H-Net: Call for Papers on Parliaments and the Sea (pasted)

 

Call for Papers: Parliaments Estates & Representation - Special Issue

Parliaments and the Sea

The sea is an increasingly important part of political life and has shaped empires, economies, and navies. Environments change, economies collapse, maritime security measures expand, trade and commerce abound, and contested sovereignty over boundaries all raise external questions that governments cannot resolve with executive action alone. Maritime history and parliamentary history have largely developed apart; this special issue aims to bring those two fields together.

The sea is a defining context for legislative practice, political culture, and constitutional change. We invite contributions that examine how assemblies, from the earliest medieval assemblies to early modern legislatures, engaged with the sea, and how maritime concerns shaped developments of assemblies themselves. We are especially interested in how maritime issues become policy and governance issues. We would also like to see work that moves beyond Britain and the Atlantic Worlds and consider the Mediterranean, the Baltic, Indian, and Pacific contexts, and any work that attends to those voices who have traditionally been left out of the story.

Aim and Scope

We welcome original research articles covering the medieval era from around 1000 (including the Icelandic Althing, the Manx Tynwald, and the first gathering of the Cortes of León) through the long early modern era to 1850. National, international, local and regional political situations, single case studies, micro-histories, comparative and transnational approaches, data-driven histories, and methodological reflections are all encouraged.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Parliaments and navies 
  • Navigation laws, mercantilism, and regulation of maritime trade
  • Assemblies and overseas expansion: colonial ventures, chartered companies, and imperial regulatory oversight
  • Slavery, the slave trade, and abolition 
  • Legislative origins of marine resource regulation
  • Privateers, pirates, and legal limits on maritime violence
  • Island and archipelagic assemblies 
  • Lobbying, petitions, and representation of ports, coastal communities, and shipping interests 
  • Boundaries, territorial waters, and disputes over the sovereign seas
  • Parliamentary culture and imagery of the sea
  • Sources and methods for approaching the sea: including digital and data-driven approaches to parliamentary records, petitions, and council registers

Submission Guidelines

This special issue will be edited by Dr Gillian Macdonald and Dr John R. Young. Prospective contributors are asked to send a title and abstract of 250-300 words to Dr Gillian Macdonald at macdo313@msu.edu by 31 January 2027. Articles can be written in English, French or German (the official languages of the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions) and should be in the region of 9000 words including footnotes, appendices, and any figures. Further submission guidance will be given to accepted contributors in due course.

Contact Information

Gillian MacDonald, Director of LEADR

Contact Email
macdo313@msu.edu

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