Categories:
Overview
Forum journals
Legal History Journals
On
this website you will find an annotated overview of international legal history
specialist journals which have maintain their own websites.
German
Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs
The BRGÖ have been published twice a year since 2011, both in a print version and online; as a rule, one volume is devoted to a special topic, while the second volume contains mixed contributions on legal history.
German
Jahrbuch der Juristischen Zeitgeschichte
The Yearbook of Contemporary Legal History was first published in 2000. It comprises eight sections:
Division 1: General Contributions
Division 2: Forum of Contemporary Legal History
Division 3: Contributions to Modern German Criminal Law. Materials for a Historical Commentary
Department 4: Life and Work. Biographies and analyses of works
Department 5: Contemporary Legal History. Legal policy and justice from a contemporary perspective
Department 6: Law in Art - Art in Law
Department 7: Contributions to the History of Lawyers
Department 8: Judaica: Jewish Law, Jewish Law, Law and Anti-Semitism
German
Journal der Juristischen Zeitgeschichte JoJZG
The journal started its publication in 2007. The temporal scope covers the 19th to the 21st century, thus also includes contemporary legal events, i.e. current events of - probable - historical significance. In addition to editorial contributions and reviews, the journal also offers a lively discussion forum, if required. Decisions of the Federal Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court are among the important factors of legal development: Karl-Dieter Möller writes about them in his regular "Report from Karlsruhe".
The journal is published three times a year: in March, June and October. Thematically, it is closely linked to the Jahrbuch der Juristischen Zeitgeschichte (Yearbook of Contemporary Legal History), which is published in December.
German
Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte ZNR
The purpose of the Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte is the scholarly treatment and critical analysis of the development of law, especially in the fields of private, constitutional, administrative and criminal law, as well as procedural law, particularly in modern times.
The journal makes clear the contemporary relevance of legal history and gives space to the discussion of methodology. The legal developments in the German-speaking area are included in a comparative view of the European tradition.
German
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte
The Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte (ZRG, also Savigny-Zeitschrift) represents an integral part of European legal historical research and significantly shapes the current state of the discipline.
The first predecessor of today's ZRG was published in 1815 by Friedrich Carl von Savigny and C. F. Eichhorn in the spirit of the Historical School of Law. In 1880, a close connection with the Savigny Foundation, whose name the ZRG still bears today, made possible the familiar division of the Romance and German departments into two parts. In 1911, a separate Canonistic Department was added.
Each department publishes a new volume annually, which consists of an essay and a literature section, each supplemented by a chronicle and communications.
Since 2013, the ZRG has also been distributed in digital form.
English
The Journal of Legal History
The Journal of Legal History , founded in 1980, is the only British journal concerned solely with legal history. It publishes articles in English on the sources and development of the common law, both in the British Isles and overseas, on the history of the laws of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and on Roman Law and the European legal tradition. There is a section for shorter research notes, review-articles, and a wide-ranging section of reviews of recent literature.English
Legal History eJournal
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/JELJOUR_Results.cfm?form_name=journalbrowse&journal_id=261
English
American Journal of Legal History
The American Journal of Legal History was founded in 1957 and was the first English-language periodical in the field. Today, the Journal continues to serve as a showcase for outstanding scholarship on all facets of legal history.English
Comparative Legal History
Comparative Legal History is an international and comparative review of law and history.
Articles will explore both 'internal' legal history (doctrinal and disciplinary developments in the law) and 'external' legal history (legal ideas and institutions in wider contexts). Rooted in the complexity of the various Western legal traditions worldwide, the journal will also investigate other laws and customs from around the globe. Comparisons may be either temporal or geographical and both legal and other law-like normative traditions will be considered. Scholarship on comparative and trans-national historiography, including trans-disciplinary approaches, is particularly welcome.
English
Continuity and Change. A journal of social structure, law and demography in past societies
Continuity and Change aims to define a field of historical sociology concerned with long-term continuities and discontinuities in the structures of past societies. Emphasis is upon studies whose agenda or methodology combines elements from traditional fields such as history, sociology, law, demography, economics or anthropology, or ranges freely between them. There is a strong commitment to comparative studies over a broad range of cultures and time spans.https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/continuity-and-change
English
FUNDAMINA : A Journal of Legal History
Fundamina is published annually as the mouthpiece of the Southern African Societyof Legal Historians
English
Grotiana
Grotiana appears under the auspices of the Grotiana Foundation. The journal’s leading objective is the furtherance of the Grotian tradition. It will welcome any relevant contribution to a better understanding of Grotius’ life and works. At the same time close attention will be paid to Grotius’ relevance for present-day thinking about world problems. Grotiana therefore intends to be a forum for exchanges concerning the philosophical, ethical and legal fundamentals of the search for an international order.
The journal is to be published annually. At intervals thematic issues will be inserted.
English
Law and History Review
Law and History Review (LHR), internationally recognized as the leading journal in the field, examines the history of law from ancient to modern times. The journal's purpose is to further research in the fields of the social history of law and the history of legal ideas and institutions. LHR features articles, essays, commentaries by international authorities, and reviews of important books on legal history.https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/law-and-history-review
English
Legal History
Legal History is dedicated to publishing high-quality research from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Revealing the dynamic relationship between law and history, both in Australasia and the wider international community; the only constant is quality.English
Roman Legal Tradition
A Journal of Ancient Medieval and Modern Civil Law
Roman Legal Tradition is a peer-reviewed journal published online by the Ames Foundation and the University of Glasgow School of Law. ISSN 1943-6483.
The journal aims to promote the study of the civilian tradition in English. The editors welcome contributions on any aspect of the civilian tradition in ancient, medieval, and modern law.
All articles and reviews published in Roman Legal Tradition are available from this site free of charge. In addition, all articles and reviews are also available to subscribers of HeinOnline. We encourage readers to use and distribute these materials as they see fit, but ask readers not to make any commercial use of these materials without seeking the consent of the editors and relevant authors.
English
The Cambridge Law Journal
The Cambridge Law Journal publishes articles on all aspects of law. Special emphasis is placed on contemporary developments, but the journal's range includes jurisprudence and legal history. An important feature of the journal is the Case and Comment section, in which members of the Cambridge Law Faculty and other distinguished contributors analyse recent judicial decisions, new legislation and current law reform proposals. The articles and case notes are designed to have the widest appeal to those interested in the law — whether as practitioners, students, teachers, judges or administrators — and to provide an opportunity for them to keep abreast of new ideas and the progress of legal reform. Each issue also contains an extensive section of book reviews.https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-law-journal
French
Revue historique de droit français et étranger
https://www.dalloz-revues.fr/revues/Revue_historique_de_droit_francais_et_etranger-29.htm
Italian
Fundamental rights
Rivista di studi giuridici, storici e antropologici / Journal of Legal, Historical and Anthropological Studies
Italian
Historia et ius
Historia et Ius is an on-line International journal dedicated to medieval, modern and contemporary historical legal studies. Founded after the initiative of a group Italian legal historians, the journal is supported by an editorial board composed by European legal historians of high scientific profile.
It is divided into three sections: the first one – Topics and issues – hosts essays of general content on legal history made by well-established academics; the second – Studies – concerns articles which are admitted through a preventive evaluation based on a double blind peer review system; the third – Interventions – regards communications, research projects and book reviews.
The journal’s main purpose is to provide an agile and easy to use tool aimed at disseminating the results of legal-historical researches at the international level, as well as facilitating the exchange of ideas and methods.
It is divided into three sections: the first one – Topics and issues – hosts essays of general content on legal history made by well-established academics; the second – Studies – concerns articles which are admitted through a preventive evaluation based on a double blind peer review system; the third – Interventions – regards communications, research projects and book reviews.
The journal’s main purpose is to provide an agile and easy to use tool aimed at disseminating the results of legal-historical researches at the international level, as well as facilitating the exchange of ideas and methods.
Italian
Materiali per una storia della cultura giuridica
Founded by Giovanni Tarello, Materiali per una Storia della Cultura Giuridicahas been published as a six-monthly review since 1979. From an historical/theoretical perspective, it collects studies and research articles dedicated to the relation between law, juridical thinking and political-economic institutions. The aims of the Review also incorporate the story of the present, with critical considerations on juridical changes in recent decades (new rights, bioethics, globalisation, artificial intelligence). The Review is unanimously considered one of the most prestigious fruits of Italian research in the field of history and theory of law. The contributors include both Italian and foreign scientific figures of great authoritativeness, along with some of the most brilliant scholars of the last generation. The innovative, original project of the Review has earned praise and widespread recognition at international level too.
Portuguese
História do Direito. Revista do Instituto brasileiro de história do direito
História do Direito. Revista do Instituto brasileiro de história do direito is an open access journal published by Universidade federal do Paraná, Curitiba (Brazil). The first issue was published in 2020.
https://revistas.ufpr.br/historiadodireito/issue/view/3084/showToc
Spanish
Anuario mexicano de historia del derecho
http://historico.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/rev/cont.htm?r=hisder
Spanish
e-Legal History Review Studia Hispanica Rescripta
https://www.iustel.com/v2/revistas/detalle_revista.asp?id=15
Spanish
Revista de estudios historico-juridicos
https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=0716-5455
multilingual
Commentationes Historiae Ivris Helveticae : die Rechtsgeschichte der Schweiz
Die Rechtsgeschichte ist für die gute Kenntnis und das Verständnis der politischen Institutionen der Schweiz unumgänglich. In der Schweiz gibt es jedoch keine spezifische Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte. Die COMMENTATIONES HISTORIAE IVRIS HELVETICAE wollen nun zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts diese Lücke schliessen. Die Zeitschrift befasst sich mit der Geschichte der politischen und rechtlichen Institutionen, mit der politischen Ideengeschichte sowie mit der Privatrechts- und Strafrechtsgeschichte. Ein besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die Schweiz und ihre Kantone gelegt. Die COMMENTATIONES erfassen aber auch grenzüberschreitend die Rechtsgeschichte anderer Länder.multilingual
Journal on European History of Law JEHL
The publisher of the Journal on European History of Law is the STS Science Centre Ltd. seated in London. The European Society for History of Law closely cooperates with the STS Science Centre Ltd. and helps with editing the journal. The journal is published twice a year. It is assigned for law-historians and Romanists that want to share with their colleagues the results of their research in this field.
At the same time, reviews of books with historical themes are being published. You can also find there information about the happenings in the field of law-history.
Articles in the journal are published in English or in German, according to the authors wish. The articles must fulfill the criteria written in the guidelines for authors. The executive editor decides on whether to publish the articles and in which order.
multilingual
Ius Politicum
Jus politicum is an online journal that aims at exploring the connexions between the law, the thought and the history of modern constitutions. That the knowledge of constitutional systems should depend on such a combination of several branches of knowledge is perhaps less obvious today than it was in the past. Constitutional history has long ceased to stand at the core of the study of political systems, and is often associated with a certain lack of scientific impartiality. Yet a somewhat rigid adherence to legal positivism on the part of academic lawyers may have resulted in an excessive shift of the equilibrium on the other direction. Our purpose is to restore the ties between several social sciences with a view to furthering the understanding of constitutional traditions. Not only does such an undertaking require the co-operation of scholars coming from different fields (notably lawyers, historians, philosophers, and political scientists) but it is also, by its very nature, not restricted to one particular jurisdiction. As a result, Jus politicum is run by an international board and will have three working languages : French, English and German.
As an online journal, Jus politicum publishes different kinds of texts, reflecting the diversity of today’s scholarly work. « Articles » hosts accomplished works, around a specific topic in each issue. « Papers » hosts texts reflecting a work still in progress, or unpublished seminar papers. This rubric also welcomes works contributed by junior scholars. Texts contributed to both these rubrics are peer reviewed. Finally, the journal aims at making available classic texts that were previously unpublished or had become unavailable in print.
multilingual
DIKE
DIKE is the first journal specifically dedicated to the study of Greek and Hellenistic law. It is published with the contribution and under the patronage of the Law School of the University of Milano, and is scheduled to appear in December each year. Its aim is to promote the knowledge of an aspect of the greek world, whose importance is increasingly recognised. DIKE is open not only to the specialists in the field, but also to all scholars interested in legal aspects of greek civilisation. It will publish articles written in English, French, Spanish, German, Greek and Italian.multilingual
European Journal of Legal Studies (EJLS)
Founded in 2007, the European Journal of Legal Studies (EJLS) is a European University Institute (EUI) review dedicated to the promotion of legal scholarship. It publishes articles on any topic of legal scholarship relating to international, comparative and European law, or legal theory. A strict and rigorous anonymous peer-review procedure ensures the quality and equal standing of articles submitted by professors, practitioners or students, and a distinctive linguistic policy and expertise gives authors the opportunity to publish their papers in most European languages. Furthermore, managerial and editorial decisions and work is carried out independently by graduate researchers, something still uncommon in Europe.EJLS serves two additional goals. First, it equips students with valuable editing and organizational experience as well as writing skills, since Book Reviews are exclusively done by editorial members. Secondly, in harmony with the European nature of the EUI and its cultural and linguistic diversity, the EJLS particularly encourages submissions by young academics and less known Western and Eastern European authors fostering a true European legal sphere. It is the EJLS firm conviction that the latter can only be achieved when the quality of ideas, and not geographic or rank divides, prevails.
multilingual
Journal of Constitutional History
The Giornale di Storia costituzionale is a periodical published twice a year. It was born in 2001 with the aim of promoting and gathering research and methodological proposals that concern the manifold paths of constitutional history. The articles here published intend to analyse - in a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective - the foundations and characters of a complex historical and cultural phenomenon which has given birth to a common inheritance, yet with different forms and conceptions. Between present and past, the scholars of law, politics, institutions, and more generally the experts of social sciences think and dialogue about constitutionalism, marked by deep historical roots and growing tensions. The Giornale has already become a meeting and reference point for the different practices of constitutional history, it publishes essays in various languages and is characterised by thematic richness and variety in surveys, alternating miscellaneous issues with others dedicated to monographic research.multilingual
Journal of the History of International Law
The object of the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international is to contribute to the effort to make intelligible the international legal past, however varied and eccentric it may be, to stimulate interest in the whys, the whats and wheres of international legal development,without projecting present relationships upon the past, and to promote the application of a sense of proportion to the study of current international legal problems. The aim of the Journal is to open fields of inquiry, to enable new questions to be asked, to be awake to and always aware of the plurality of human civilizations and cultures, past and present, and to maintain an appreciation of patterns of cultural flow and interaction that centrally affect international law and its development.
Without abandoning chronology and contextualization, which provide the essential framework within which laws and legal events make sense, the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international aims to publish articles, essays and comments on thematic lines as well. By encouraging different methods of approaching the subject it is thought that new light will be cast upon familiar and not so familiar aspects of international law, including private international law.
multilingual
LawArt. Rivista di Diritto, Arte, Storia / Journal of Law, Art and History
LawArt is an editorial project that stems from legal history and aspires to become a space for interdisciplinary dialogue on the relationship between law and art. The journal intends to establish a forum for international scholars. Therefore, it is online and open access.
LawArt’s issues are divided into three sections. The first, Overtures, is conceived as a miscellaneous section; the second section, Itineraries, is monographic and the theme changes annually; the third section, Colloquia, is intended as a place of interaction, where to publish studies on new research trends and perspectives, bibliographic reviews, interviews, project presentations, including news and reports on scientific and cultural events.
multilingual
Orbis Iuris Romani. Journal of Ancient Law Studies
Orbis Iuris Romani. Journal of Ancient Law Studiesfocuses mainly on Roman Law and its reception and reflection in various legal systems. Since 1995 publishes the studies, reviews and other articles in german, english, french or italian language, nowadays at the Trnava University. Founded by Peter Blaho and Michaela Židlická.