Setting Law.

The second lecture in the series Colonialism and Law - A Changeful Relationship provides an overview of early modern empires in the first phase of European expansion. During this period, colonial conditions are largely juridified, new institutions are established, and jurisprudence gains influence. All this takes place against the background of a still pre-modern understanding of law and legal system. Different legal relationships and areas are examined in order to trace the legal form of colonialism of that era.

Duration: 90 min.
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket (or an annual ticket, a KHMembership or a Weltmuseum Wien Friends membership).
Registration  online (limited number of participants)
Meeting Point: WMW Forum

Colonialism and Law - A Changeful Relationship

Lecture series by Sebastian M. Spitra

This lecture series focuses on the interrelationship between colonialism and law in the history of European expansion since the late 15th century. In the modern era marked by such transformative processes as the Enlightenment, industrialization, and the rise of capitalism, European hegemony over the rest of the world achieved a previously unattained extent and, at the same time, penetration of societies. In many narratives of the history of colonialism, law is described merely as a means of colonial and later imperial power politics. This lecture series aims to expand this picture, for colonialism and law were manifoldly interrelated. Law was not only an instrument for governing colonies, but it constructed the colonial constellation comprehensively with numerous repercussions for the metropolises. It prefigured and opened up horizons of action for the most diverse actors. Three lectures will take a closer look at this changeful relationship between colonialism and law in different periods of colonization. Finally, an interdisciplinary panel will address decolonization and today's lines of continuity of colonialism.

Sebastian M. Spitra researches and teaches at the Institute for Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna and is a member of the Junge Akademie of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur | Mainz. He studied law and philosophy at the University of Vienna and the University of Michigan as a Fulbright Grantee and with a Grotius Scholarship. His book Die Verwaltung von Kultur im Völkerrecht. Eine postkoloniale Geschichte (Nomos 2021) was awarded the prize of the 43rd Legal Historians' Day in Zurich in 2022.