Preliminary Programme

In his paper, the author will present paths to develop for the first time a RDB dedicated to the prosopography of popular jurors. The challenge will consist of considering their multidimensionality and their connexions with other professional and “lay” groups. The author will present the benefits of such a RDB for the researchers as wells as the methodological challenges. (Show less)

This paper seeks to answer two questions concerning 'historical criminology': what does it mean to pursue criminology in an historical way? And how might we further advance the development of historical approaches to questions of crime and justice?

Based on original theoretical work, this paper suggests that the meaning of 'historical criminology' lies in bringing an historical approach to bear on questions of crime and justice. Pursuing historical criminology is not a matter of injecting the past, or critical source analysis, into social science scholarship; rather, it relates to thinking through topics of criminological concern in an historical way. We argue that to do this is to think through historical time - to think through a series of core propositions about how social enquiry relates to time and its passage (in its concern for change, flow, tensed relations, contingency and consequence, and for the situation of object and subject of enquiry in time as historical beings).

It follows that the task of historical criminology is to practise and advocate a certain way of thinking about the social world. We suggest that the vibrancy and sustainability of historical criminology will be manifested in mutual understanding, amongst historical researchers of crime and justice, about how to situate shared objects of enquiry in historical time. We outline a series of historical concepts, temporal units and methodological techniques which already facilitate historical enquiry in social science, and argue that clearer recognition of their strengths and limitations as vehicles of historical research amongst historians.

Furthermore, we highlight significant questions of crime and justice which remain under-explored, yet where historical approaches might have considerable merit. These include: the peculiarities of the present as an historical category; speculative historiography and possible futures for crime and justice; and processual approaches to crime and justice. In each respect, there is rich potential to harness the insights of historical thinking; historians could claim a vital role to play in developing such fields, if they are willing to forego their attachment to the historic past. (Show less)

Lawyer at the Brussels Bar, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium, the life of Joseph Pholien is richly documented thanks to the papers preserved and deposited by his descendants in National Archives of Belgium. This collection gives a fairly accurate idea of the extent of his personal and professional network and is an exceptional source for the biographical study of lawyers. At the same time, the archives of the Brussels Bar allow us to cross-reference the data and to situate Pholien within its professional network through a prosopographic study. By analyzing his network and translating it graphically, this contribution seeks to demonstrate the interest and the limits of a combined use of biographical and prosopographical approaches to renew the history of a Belgian elite group, the Belgian lawyers (Show less)

This paper will assess RDBs dedicated to the prosopography of magistrates and present new paths to develop them. The challenge will consist of extending their multidimensionality and their connexions with other professional and “lay” groups. The author will present the benefits of this extension for the researchers as wells as the methodological challenges. (Show less)