Seminars

This page provides a complete list of the seminars organised by the Centre for English Legal History since its inception.

Upcoming events can be seen on the Events calendar.

If you would like to be added to the Centre’s mailing list to receive notice of upcoming events, or would be interested in presenting a paper at one of the Centre’s seminars, please contact the convenors Doug Chapman (drc63@cam.ac.uk), Rosalind Acland (ra593@cam.ac.uk) or Joshu Majima (jm2450@cam.ac.uk). You can also follow the Centre on X/Twitter @CamCELH and watch previous seminars on the Centre's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@centreforenglishlegalhistory

2023-24

Michaelmas Term

• 10 October: Conor Gearty (LSE Law School) 'The Suffragette Movement and Civil Liberties'
• 24 October: Sonali Walpola (ANU College of Business and Economics) 'Substantive Bargain as the Basis of Consideration in Contract—the Argument Based in Case Evidence, Doctrinal Coherence, and Principle, and a Discussion of the Limited Role of Nominal Consideration'
• 7 November: Ryan Rowberry (Georgia State University College of Law) 'The Judicial Finances of Gilbert Rothbury, a Clerical Royal Court Justice (1295-1321)'
• 21 November: Rebecca Probert (University of Exeter Law School) '2023-2024 CELH Annual Lecture: Women and the Crime of Bigamy in English Law, 1603-2023'

Lent Term

• 13 February: Matthew Steilen (University at Buffalo School of Law) 'Representation in the Parliaments of Henry III and Edward III'
• 27 February: Douglas Chapman (University of Cambridge) 'Fines and the Common Bench, 1218-1226'
• 5 March: Fleur Stolker (University of Cambridge) 'Bankruptcy Without Borders: Exploring Cross-Border Insolvency in Early Modern England'

Easter Term

2022-23

Michaelmas Term

• 25 October: John Witte Jr. (Emory University School of Law) 'Back to the Sources? What's Clear and Not So Clear About the Original Intent of the First Amendment'
• 8 November: Geert Sluijs (KU Leuven) 'Diodorus Tuldenus (1594-1645), the Lex Regia Tradition, and Legislative Power'
• 25 November: David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge) 'Valedictory Lecture: Roman Law, Comparative Law, Legal History'

Lent Term

• N/A

Easter Term

• 27 April: Sir Ross Cranston (LSE Law School) '2022-2023 CELH Annual Lecture: Law as Backcloth? A History of English Commercial Law'
• 11 May: Michael Lobban (University of Oxford) 'The Travels of Treason: An Exploration of the Law of Treason in the 19th Century British Empire'
• 23 May: Lorren Eldridge (University of Edinburgh Law School) 'Medieval Leases and Modern Leases in English Law'

2021-22

Michaelmas Term

• 16 November: Robert Palmer (University of Houston) 'Litigation in 1642 from the Perspective of 1300: Updates on the AALT/WAALT Projects'
• 30 November: Elizabeth Papp Kamali (Harvard Law School) 'Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England'

Lent Term

• 23 February: Nicholas Karn (University of Southampton) 'Pleas and Adversarialism Before the Common Law'
• 9 March: Russell Sandberg (Cardiff University) 'Why the History of English Law Is Not Taught'

Easter Term

• 18 May: Ashley Hannay (University of Manchester) 'The Origins of the Statute of Uses'
• 1 June: Stephanie Brown (Institute of Historical Research) 'Making a Medieval Murderer: Identity and Prosecution in 14 th Century Yorkshire'
• 8 June: Victoria Lacis (University of Münster) 'Jurisprudence and the Civil Law: Perspectives on 19 th Century English Legal Education'
• 6 July: Chantal Stebbings (University of Exeter) 'Bureaucratic Lawmaking: The Power of Dislocation in the Legal History of Tax'

2020-21

Michaelmas Term

• 19 October: John Hudson (St Andrews) 'F. W. Maitland: common law, civil law, comparative law'
• 2 November: Rebecca Probert (Exeter) 'The Making of the Marriage Act 1836'
• 16 November: Paul Hyams (Cornell/Oxford) 'The Notion of Legal 'Right' to Land into the Age of Magna Carta: A First Go'
• 30 November: Emily Kadens (Northwestern) 'The dark side of commerce: trust, reputation and cheating in early modern England'

Lent Term

• 25 January: Egbert Koops (Leiden University) ''When both can be satisfied, both shall be satisfied'. The equity of marshalling securities and the beneficium excussionis in common law and civil law'
• 8 February: Constantin Willems (Phillipps Universität Marburg) 'Sea urchins and urgencies? Some thoughts on late antique legislation concerning monopolies and collusive pricing'
• 15 February: David Foster (UCL) 'The Civil War Chancery, 1642-51'
• 1 March: Elizabeth Papp Kamali (Harvard University) 'Intoxication in Medieval English Law'

Easter Term

• 18 May: Caroline Laske (University of Ghent) 'Legal History Meets Diachronic Semantics: Understanding Legal Concepts and Terminology Over Time'
• 1 June: Kenneth Duggan (University of Toronto) 'Deodands and the Law in Thirteenth-Century England'
• 8 June: Marie Seong-Hak Kim (St. Cloud State University) 'Revisiting Custom in Legal History and Historiography'
• 15 June: Thomas McSweeney (William & Mary Law School) 'Priests of the Law: Roman Law and the Making of the Common Law's First Professionals'

2019-20

Michaelmas Term

• 16 October: Ashley Hannay (University of Cambridge)'"By fraud and collusion": Early Tudor revenue and the Statute of Marlborough'
• 29 October: Ian Williams (University College London) 'What did contemporaries know about the Star Chamber, and did it matter?'
• 12 November: Tom McSweeney (William and Mary College & Clare Hall, Cambridge) 'Teaching the Common Law in Latin in the Late Thirteenth Century'​

Lent Term

• 21 January: Laura Flannigan (University of Cambridge) 'Contesting Justice in Sixteenth-Century England: John Stokesley and the Court of Requests'
• 18 February: Christopher Jenkins (University of Cambridge) 'Law in the Time of Cholera: The Unsigned Anglo-Italian Foreign Judgments Convention of 1887'
• 3 March: Lorren Eldridge (University of Oxford) 'Local Law Making on English Manors before the Black Death'
• 10 March: Fleur Stolker (University of Oxford) 'Bankruptcy and Insolvency in the early modern Court of Chancery, 1543-1628'

Easter Term

• 4 May: Ashley Hannay (University of Cambridge) ‘Resulting Uses in the Early Modern Inns of Court’
• 18 May: Will Sullivan (University of Chicago), ‘The Elemental Conception of Law and Fact in Roman-Canon Procedure’
• 1 June: Lorren Eldridge (University of Oxford), ‘Vinogradoff and Historical Jurisprudence’
• 15 June: Ian Williams (University College London), ‘'Star Chamber Literature and Legal Publishing in Early-Stuart England'
• 13 July: Matt Dyson (University of Oxford), 'Fault patterns: a fabric of tortious and criminal fabric, in the family since 1850'
• 20 July: Matthew Cleary (University of Edinburgh), 'A Comparative Analysis of Administration of Wills in Late 15th-Early 16th century England'
• 27 July: Fleur Stolker (University of Oxford), 'Debt settlements of insolvent debtors in the English Court of Chancery, 1551-1628'

2018-19

Michaelmas Term

• 16 October: David Foster (University of Nottingham), 'Privity & the Trust: Crown Rights in Equity, c. 1599-1623'
• 30 October: Tim Rogan (University of Cambridge), 'Histories of Capitalism and the History of Contract'
• 20 November: Daniel Gosling (The National Archives), 'La Courte de Rome ou Aillours: The Use and Interpretation of Praemunire in the Later Medieval Period'

Lent Term

• 29 January: Peter Turner (University of Cambridge),'Common Law Relief from Penalties: When Did it All Begin?'
• 19 February: Jeffrey Thomson (City University of London), 'Que serra userie punye per lestatute? An examination of Readers' cases on usury’
• 26 February: Lionel Bently (University of Cambridge), 'Excavating Early English Trade Mark Law'
• 12 March: Lloyd Bonfield (New York University), 'The Adoption of the Wills Act of 1837: a case study in the difficulties of law reform in the early/mid 19th century

Easter Term

• 7 May: Sarah White (University of St Andrews), 'Fama and Hearsay: The Procedure and Practice of Proof in the Thirteenth Century'
• 28 May: Paul Mitchell (University College London), 'The Modern History of Tort Remedies'
• 4 June: Neil Jones (University of Cambridge), 'Jacobean Chancery Injunctions'

2017-18

Michaelmas Term

• 17 October: Colm McGrath (University of Cambridge), 'The roots of German medical malpractice'
• 24 October: Felicity Hill (University of Cambridge), 'How much can the law of medieval excommunication tell us about its practice?'
• 14 November: Fleur Stolker (University of Oxford), 'The rise and fall of the reputed ownership clause'

Lent Term

• 23 January: Rajiv Shah (University of Cambridge), 'Quantum Meruit before Unjust Enrichment'
• 6 February: Stelios Tofaris (University of Cambridge), 'Colonial Legal Transplantation: The Travels and Travails of the Common Law Tort Code'
• 20 February: Chantel Stebbings (University of Exeter), 'The Medicine Stamp Duty: Fiscal Non-entity or Revealing Paradigm?'
• 27 February: Naoki Kanayama (Kelo University), 'Japan, Asia and Comparative Law: History of Modern Law in Asia'
• 6 March: David Chan Smith (Wilfred Laurier University), 'Revisiting the Case of Sutton's Hospital: The Early Modern Debate over the Theory of the Corporation'

Easter Term

• 1 May: Kate Peters (University of Cambridge), 'Access to Law: The Politics of Record Keeping in the English Civil War'
• 15 May: David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge), 'Tradition in English Roman Law'
• 30 May: Marie-France Fortin (University of Cambridge), ''The King Can Do No Wrong' met 'The King's Two Bodies': Rule of Law in Late Medieval and Tudor England'
• 5 June: Joshua Getzler (University of Oxford), 'Pre-emption, Native Title and Crown Fiduciary Duties'

2016-17

Michaelmas Term

• 11 October: Harshan Kumarasingham (Max Planck Institute for European Legal History), 'Constitution-maker: the international influence and legacy of Sir Ivor Jennings'
• 25 October: Kenneth Duggan (King’s College London), 'Maintaining law and order without the frankpledge system in thirteenth century England'
• 8 November: Catherine Evans (University of Cambridge), 'Female killers and criminal responsibility in nineteenth century Britain'
• 29 November: Ian Williams (University College London), 'Printing the law in English, 1625-1642: losing control of professional knowledge'

Lent Term

• 31 January: Ed Cavanagh (University of Cambridge), 'Conquest and the limits of corporate power in England and Empire: 1066-1923'
• 16 February: David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge), 'Damages in trespass'
• 28 February: Neil Jones (University of Cambridge), 'Sixteenth-century England: a view from the trusts cases'
• 14 March: Lloyd Bonfield (New York Law School), 'Farewell Downton Abbey, adieu primogeniture and entail: Britain’s brief encounter with forced heirship in the mid-1830s'

Easter Term

• 2 May: Will Eves (University of St Andrews), 'A case study of early common law litigation: the use (and abuse) of the assize of mort d’ancester c. 1194-1230'
• 16 May: Helen Saunders (University of Cambridge), 'Excavating the archive: expectant heirs in the Chancery decree rolls, 1596-1640'
• 30 May: John Magyar (University of Cambridge), 'The textualist orthodoxy of the Victorian treatise on statute law'

2015-16

Michaelmas Term

• 29 September: Mark Lunney (University of New England), 'Living in the shadows of Dixon: Isaac Isaacs' contribution to the development of an Australian law of tort'
• 13 October: Michael Lobban (London School of Economics), 'Sir Jeffrey Gilbert and the common law'
• 27 October: Visa Kurki (University of Cambridge), 'Gaius, Leibniz, Austin: How personality became associated with the holding of rights'
• 10 November: Tom Lambert (University of Cambridge), 'The origins of jurisdiction in English law, 900-1100'
• 24 November: Constantin Willems (University of Trier), 'English legal history and Justinian's quinquaginta decisiones'

Lent Term

• 19 January: Andrew Zurcher (University of Cambridge), '“Accessarie yeeldings” and hypallactic objects in Plowden, Spenser, and Shakespeare'
• 2 February: John Allison (University of Cambridge), 'What Dicey did when he was wrong: the comparative constitutional lectures he left unpublished'
• 16 February: Rajiv Shah (University of Cambridge), 'The forgotten proprietary basis of unjust enrichment'
• 1 March: Sarah White (University of St Andrews) 'Advocates and legal argument in the thirteenth-century Court of Canterbury'

Easter Term

• 26 April: Catharine MacMillan (University of Reading), 'The greatest court in Christendom: Judah Benjamin and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council'
• 10 May: Peter Clarke (University of Southampton), 'Legitimate self-defence in medieval theory and practice: the European ius commune and English common law compared'
• 24 May: Imogen Wedd (University of Cambridge), 'Mortgages and the middling sort: the country conveyancer and his client in the 17th century'
• 7 June: Paul du Plessis (University of Edinburgh), 'Roman law in Roman Britain'

2014-15

Michaelmas Term

• 14 October: Christian Burset (Yale University), 'Arbitration and the politics of commercial litigation in eighteenth-century England and its empire'
• 11 November: John Baker (University of Cambridge), 'Some Elizabethan marriage cases'

Lent Term

• 27 January: David Waddilove (St Catherine’s College, Cambridge), 'The legal basics of early-modern lending'
• 10 February: David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge), 'Words and deeds: the action of covenant, again'
• 24 February: Nicola Murphy (National University of Ireland, Galway), 'Derry v. Peek in the House of Lords and beyond'
• 10 March: David Foster (Queen Mary University of London), '‘Aequitas sequitur legem’? : the proliferation of equitable constructions in settlements of land, c. 1660-1750'

Easter Term

• 5 May: Richard Kay (University of Connecticut School of Law), 'The Glorious Revolution and the continuity of law'
• 7 May: Workshop
  • Halcyon Weber (St John’s College, Cambridge), 'An enquiry into Justinianic legislation on the ius antiquum'
  • Lorenzo Maniscalco (Trinity Hall, Cambridge), 'Aequitas and epieikeia in medieval and early-modern legal scholarship'
  • Joanna McCunn (Clare College, Cambridge), 'The interpretation of deeds at common law, c. 1530–80'
  • Jeffrey Thomson (Hughes Hall, Cambridge), 'Marine insurance in the seventeenth century'

• 19 May Guido Rossi (University of Edinburgh), 'Sin and abuse of power in the political thought of medieval lawyers'
• 29 May Warren Swain (University of Queensland), 'The common law and the Code civil: the curious case of the law of contract'

2013-14

Michaelmas Term

• 22 October: Dr Ian Williams (University College London), 'Early-modern common law scholarship: speech, manuscript, print'
• 5 November: Professor Mark Bailey (University of East Anglia), 'From villeinage to copyhold: the evolution of customary tenures in England, c. 1300 to 1550'
• 19 November: Dr Matt Dyson (Trinity College, Cambridge), 'Restoring specific property: tort and crime playing tag'

Lent Term

• 28 January: David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge), 'The reasoning in Calvin’s Case'
• 11 February: James McComish (Selwyn College, Cambridge), 'Law and patronage in sixteenth-century England: the hidden correspondence of Sir William Cordell, Master of the Rolls 1557-1581'
• 25 February: James Lawson (Downing College, Cambridge), 'A common law of inheritance: mort d’ancestor and the learned laws'
• 11 March: Gerald Postema (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), 'Hale on potestas irritans'

Easter Term

• 5 May: Chris Jenkins (Trinity College, Cambridge), 'On Monday The enforcement of foreign judgments in British India, 1797-1858'
• 20 May: Cornelius Riethdorf (Peterhouse, Cambridge), 'Reassessing the origins of natural rights language: the contribution of medieval Roman law'

2012-13

Michaelmas Term

• 10 October: David Ibbetson, 'Equity, 1520-1620'
• 24 October: James Lawson, 'Civilian and canonist influences in Glanvill'
• 14 November: David Waddilove: 'A misunderstanding about early modern mortgages'
• 28 November: Chris Briggs: 'Legal expertise in manor courts: the personal actions, c. 1260-1350’

Lent Term

• 30 January: James McComish, 'Navigating the law in 16th century England: a view from the Common Pleas'
• 6 February: David Fox, 'Monetary obligations and the fragmentation of the sterling monetary union'
• 20 February: Adrian Leonard, 'From law merchant to common law: practice and practicality in London’s marine insurance market, 1548-1824'

Easter Term

• 1 May: Tomás Gómez-Arostegui (Lewis & Clark Law School), 'Copyright at common law before 1710 and its modern implications'
• 15 May: Thomas Gallanis (University of Iowa and All Souls College, Oxford), 'English law in the eighteenth century: what can we learn from the Ryder sources?'
• 29 May: Neil Jones (Magdalene College, Cambridge), 'The hinterland of the Statute of Uses: uses litigation in Chancery in the decades before 1536'
• 12 June: Richard Blakemore (University of Exeter), 'Questions of consuetude: practice, debate, and participation in the seventeenth-century High Court of Admiralty'