Subjects Of Law

Welcome! We are still working on setting up this blog. Do feel free to look around while we are at it, and do come back and look again. 

This is a multi-disciplinary research network that brings together scholars working on law and empire. It uses the idea of subjects to indicate three things:

– that law has cultural and textual dimensions

-that law has the capacity of shaping the self-expression of those that come in contact with it

– that law involves coercion.

Currently, the network includes scholars who work within the disciplines of anthropology, history, literature and law. It remains open to colleagues in any discipline who are interested in the themes of the network. It is also open to colleagues working on any imperial/colonial context, in the modern as well as pre-modern worlds.

The purpose of the network, and this website, is to provide a meeting place and information hub for colleagues looking to organise events such as conferences or workshops, inform others about their recent publications, highlight research and teaching tools relevant to those working in the area, review important publications by others, comment on relevant current events, and above all, discuss key developments in related fields.

This network grew out of an AHRC research network titled ‘Subjects of Law: rightful selves and the legal process in imperial Britain and the British empire’, 2012-14, of which the directors were Dr Nandini Chatterjee and Dr Charlotte Smith. It is hoped that the excellent conversations that we have had with many colleagues across the world will continue, and contribute to exciting academic collaboration in the future.