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On March 4, 2024 via Zoom, we convened a Roundtable on Transformation and Adaptation of Ottoman Land Law in 19th-Century Successor States. Organized by our Research Fellow Fatma Gül Karagöz, the Roundtable features case studies that focus on Greece after the War of Independence (1821-1830), the situation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Bulgaria after the Berlin Treaty (1878), and processes of estate and agricultural land-privatization during a period of great transformation. The discussion tackled questions of continuity and change between Ottoman and successor state legal systems, political and economic reasons behind legal changes, and administrative approaches to nation-building. By focusing on land regimes before and after the promulgation of the Ottoman Land Code in 1858, this Roundtable offers a window onto the transformation of Ottoman land law in the long 19th century.

Contributing scholars include Philippe Gelez (University of Sorbonne), Fatma Gül Karagöz (Harvard Law School), Evgenia Kermeli (Hacettepe University), Milena Methodieva (University of Toronto), and Jelena Radovanović (University of Münster).

Watch the video today and read the essays on the Islamic Law Blog!