Dr Damir Sütő, research fellow of the Centre for Protestant Studies Gáspár Károli, was invited to participate in the Second COMLAWEU Conference at the University of St Andrews, entitled Proclaiming, Affixing, Distributing: Disseminating the Law in Early Modern Europe, held on 5–6 May 2026 in Scotland.
The conference was organised within the framework of the international COMLAWEU research project, based at the School of History of the University of St Andrews. The project investigates the ways in which legal norms were communicated, proclaimed, distributed, and received in early modern Europe, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the dissemination of law, political participation, and the development of civic society between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The 2026 conference programme included panels dedicated to the dissemination of ordinances and royal decrees, the role of town criers and heralds, the circulation of legal information through postal and administrative networks, the ceremonial proclamation of laws, as well as the reception and contestation of legal acts within local communities.
Dr Sütő delivered a paper entitled “From Draft to Constitutional Convention: Circulation, Consultation, and Promulgation of the 1573 Warsaw Confederation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth”. His presentation examined the mechanisms through which the text of the Warsaw Confederation circulated among regional noble assemblies during the interregnum following the death of Sigismund II Augustus, focusing on the processes of consultation, political negotiation, and public promulgation that preceded the formal adoption of the act in 1573. Particular attention was devoted to the role of local assemblies in shaping the final form of the Confederation, as well as to the broader constitutional implications of disseminating legal norms in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The presentation also addressed how legal authority in the Commonwealth depended not only on formal enactment, but also on public communication, the circulation of drafts, regional consultation, and the entry of legal acts into local court registers.
The conference gathered researchers from institutions including the University of St Andrews, University of Manchester, Harvard University, University of Cambridge, University of Copenhagen, University of Vienna, University of Barcelona, University of Liège, Trinity College Dublin, and several other European universities. Discussions throughout the conference highlighted the growing scholarly interest in the comparative study of legal communication and the social history of law in early modern Europe.
The participation of Dr Sütő in the COMLAWEU conference represents another step in the international academic engagement of the Centre for Protestant Studies Gáspár Károli and contributes to strengthening international scholarly cooperation.
