Call for Papers: Ius Commune Workshop on Comparative Legal History, 'Ius Commune in the Making: Failure and the Law' (Leuven, 24 November 2026)

The Ius Commune Research School unites legal scholars of KU Leuven, Maastricht University, Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam. Its secretariat is hosted by the Maastricht Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO).

The 30th Ius Commune Conference will take place in Leuven on 24 and 25 November 2026. One of its workshops, held on 24 November 2026, is devoted to comparative legal history under the standing series title Ius Commune in the Making.

The 2026 workshop is dedicated to the place of failure in the life of the law. Not every effort triggers a successful outcome, and efforts in the realm of law are no exception: endeavours may fail for different reasons and at different stages.

The organisers treat failure as a learning experience, both for those who attempted to succeed and for those who might attempt in future. As a working definition, failure means that a wilful act has not been received effectively, though the qualification of an act as a failure is itself profoundly normative and takes its place in the fabric of legal debate.

The workshop series aims to reveal and understand the nature and effects of the various legal formants in the development of law, on the view that history is a living laboratory. Past editions have explored legal actors (2014), legal sources (2016), the force of local laws (2017), methods and dynamics of law (2018), networks (2019), paradigmatic shifts (2020), great debates in the history of law (2021), innovation in law (2023), manifestations of nature in law (2024) and meaning in law (2025).

Researchers are invited to explore examples of failed attempts to change or preserve the law, whether legislative, judicial, doctrinal or educational, among others. A paper may address a failure concerning the fabric of the law itself, or a failure in the law's interaction with the real world.

Limitations may relate to practical aspects such as the availability of time, access to sources and resources, flaws in argumentative lines, or the skills of the human resources involved. Illustrations offered in the call include:

• Diocletian's Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium, which failed in 301 to stop inflation
• The medieval feudal system, which failed to maintain personal ties of fealty and turned into a system of hereditary rights of succession, eventually creating its own demise
• Private law codification efforts, such as early-nineteenth century attempts in the Low Countries
• The invention, import or abolition of concepts, rules or methodologies considered not to fit well

The workshop aims to take stock by inviting papers that could serve as logbooks in that learning process, documenting failure as it emerged, so that researchers can avoid replicating failed exercises carried out in other laboratories.

Senior researchers and PhD candidates are invited to submit an abstract. The call states expressly that researchers from within and outside the Ius Commune Research School are eligible to present abstracts, so scholars based outside the four partner universities and outside Europe, including those working in India, may submit.

All contributions must be in English. Co-authored papers will also be considered. The organising committee will give preference to early-career researchers when facing submissions of similar quality.

• Abstract of maximum 400 words, on a paper related to the workshop theme
• Sent by email to Agustin Parise at agustin.parise@maastrichtuniversity.nl
• Deadline: 15 August 2026
• Language: English

Shortly after the deadline, authors will be informed whether their papers have been selected for presentation during the workshop.

The call for abstracts states no fee for submitting an abstract and mentions no conference registration charge. Registration arrangements for the 30th Ius Commune Conference had not been published on the Research School's website when this post was prepared, so applicants should confirm with the organising committee.