Project description
Rethinking Legal humanism
Legal history often leans too heavily on national frameworks, which can distort the transmission of legal knowledge through outdated, nationalist lenses. One key example of this bias is the Legal humanism of the Renaissance, typically seen as a predominantly French phenomenon. This view is encapsulated by the term mos gallicus jura docendi (French method of teaching law), which overlooks the transnational nature of this intellectual movement. The ERC-funded ISTHisFrench project aims to reframe the understanding of Legal humanism by placing it in its broader European context. By mapping its historical representation, studying the emergence of legal nationalisms, and challenging the ‘French method’ narrative, the project will redefine legal historiography and explore its impact on European national legal systems.
Objective
Legal history, as taught in faculties of law, tends to overemphasise the national framework, leading to the knowledge transmission that suffers from old-fashioned nationalistic biases. To overcome this bottleneck, I will challenge one of the most nationalistic reductions of a major legal phenomenon: the Legal humanism of the Renaissance. This European intellectual movement, with immense legal and extra-legal repercussions, is still presented today as mainly French, as shown by the expression commonly used to designate it: the mos gallicus jura docendi (French method of teaching law).
Understanding the mos gallicus in its original transnational dimension will thus establish the simultaneous development of humanist legal thought from a pan-European perspective and reveal why and how the European Legal humanism has been called the “French method of teaching law”.
The aim of this ERC is to demonstrate, by placing the Legal humanism in its European dimension, the construction of legal nationalisms hidden behind the expression mos gallicus.
To achieve this, three novel objectives will be pursued: to map the representation of the mos gallicus as it has been shaped by historiography; to determine, through the study of the mos gallicus, how legal nationalisms were shaped since the Renaissance Legal humanism; and to place the mos gallicus in its original European dimension.
The ambitious outcomes of this project will be a historiographic database available to the scientific community; papers redefining both mos gallicus and legal nationalism, through the case studies of France and Great Britain; and monographs questioning the relevance of the expression “French method of teaching law”, both on a micro-historical scale by the three doctoral theses, and on a macro-historical scale by the final book. These works will contribute to really measuring, at a European level, the role played by the Legal humanism in the construction of national legal orders and nation-States.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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33000 BORDEAUX
France
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