-spatial categories challenged or endorsed 
such legal geographies, and/or asserted their own disciplining claims?

3) How were such real and imagined spaces inhabited by historical 
subjects  both during and beyond legal episodes?

Please send paper proposals to Nandini Chatterjee 
nandini.chatterjee at plymouth.ac.uk by 13 July 2012.

Bursaries: The network intends to offer two speakers affiliated to 
institutions within India, and two speakers from outside India, 
accommodation in Calcutta during the convening of the workshop, and to 
make a substantial contribution towards their airfare expenses.


Department of History, University of Plymouth
Room 05, 4 Portland Villas
Plymouth PL4 8AA
UK
Phone: +44 (0)1752 585132

Email: nandini.chatterjee at plymouth.ac.uk
Visit the website at 
http://www.privycouncilpapers.org/research-network-and-events/