Colloquies

COLLOQUY

Unseen Agencies of Transformation

Legal Orders Under Pressure

An exploration of how non-Western societies engaged with legal modernity in the 19th and early 20th centuries – not as passive recipients of European norms, but as active participants negotiating legal change on their own terms

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Intro: Legal Reforms as Reorganisation of Order

Economic rationality, moral imagination, and institutional experimentation emerged in various forms throughout the non-Western world, often well before or independently of direct colonial rule or Western intervention.

Merchants, Local Elites, and New Commercial Litigation in the Ottoman Balkans

A fresh look at how the first commercial courts were established in the 1840s-50s reframes Tanzimat-era judicial reforms as evolving practices shaped by provincial actors, challenging narratives of centrally mandated Westernization.

Siam’s Tectonic Legal Reform Process

Two key aspects are at the heart of this analysis of legal transformation in Siam in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the “elastic” nature of Siam’s traditional law and the role of lawyers in shaping legal change.

European Imperialism and Legal Transformation in 20th Century Ethiopia

Encountering informal legal imperialism, Ethiopia sought to evade informal colonisation, and strategically appropriated and redeployed imported legal ideas and institutions.