Is there a dichotomy between tolerance and free speech? A discussion on free speech, hate crimes, and tolerance within the context of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism, along with the debate within the UK around the governmental definitions for these forms of bigotry.

This essay considers the category of “Jewish law” in Jewish studies while inviting scholarly and historiographic assessment of the ways that Judaism’s link to law has come to appear as obvious. Considering that our present concepts of law are invariably linked to a geographically and temporally parochial “mythology of modern law,” the essay sounds…[Read more]

Although best known as a poet, African-American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) developed a unique voice in his fiction. This essay explores the bifurcation Dunbar discerned between the law as an instrument of justice and as a stabilizer of the segregationist status quo in Jim Crow America. Dunbar’s characters systematically scapegoated…[Read more]

It is well known that early modern printers had international networks and were often mobile. A lot has been written about printers from the Southern Netherlands who, for confessional or economical reasons, migrated to the Dutch Republic and helped shape the Dutch Golden Age. Much less attention has been paid to printers who moved in other…[Read more]

This article describes the life and work of Antwerp printer and newspaper publisher Maarten Binnart. Born in Thuringen and raised a Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism during or shortly after his studies at the University of Jena. He moved to Antwerp and worked for the Plantin firm as a corrector for twenty years. While working there, he…[Read more]

This essay examines Giambattista Vico’s philology as a contribution to democratic legitimacy. I outline three steps in Vico’s account of the historical and political development of philological knowledge: first, his merger of philosophy and philology, and the effects of that merger on the relative claims of reason and authority; second, his use…[Read more]

Module Summary: Using the aftermath of 9/11 and the US invasion of Iraq as a case study, this module asks why states engage in torture, giving particular consideration to why liberal states euphemise, conceal, and downplay this practice. We will examine the ramifications of 9/11 across multiple legal domains, domestically within the US and…[Read more]

This article explores the interface of multiple legal systems in early modern Daghestan. By comparing colonial engagements with legal plurality with indigenous genres of Daghestani legal discourse, I aim to shed light on the plurality of legal systems that preceded as well as informed legal discourse under colonialism. The Daghestani turn to…[Read more]