Colonial Law’s Personal Status

Central issues of private international law involve jurisdiction over persons and land, and the law applicable to each of these categories (« personal status » and « real status »). The existence of the latter and their scope are very widely taken for granted as natural or historical, while jurisdiction is perceived as a « merely procedural » component of a wider forensic mechanics. But if we replace these issues within a colonial setting, and if we apply gender moreover as a category of social history, dramatic new questions arise. On the side of the « jurisprudence of jurisdiction », to what extent is jurisdiction itself a gendered concept? In respect of the conflict of laws, how did Western sexual fantasies shape « personal status » in respect of Muslim family law? How indeed did the idea of personhood as separate from property come to legitimate expropriation of land under French rule in Algeria?

A seminar with Professors Judith Surkis and Maria Drakopoulou.

For further details, please visit the Globinar website.

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