Some topics that we hope to address and discuss include: • Charters, privileges, and Jews living under multiple systems of law
• Questions of jurisdiction and Jewish appearances before various secular and/or church courts
• The development of lay community governments, their enforcement of law, and the civil procedures involved
• Changing roles of rabbis and of lay communal governments
• Print and its role in the popularization and/or codification of law
• The development of merchant law
• The interplay between law and social change
• Changing conceptions of the nature and role of law and their significance for the Jews' legal status.
It is our goal to look at the primary texts dealing with questions of law in the early modern period through both an historical and a jurisprudential lens. The vision is that such an interdisciplinary dialogue will add much to our understanding abut how law evolves internally, and how it affects and is affected by historical developments.

We would like to invite qualified graduate students of this period to apply to attend the workshop. Up to 5 graduate students will attend and receive a stipend covering accommodation and (kosher) meals. Candidates should send their C.V. and a short abstract (about 2 pages) of the dissertation project to Magda Teter at mteter@wesleyan.edu by May 15, 2008. The decision will be made by May 31.

For more information about the Early Modern Workshop project, please see the project's website: http://www.earlymodern.org