John Cairns: Regulating Slavery in Europe: A Global Problem of the Eighteenth Century

Frankfurter Rechtshistorische Abendgespräche

  • Datum: 13.04.2016
  • Uhrzeit: 18:00
  • Vortragende(r): Prof. John Cairns
  • Faculty of Law, Edinburgh University
  • Thema: Regulating Slavery in Europe: A Global Problem of the Eighteenth Century
  • Ort: Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte
  • Raum: Vortragssaal des MPI
  • Gastgeber: Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte und das Institut für Rechtsgeschichte, Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaften der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
John Cairns: Regulating Slavery in Europe: A Global Problem of the Eighteenth Century

Gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Rechtsgeschichte der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt knüpft das Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte seit dem Wintersemester 2014/2015 an eine Frankfurter Tradition an und lädt zur Vortragsreihe „Frankfurter Rechtshistorische Abendgespräche“ eine. Diese finden jeweils zu Beginn und am Ende der Vorlesungszeit statt und werden im Wechsel vom Institut für Rechtsgeschichte der Goethe-Universität und dem Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte ausgerichtet.

Am 13. April 2016 um 18:00 Uhr wird Prof. John Cairns, Faculty of Law, Edinburgh University über “Regulating Slavery in Europe: A Global Problem of the Eighteenth Century” sprechen. Die Veranstaltung, zu der wir Sie herzlich einladen, findet im Vortragssaal des Max-Planck-Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte statt.

Regulating Slavery in Europe: A Global Problem of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, colonizing European powers were necessarily involved with slavery, sometimes just in their colonies and sometimes, like Britain, also through significant involvement in the international slave trade. This raised interesting questions about the legal status of individuals held enslaved in the colonies who came to the European colonizing country, sometimes with the individual who claimed ownership and sometimes on their own. Differing European countries dealt with this in different ways. France, for example, which had issued its Code Noir in 1685 dealt with it by an edict. In other jurisdictions, such as those of the United Provinces, the issues were ignored, and any problems left to be sorted out by the courts. This was also the case in both jurisdictions in Great Britain. The paper will focus on Scotland, exploring how it was possible to develop an essentially privatized, if limited, regime of slavery, when the law was ambiguous as to its status; one can extrapolate this to other European states.

Brief Introduction of Prof. John Cairns

John W. Cairns graduated from the University of Edinburgh with the degree of LLB in 1977. He started research for the degree of PhD with Alan Watson, then Professor of Civil Law in Edinburgh, graduating in 1981. He taught at the Queen’s University of Belfast from 1980-1984. From 1985 he has taught at the University of Edinburgh, having held the position of, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor of Legal History and then Professor of Civil Law. He has been a Visiting Professor at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the University of Miami, Florida. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007. The main themes of his research have been the history of Scots law (particularly legal literature, legal education, and the legal profession in the eighteenth century) slavery and the law (particularly in the eighteenth century), and the legal history of Louisiana.

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