Justice in Wartime and Revolutions. Europe, 1795-1950

This volume brings together 20 revised contributions presented at the International Conference 'Justice in Wartime and Revolutions: Europe, 1795-1950', held in Brussels on 21-23 September 2011. The conference was organized by the Centre for Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Societies (Ceges/Soma, Brussels), the Centre d'Histoire du Droit et de la Justice of the Université catholique de Louvain, and the IRHiS Institute of the Université de Lille 3, and took place in the framework of the Interuniversity Attraction Pole research program 'Socio-political History of Belgian Justice Administration' (Phase VI. Jan. 2007 - March 2012, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office). War and revolutions are periods in history which generate transformations and social and political change of the judicial system. These transformations and changes are tangible at different levels. Judicial institutions and practices with a long history and tradition and which are deeply rooted in the polity are put into question.: they are either abolished and replaced by other institutions or confronted with new comepeting foreign institutions, or they are forced to change their functions and practices. The contributions to this volume all explore, for various European countries, different aspects and facets of changes in the judicial system., changes in practices of justice administration, and changes in judicial personnel and judicial professions, as they occured during the French Revolution., both World Wars, and their aftermaths. These contributions all show how times of war and revolutions bring about crucial transformations of the judiciary and its relation to society, both by accelerating innovation and modernization of judicial structures, actors and practices, and by producing temporary relapses (legal conflicts, purges of collaborators, the blurring of norms)