Call for paper 2027 - Crises, Catastrophes, Rebirths. The Historical-Legal Dimension

The board of the Italian Review of Legal History invites all scholars to contribute to the next issue of the year 2027 on the topic: Crises, Catastrophes, Rebirths. The Historical-Legal Dimension.

There are countless perspectives that can be explored on this theme: the forms of government the relationships between peoples and governments, the democratic "education", the dissemination of culture, the invention of new legal instruments to address the problems of inequality, of gender discrimination, of migrants, of new forms of slavery, and of the climate crisis. Common to all these perspectives is the need to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable, of the environment, and of the land.

Can the study of Italian, European, and world history offer useful perspectives for deciphering what is happening in the present?

History never repeats itself, and nothing that has happened in any era of history anywhere in the world can ever be repeated. Nothing, or almost nothing, of what was predicted in the past has come to pass, and nothing is predictable for the future.

However, reflecting on current events is always useful for historians to discover new angles from which to study historical events. Perhaps the ever-new perspectives offered by the discoveries of historical research could suggest useful clues and signs to orient ourselves in a present increasingly marked by wars, tragedies and catastrophes, violations and suppressions of rights.

Could reflections on specific historical experiences serve to identify the causes and upcoming crises before these bring us to the edge of a cliff? Or, could they help us to chart viable paths to a rebirth that reverses our course , even in the face of the countless crises of the present?

We know that the crises that have struck every civilization have very often led to tragedies and catastrophes; sometimes, however, a crisis has been followed by transformation and rebirth. In certain periods and under specific circumstances, in specific "spaces," law has succeeded in bringing about a turning point and in prevailing over powers exercised through violence or even under the guise of legality - through unjust and even inhumane laws. It should not be forgotten that the many, often dramatic, crises that have occurred over the millennia in every part of the planet offer important food for thought and should therefore be carefully considered, in their similarities and differences.

In the years of rebirth after the end of the Second World War, there was the hope that peace would triumph over war, that democracy would prevent new dictatorships, that the protection of human rights would prevail over the extermination of peoples and violence against individuals, that the union of European states would constitute a barrier against oppressive and expansionist powers, and that all these principles and values ​​could be exported to every part of the world. It was believed that the achievement of peace and individual and collective well-being could be guaranteed both through the implementation of democratic constitutions based on the separation and balance of powers, and through the institutions, principles, and rules of the international and the European law. Much has been achieved in this direction by many nations: from reducing internal conflicts, to ending the colonialism, to recognising social rights, the value of education and culture, the right to health, women's equality, the protection of minors, and the protection of the environment.

The events of the last eighty years have led to the creation of the United Nations and the subsequent international conventions now in force, as well as the creation of the European Union, which was in many ways unprecedented. They now merit a detailed historical reconstruction.

Eighty years after the beginning of this journey, however, we are facing the risk of destroying all the principles and values ​​in which we believed: faith in the progressive realization of a more just world founded on an international law of peace and on cooperation between peoples is crumbling; efforts to protect the environment are no longer, or are not always, at the centre of national policies; the affirmation of democratic principles, equality, and the protection of the weakest has not been accompanied by sufficient education in democracy. This is leading to a decline in 'social' culture and in the defence of our imperfect democracies, while in too many parts of the world, not only do wars continue, but new conflict scenarios are opening up, and leaders are ignoring the existence of limits to their power, turning into dictators.

In short, we wish to turn our gaze to past events in Europe and worldwide, attempting to reconstruct when and how societal and institutional crises led to disasters and catastrophes, and whether, when, and where these crises were, instead, the driving force behind transformations or rebirths that, at least in some specific areas of law, contributed to social, cultural, economic, and institutional improvement.

Submission deadline June 30th 2027

Papers can be written in the following languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese.

At the choice of the author, papers will be published:

in Italian (or in another of the languages above mentioned) and English

only in Italian language (or in another of the languages above mentioned) with an abstract in English of at least 4.000 characters.

For author guidelines and additional information, please visit the website of the Journal https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/irlh, in particular, https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/irlh/about and https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/irlh/about/submissions

Please, fill the following form by March 31st 2027 (pdf file to be filled with Acrobat Reader) and submit it to segreteria.irlh@unimi.it and to claudia.storti@unimi.it