Subjects of law: rightful selves and the legal process in imperial Britain and the British empire

该项目旨在利用迄今为止被忽视的法律记录的主要档案来探索殖民法对社会和政治身份的影响，将特定文化的思想和实践转化为“全球”法律语言，以及普通法本身的转变-在英国以及英国臣民曾经居住过的那些遥远国家。它始于这样一个假设：在主张自己（或他人）有权享有的权利时，陷入任何法律程序的人都不可避免地被迫陈述自己（或他人）的身份，而且在殖民或帝国的背景下，这种强迫特别尖锐，也具有变革性。本网络将以三种新颖的方式研究在大英帝国统治的背景下，权利和代表（权利和身份）是如何相互塑造的。首先，它将汇集一群专家，他们的共同研究兴趣是真正的泛帝国，他们的学科专长跨越历史、法律和文学批评。在这样做的过程中，该网络将鼓励多学科和跨学科的研究，以及跨国范围的研究——鼓励个别研究人员和整个集体在智力和实际方面突破界限。其次，它将利用新出现的档案——枢密院司法委员会（JCPC）的记录——所提供的研究机会。鉴于其规模，这个档案的独特之处在于它的能力，可以为这些非常广泛和“全球”主题的研究提供经验基础。通过改进现有的原型网站和在线目录，这种开发和前所未有的使用将成为可能，该原型网站和在线目录是“评判帝国”试点项目的一部分，由首席和共同调查员进行。最后，它将利用网络成员的专业知识，以便从补充非英国和/或非法律记录的专业知识中受益。该网络的一个重要核心将由使用JCPC记录的学者组成；但也有那些专注于非英国法律记录和非法律来源，如行政和警察记录，英语和其他语言的小册子，文学和视觉资源——这些多样性是必不可少的，以便追踪在殖民和帝国法律体系中发生的学说，美学，伦理，制度形式，社会网络和政治身份的多层次翻译。并识别形成法律主体性假设的动机和强迫，由不同的人组成，由“英国臣民”的共同名称联合起来。该网络既包括早期的职业研究人员，也包括知名学者，它是通过邀请和“滚雪球”的方式形成的，通过这种方式，加入网络的成员帮助确定了研究人员自己不太熟悉的领域的杰出学者。我们打算允许网络在其整个生命周期中招募成员，从而实现我们在法律方面设立一个新的研究议程的雄心，作为英国帝国统治背景下交流、转化和翻译的关键场所。我们特别打算利用改进后的项目网站及其用户博客，作为与其他学者以及更广泛的公众进行宣传和互动的有力工具。我们将进一步尝试让公众参与到治理、文化多样性和正义等问题中来，在一开始就组织一次用户评论活动，寻求许可在最高法院的办公场所策划一个关于JCPC历史作用的公开展览，并探索与媒体合作的每一个机会，比如最近在JCPC委托制作一部纪录片期间，我们征求了公众的意见。供游客使用。

This project aims to use a major and hitherto neglected archival cache of legal records to explore the impact of colonial law upon the making of social and political identities, the translation of culturally specific ideas and practices into a 'global' legal language, and the transformation of common law itself - in Britain as much as in those distant countries where British subjects once lived. It begins with the hypothesis that in asserting what they (or others) were entitled to, people enmeshed in any legal process are inevitably compelled to state who they (and others) are, and that in a colonial or imperial context, the compulsions are particularly acute as well as transformative.This network will examine in three novel ways how entitlement and representation (rights and identities) shaped each other in the context of British imperial rule. First, it will bring together a group of specialists whose combined research interests are genuinely pan-imperial and whose disciplinary expertise spans history, law and literary criticism. In doing so, the network will encourage both multi- and trans-disciplinary research, as well as research that is trans-national in scope - encouraging individual researchers and the collective as a whole to push boundaries, both intellectual and pragmatic. Secondly, it will exploit the research opportunity presented by an emerging archive - the records of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) - an archive unique for its capacity, given its size, for providing an empirical basis for research in these very broad and 'global' themes. Such exploitation and unprecedented usage will be made possible by enhancing an existing prototype website and online catalogue, developed as part of a pilot project "Judging Empire" - conducted by the Principal and Co-investigators. Finally, it will utilise the expertise of the network members in order to benefit from specialist knowledge of supplementary non-UK and/or non-legal records. A significant core of the network will consist of scholars using the JCPC records; but also those concentrating on non-UK legal records, and non-legal sources such as administrative and police records, pamphlets in English and other languages, literary and visual resources - such variety being essential in order to trace the multiple levels at which translations of doctrines, aesthetics, ethics, institutional forms, social networks and political identities occurred within the colonial and imperial legal system(s), and to identify the motivations and compulsions that shaped the assumption of legal subjectivities by very different people, united by the common designation of 'British subjects'.The network, which includes early career researchers as well as established scholars, has been formed through invitation, as well as by a 'snowballing' process, whereby incorporated network members, have helped to identify outstanding scholars in fields less familiar to the Investigators themselves. We intend to allow the network to recruit members all through its lifetime, thus fulfilling our ambition of setting a new research agenda in law as a crucial site of exchange, transformation and translation in the context of British imperial rule. We especially intend to use the enhanced project website, with its user blog, as a powerful tool for publicity as well as engagement - with other scholars, as well as the wider public. We will further attempt to engage the general public on issues of governance, cultural diversity and justice by organising a user review event at the outset, by seeking permission to curate a public exhibition on the historic role of the JCPC in the Supreme Court's premises, and also by exploring every opportunity for collaboration with the media, such as was recently offered when our consultation was sought during the production of a documentary film commissioned by the JCPC, intended for visitors.