We have the following call for papers. Note the key dates: Conference July 16-18 University of Calgary. CFP close February 1.

‘From July 16 to 18, 2017, the Faculties of Law and Arts at the University of Calgary will jointly host  “Canada’s Legal Past: Future Directions in Canadian Legal History,” and we are seeking expressions of interest and abstracts. Canadian legal history has come into its own in the last thirty-five years, as scholars have moved to examine law within the context of cultural, philosophical and larger historical frames. This conference will provide an opportunity to take stock of the last generation of work on Canada’s legal history and to assess what comes next, in terms of topics, methodologies, sources, and theories. The majority of the papers will be original papers on recent work, but we are also hoping to attract historiographical scholarship that will identify future topics and approaches. The anniversary of the country will inspire reflections on the longer story of northern North America. We are hoping participants will locate the historical project that was and is Canada within the larger context of empires – indigenous and European – and the world and to consider questions of law’s relationship to the tension between local and faraway influences; to gender, race and indigeneity; to state-building, trade and commerce; and to the circulation of ideas, legal, cultural, religious, economic and otherwise. This conference will also provide an opportunity for discussions of the teaching of legal history in different disciplinary contexts within the academy, as it is is hoped that scholars from a range of disciplinary homes and backgrounds – working in French and English – will take part.

Abstracts should be submitted by February 1 to Lyndsay Campbell (lcampbe@ucalgary.ca), but early expressions of interest would be most welcome. Please do pass this call for papers along.

Conference organizers:

• Blake Brown, History and Atlantic Canada Studies, St. Mary’s University (blake.brown@smu.ca)
• Lyndsay Campbell, Law and History, University of Calgary (lcampbe@ucalgary.ca)
• Ted McCoy, Law & Society and Sociology, University of Calgary (ejmccoy@ucalgary.ca)
• Nicole O’Byrne, Law, University of New Brunswick (nobyrne@unb.ca)
• Adrian Smith, Law and Legal Studies, Institute of Political Economy, and Institute of African Studies, Carleton University (adrian.smith@carleton.ca)’