Applications are now being accepted from faculty and advanced graduate students with research projects related to

Empires, Law, and the Law of Nations (in-person weekend seminar)
Directed by Lauren Benton (Yale University) and Andrew Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary University of London)

Sponsored by The Center for Early Modern Political Thought

A wave of recent histories of imperial and interpolity law in the early modern period (c. 1500-1800, but sometimes extending consideration both before and after these dates) has transformed the field. The results include novel insights about sovereignty, subjecthood, rights, and property, as well as new understandings of natural law, the law of nations, and global legal regimes from the perspective of both indigenous actors and Europeans. Methodologically varied and interdisciplinary, the research spotlights a broad cast of legal actors—not just officials and states but also corporations and groups or individuals with fluid notions of legal and political belonging. This innovative scholarship encompasses multiple strands. One corrects the Eurocentrism of histories of the law of nations by investigating the political thought and legal strategies of communities outside Europe. Another reinterprets European political thought, broadly defined, in relation to colonies and empires. And a third analyzes the construction and meanings of the rule of law within empires. These approaches connect small corners of political thought and action to big questions about the role of law in making and remaking empires and order in the early modern world. Faculty and advanced graduate students with research projects related to the above concerns are welcome to apply.

Directors: Lauren Benton is Barton M. Biggs Professor of History and Professor of Law at Yale University. Her most recent book on empire and law is They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence. Previous books include A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900. In 2019, Benton received the Toynbee Prize for significant contributions to global history. Andrew Fitzmaurice, Professor of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London, focuses upon the ideologies of European empires, especially their justifications for the appropriation of land and sovereignty from non-Europeans from the sixteenth century on. He is the author of Sovereignty, Property, and Empire 1500 – 2000, and, most recently, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter.

Anticipated Schedule: Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3, 2025.

Apply: March 3, 2025, for admission and grants-in-aid for Folger Institute Consortium affiliates.

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