Venue: The Moot Court Hall, 8-10 Berkeley Square

Do historians and lawyers approach legal historical study differently? Do their methods vary? Are the sources they look at distinct? Do their conclusions share a common essence? Or are the stories they tell disparate? What, then, can they learn from one another? Can an inter-disciplinary conversation throw light on unique or shared methodological leanings and challenges?

Join us for an engaging conversation on these themes amongst Professor Kate Skinner, Dr William Pooley and Dr Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer from the Department of History, and Professors Gwen Seabourne, Sally Sheldon and Lois Bibbings from the Faculty of Law. Organised by the Centre for Law and History Research, in collaboration with the Department of History, the panel will look at a fascinating array of legal historical research across themes and contexts: from witches in France, wives in Ghana and marriage in the Philippines to medieval law, abortion law and insider/outsider positions within legal historical research. The focus will be on methods, more specifically methodological choices made, and challenges faced, with the aim of moving past disciplinary boundaries to co-create a space for interdisciplinary knowledge sharing.

Speakers:

Professor Kate Skinner, ‘Who, and what, is a wife? A political history of family law reform in postcolonial Ghana’

Dr Willaim Pooley, ‘Liberty, Equality… Sorcery? Law and Witchcraft after Decriminalisation in France, 1682-1940’

Dr Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, ‘Mapping Marriage and Intimacies in the Spanish Philippines’

Professor Gwen Seabourne, ‘Medieval Law Today’

Professor Sally Sheldon, ‘Writing the biography of a statute’

Professor Lois Bibbings, ‘Insider/outsider perspectives and activism’