Prosecuting Piracy in Peacetime: Crime, Empire, and the High Court of Admiralty, 1607-1618

通过研究海事高等法院的刑事分支，这个项目将探讨法律，犯罪和帝国之间的关系，在早期现代海洋世界。该项目将侧重于17世纪早期，当时英格兰、苏格兰和爱尔兰首次统一在詹姆斯六世和一世的一位君主之下，而英国的商业和殖民活动不断扩大，与世界各地更广泛的社区和文化建立了交流和冲突。虽然詹姆斯一世也与其他帝国讲和，但他的政府努力控制其航海臣民，其中许多人并没有放弃他们以前在战争中采取的掠夺习惯。高等海事法院提供了一个独特的机会来审视英国帝国和海洋历史上的这一重要时刻。该项目将从上到下结合联合收割机的历史，考察法庭实施的国家政策以及出庭的各种人的经历。法庭上的证人和诉讼当事人包括海盗、商人和水手及其家人、其他海上贸易的成员以及来自英国以外的人--例如被指控犯有海盗罪的北非伊斯兰海员。因此，该项目将整合制度，政治和社会历史，调查这个法院既是帝国的工具，也是帝国对抗的场所（无论是英国与本国学科之间还是涉及其他社区）。在项目规定的目标范围内，将鼓励学生根据自己的兴趣制定研究议程和问题，并（在导师的指导下）设计及推行研究计划。学生还将在档案实践和历史奖学金方面接受广泛的培训，并被介绍给数字人文学科新开发的技术。

PhD Studentship in History in Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with The National ArchivesBy studying the criminal branch of the High Court of Admiralty, this project will explore the relationship between law, crime, and empire in the early modern maritime world. The project will focus on the early seventeenth century, when England, Scotland, and Ireland were first united under one monarch in James VI and I, while British commercial and colonial activities expanded, establishing both exchange and conflict with a greater range of communities and cultures around the world. While James also made peace with other imperial powers, his government struggled to control its seafaring subjects, many of whom did not abandon the plundering habits they had previously adopted in wartime.The High Court of Admiralty offers a unique opportunity to examine this important moment in British imperial and maritime history. The project will combine history from above and from below, examining both the state policy implemented by the court and the experiences of the diverse range of people who appeared before it. Witnesses and litigants in the court included pirates, merchants, and sailors, their families, members of other maritime trades, and people from beyond Britain - such as seafarers from Islamic North Africa who were accused of piracy. The project will therefore integrate institutional, political, and social history to investigate this court as both an instrument of empire and a site for imperial confrontations (whether between Britain and its own subjects or involving other communities).Within the scope of the project's stated objectives, the student will be encouraged to develop the research agenda and questions to follow their own interests, and (under the guidance of the supervisors) will design and implement the research programme. The student will also receive extensive training in both archival practice and historical scholarship, as well as being introduced to newly developed techniques from digital humanities.