The somewhat simplistic characterization of medieval arbitration prompts a general reflection
on its development in legal handbooks, normative texts, and diplomatic sources. Tracing
the practice of arbitration is a priority, as it evolved and changed in parallel with the norm but
is not always easy to reconstruct. To aid in this endeavour, the following sub-questions are
helpful: How does the diplomatic material reflect the arbitration process, and what documents
were produced during arbitration and what was their role? What procedural rules and principles
governed arbitration at a particular time and in a specific setting? Who could serve as an
arbitrator, and what types of disputes could the arbitrator decide? What elements had to be
included in the arbitrator‘s award? How did the contemporary terminology used in arbitration
differ among national and legal systems?
The upcoming international workshop offers a forum for discussion among historians, legal
historians, philologists, and other interested scholars.
The range of topics that may be considered in papers includes:
1. Arbitration through the lens of legal theory:
a. Arbitration in Classical and Justinian’s Roman Law
b. Arbitration in the works of medieval Roman law schools (glossators,
commentators, etc.)
c. Arbitration in Canon Law
d. Arbitration in the particularistic legal orders (provincial law, municipal law,
canon law, etc.)
2. Reflections on arbitration in pragmatic writings:
a. Agenda of the arbitral tribunal
b. Arbitration documents from a diplomatic and legal perspective
c. Terminology and its evolution (arbiter, arbitrator, compositor amicabilis,
ubrmani, hadčí, etc.)
3. Arbitration in practice:
a. The person and competence of the arbitrator
b. Subject-matter, personal, and local jurisdiction
c. The various stages of arbitration
d. Arbitration from the perspective of jurisdictional disputes
e. Reconstruction of specific cases (analysis of awards and other documents)
f. Normative anchoring of arbitration and its (in)acceptance in practice.
Important dates and guide for participants:
The workshop is scheduled to take place on the 4th to 6th December 2023 and will be hosted
at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno. The presentations and discussions
will be conducted in English. The papers will be published in a monothematic issue of Studia
historica Brunensia (database ERIH +).
The deadline to submit abstracts (including your name, email and affiliation) is June 30th,
2023. The abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. Notification of acceptance: July
30th, 2023. We will contact you about the acceptance of the paper and further details.
To submit your abstracts, please send to: bar@phil.muni.cz. Do not hesitate to contact us
with any inquiries regarding the workshop program.
Organising committee:
Mgr. et Mgr. Lenka Šmídová Malárová, Ph.D (smidova.malarova@mail.muni.cz)
Mgr. Lukáš Führer, Ph.D (lukas.fuhrer@phil.muni.cz)
Mgr. Přemysl Bar, Ph.D (bar@phil.muni.cz)
Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies
Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno