The role of tort reform in fire risk reduction in the Iberian Peninsula (18th and 19th centuries)
PROJECT COMPLETED (2021-2023)
We are living in the Anthropocene era: the geological period in which human activity is beginning to have a significant impact on the planet. We can attribute devastating heat waves, endless droughts and increasingly frequent and destructive fires to human action. The Anthropocene is forcing society to rethink civil liability. Legal systems are based on mutual responsibility: the individual must take responsibility for his actions towards other members of the community, although he may be exonerated from his obligations if the infraction was caused by a fortuitous accident.
Since it has been demonstrated that human activity to have a significant impact on the planet, the parties should no longer be exempted from their contractual obligations or duties due to alleged this extreme events. It is necessary a reform of civil liability, that forces contracting parties to face an increased risk at the individual level: a reform remarkably like the one that during the Modern Era allowed to contrast another anthropic risk, the fires.
This parallelism has not yet been analysed by historiography: the project LOWRISK aims to fill this historiographic gap, demonstrating that during 18th and early 19th centuries the reform of civil liability, resulting in a progressive reduction of the circumstances that allowed considering a fire as a fortuitous case, played a determining role in the progressive reduction of fire risk.
In this way, the action will allowed to show to society the important role that the civil liability reform can have in reducing the anthropogenic risks, and to highlight that historical memory can contribute to the social perception of risk, making society less vulnerable to hazards.
To achieve its goals, LOWRISK will carry out an interdisciplinary and comparative research that will enclose the academic discourses of History and Law, using the categories and methodology of the Global History of Law. The research will be based on the historical judicial records produced by different judicial institutions, operating in European and American Spanish and Portuguese territories.
Funding (2021-2023):
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101026373
Specialisation
To specialize in the synchronic and diachronic comparison of processes of transfer of normative thinking of legal practices and institutions between different cultural contexts, including the process of global reproduction of normative choices with the associated phenomenon of 'hybridization'.
Prudent use of fire
Filling a historical gap, studying how in the past tort reform has played a decisive role in raising society's awareness of a more prudent use of fire and, consequently, reducing fire risks.
Methodology
Propose a methodology to study liability reform and its role in reducing fire risk in other cultural contexts not considered in this study, both European and non-European.
History and Law
Add the academic discourses of history and law, which are not normally connected.
Liability reform
To show society and authorities the important role that a civil liability reform can have in the reduction of anthropogenic risks and to highlight that the historical report can contribute to the social perception of risks, reducing their construction and, therefore, making society less vulnerable to hazards.
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Portal by network Geride
01/09/2022 - 27/10/2022
Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
09/05/2022 - 09/06/2022
department of Social and Economic Private Law, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain).
08/05/2023 - School of Geography and History, University of Seville (Spain).
lecture Invited "De casi-delito a delito culposo: tipificación del incendio involuntario en el derecho hispánico. Centuries XI-XIX".
27/01/2023 - Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra (Spain).
seminar "The cultural history of the fortuitous case, from the ancient age to the nineteenth century".
28-29/11/2022 - department de Historia de América, Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
seminar "History and Vulnerability: Critical Approaches on America".
discussion paper "From Fire Risk Acceptance to Reckless Negligence: Some Reflections on a research at development".
22-25/11/2022 - Complutense University of Madrid (Spain).
Coordination of the roundtable "Historia inflamable de Iberoamérica. Cities, fires and societies. Siglo XVI-XXI" in the III congress of the association Iberoamerican Urban History.
7-12/11/2022 - University of La Serena (Chile).
Coordination of the roundtable "Políticas de management de riesgo de desastres. Desde la Monarquía Hispánica hacia los Estados decimonónicos" in the International congress "XIII conference de programs of study Coloniales y Modernos".
20/09/2022 - Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (Germany).
Invited talk "Fire risk reduction in the Hispanic world: public policies, normative measures, social disciplining (13th-19th centuries)". Iberian Worlds" Meetings.
16/06/2022 - Centro de programs of study Históricos, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile).
Participation in the roundtable "Antropoceno: desafíos historiográficos".
17/05/2022 - School de Derecho, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain).
seminar "History of Latin American Codification".
10/05/2022 - School of Law, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain).
seminar "Constitutionalism and codification".
09/05/2022 - University of Calabria (Italy).
discussion paper "Direttrici del costituzionalismo latino-americano decimonono" at the Workshop "Lo Stato nell'Ottocento: esperienze costituzionali a confronto".
03/05/2022 - School of Law, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain).
seminar "Urban law in the Hispanic area".
27-29/04/2022 - University of Navarra (Spain).
Cycle of seminars of History of Law on "Constitutionalism and Codification".
30/03/2022 - University of Navarra (Spain).
Invited Lecture "The management of fire risk in the Indian city (XVI-XVIII centuries)".
18/03/2022 - high school of History and Social Sciences, University of Valparaíso (Chile).
Invited Lecture "Negotiating risk: fire regulations in Spanish-American cities (16th-19th centuries)".
03/14/2022 - programs of study American Center, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile).
Invited Talk "Comparative and Interdisciplinary Study of Public Policies of management of Disaster Risk: the project Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Nº101026373".
11/03/2022 - Centro de programs of study Históricos, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile).
workshop"How to successfully order Postdoctoral Projects?"
09/03/2022 - Universidad de los Andes (Chile).
Invited Talk "Responsabilizar, disciplinar, censurar, extinguir: la management del riesgo de incendio en la ciudad hispánica (siglos XIII-XIX)".
08/03/2022 - Universidad de los Andes (Chile).
workshop"How to successfully order Postdoctoral Projects?"
18/01/2022 - Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra (Spain).
seminar "Cultural foundations of the medieval and modern providentialist view of disaster. Some reflections from the pre-Roman discipline of fire and other fortuitous cases."
17/01/2022 - University of Navarra (Spain).
Invited lecture "Instituciones Indianas (Siglos XVI-XVIII)".
18/11/2021- Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra (Spain).
Communication "network international research centers for the comparative and interdisciplinary study of Public Policies of management of Disaster Risk in Latin America" in the XI Annual meeting of the ICS.
05/11/2021 - Universidad de los Andes (Chile).
seminar "Health, sanitation and hygiene policies in Chile, XVIII-XX centuries".
discussion paper "Perception of risks in nineteenth-century Chile: considerations from smallpox and fires".
05/06/2023 - XXXV seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Elizabeth Montañez Sanabria (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Andrés Sánchez-Cid Torres (University of Seville).
08/05/2023 - XXXIV seminar "History&Disasters".
roundtable "Extreme disasters in Central America and the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th centuries". Participants: María Eugenia Petit-Breuilh S., Rogelio Altez and Gonzalo Ramírez (University of Seville).
17/04/2023 - XXXIII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Eduardo Pinzón Avendaño (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and Víctor Álvarez Ponce (Instituto Riva-Agüero, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú).
30/03/2023 - XXXII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Alexander Sorokin (Univesity of Tyumen, Russia), Roman Gilmintinov (Univesity of Tyumen, Russia) and Olga Ustyuzhantseva (Univesity of Tyumen, Russia).
30/03/2023 - Extraordinary Session of seminar "History&Disasters".
Guest: Daniel Moroni Stewart (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso).
06/03/2023 - XXXI seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Juan Manuel Zaragoza Bernal (University of Murcia) and Daniel Bonilla Maldonado (University of Los Andes, Colombia).
16/12/2022 - XXX seminar "History&Disasters".
Coorganizer: Alessandro Buono (University of Pisa, Italy). Guests: Rocco Giurato (University of Calabria, Italy), Andrea Addobbati (University of Pisa, Italy) and Javier Barrientos Grandon (Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain).
16/11/2022 - XXIX seminar "History&Disasters".
Guest: Álex Corona Encinas (University of Valladolid, Spain).
03/10/2022 - XXVIII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Priscila Muena Zamorano (Universidad de los Andes, Chile) and Esther Atencia Gil (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain).
05/09/2022 - XXVII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guest: Patricio José Vergara Undurraga (Universidad de los Andes, Chile).
01/08/2022 - XXVI seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Fernando Venegas Espinoza (Universidad de Concepción, Chile) and Sergio Elórtegui Francioli (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso).
04/07/2022 - XXV seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Rocío Moreno Cabanillas (Universidad Pablo de Olavide / Universidad de Sevilla) and Mario Alberto Roa López (CIESAS- Unidad Peninsular, Mexico).
06/06/2022 - XXIV seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Armando Alberola Romá (University of Alicante) and Adrián García Torres (University of Alicante).
02/05/2022 - XXIII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Rogelio Altez (University of Seville, Spain) and María Nazareth Rodríguez (high school de Michoacán, Mexico).
04/04/2022 - XXII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Rafael Perez Garcia Perez (University of Navarra, Spain) and Andrea Noria Peña (Universidad de los Andes).
07/03/2022 - XXI seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Macarena Cordero Fernández (Universidad de los Andes) and Pedro Ortego Gil (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela).
10/01/2022 - XX seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Alexandrine De La Taille Urrutia (Universidad de los Andes, Chile), María Cecilia Correa (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and Valentina Moraima Acuña Bravo (CIGIDEN, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile).
13/12/2021 - XIX seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Emilio Luque Azcona (University of Seville).
08/11/2021 - XVIII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Leopoldo Martínez Ávalos (National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico) and Julio Aguilar (University of California Davis, USA).
13/10/2021 - XVII seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Lilian C. San Martín Neira (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) and Ignacio Miranda Saldívar (CEAL, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso).
06/09/2021 - XVI seminar "History&Disasters".
Guests: Alejandra Fuentes González (Universidad de los Andes), Mariana Labarca Pinto (Universidad de Santiago de Chile), Xochitl Inostroza (Universidad de Santiago de Chile) and Pedro Pablo Peralta (Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann, Peru).
10/2021
"SCOPUS Online", FECYT
10/2021
"Let's communicate climate change", Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile).