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POSTPONED - The Trial of Captain Green - Research Internships Session 1

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Location:

Date/time

Mon 30 March 2020

*** This series of events have been postponed to a later date ***

 

Edinburgh Law School, The Centre for Legal History and the University of St Andrews present

Research Internships: The Trial of Captain Green

March 2020 to June 2020

 

If you are a research student with an interest in legal history, this is a project that will:

  1. Refine and develop your skills in archival research
  2. encourage and facilitate your ability to work cooperatively with others
  3. allow you to engage with a secondary literature in a critical fashion
  4. allow you to “network” with others of similar interests
  5. assist you in thinking about your own research and the possibilities that archives might hold for it.

 

Background:
In 1705, Thomas Green, an English captain, was tried for piracy and convicted by the Scottish Court of Admiralty, before being hanged at Leith. The trial has often been thought to be a travesty, reflecting anti-English sentiment in the run-up to the union of 1707. It was also a strange product of the Darien disaster. Recently, the late J. Irvine Smith, contrary to most scholars, has concluded that Green was guilty. 

 

Research Project Aims:
This is a project for research students in legal history and history at the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews. You will act as Research Interns, to collaborate with the aim of producing a detailed account and overview of the trial including:

  • a narrative reconstruction of events leading up to the trial and the trial itself;
  • a case analysis (facts / issues / arguments / holdings);
  • and an analysis of present-day issues / questions that can be drawn out of the case.

 

There will be a budget for travel and approved research expenses. The number will be limited to 8 students.

 

If you are interested in participating, please contact: 
Professor John W. Cairns at the University of Edinburgh - john.cairns@ed.ac.uk 
Professor Caroline Humfress at the University of St Andrews - ch226@st-andrews.ac.uk

Image Credit: Photo by Luke Southern on Unsplash

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