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European law, including both civil law and common law, has gone through several major phases of expansion in the world. European legal history thus also is a history of legal transplants and cultural borrowings, which national legal histories as products of nineteenth-century historicism have until recently largely left unconsidered. The Handbook of European Legal History supplies its readers with an overview of the different phases of European legal history in the light of today's state-of-the-art research, by offering cutting-edge views on research questions currently emerging in international discussions.
The Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter both nationally and systemically. Unlike traditional European legal histories, which tend to concentrate on "heartlands" of Europe (notably Italy and Germany), the Europe of the Handbook is more versatile and nuanced, taking into consideration the legal developments in Europe's geographical "fringes" such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The Handbook covers all major time periods, from the ancient Greek law to the twenty-first century. Contributors include acknowledged leaders in the field as well as rising talents, representing a wide range of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise and research agendas.
List of contents
- I. Approaches to European Legal History: Historiography and Methods
- 1: James Q. Whitman: The World Historical Significance of European Legal History: An Interim Report
- 2: Joachim Rückert: The Invention of National Legal History
- 3: Randall Lesaffer: The Birth of European Legal History
- 4: Kjell Å Modéer: Abandoning the Nationalist Framework: Comparative Legal History
- 5: Thomas Duve: Global Legal History: Setting Europe in Perspective
- II. The Ancient Law and the Early Middle Age
- 6: Michael Gagarin: Ancient Greek Law
- 7: Pier Giuseppe Monateri: Early Roman Law And The West: A Reversal Of Grounds
- 8: Paul du Plessis: Classical and Post-Classical Roman Law: The Legal Actors and The Sources
- 9: Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi: Institutions of Ancient Roman Law
- 10: Bernard Stolte: Byzantine Law: The Law of the New Rome
- 11: Karl Shoemaker: Germanic Law
- III. The Law in the High and the Late Middle Ages: The Learned Ius commune and the Vernacular Laws
- 12: Peter Clarke: Western Canon Law in the Central and Later Middle Ages
- 13: Jan Hallebeek: Structure of Medieval Roman Law: Institutions, Sources, and Methods
- 14: Thomas Rüfner: Substance of Medieval Roman Law: The Development of Private Law
- 15: Antonio Manuel Hespanha: Southern Europe (Italy, Iberian Peninsula, France)
- 16: Mathias Schmoeckel: Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
- 17: Mia Korpiola: High- and Late-Medieval Scandinavia: Codified Vernacular Law and Learned Legal Influences
- 18: Mia Korpiola: Customary Law and the Influence of the Ius commune in High- and Late-Medieval East Central Europe
- 19: Paul Brand: The Beginnings of the English Common Law (to 1350)
- 20: Andrew R C Simpson: The Scottish Common Law: Origins and Development, ca.1124-ca.1500
- 21: Heiner Lück: Urban Law: The Law of Saxony and Magdeburg
- 22: Albrecht Cordes and Philipp Höhn: Extra-legal and Legal Conflict Management among Long-distance Traders (1250-1650)
- 23: Dirk Heirbaut: Feudal law
- IV. European Law in the Early Modern Period: The Fields of Law and the Changing Scholarship
- 24: Jan Schröder: Legal Scholarship: The Theory of Sources and Methods of Law
- 25: David Ibbetson: Natural Law in Early Modern Legal Thought
- 26: John Witte, Jr: Law and the Protestant Reformation
- 27: Wim Decock: Law of Property and Obligations: Neoscholastic Thinking and Beyond
- 28: Massimo Meccarelli: Criminal Law: Before a State Monopoly
- 29: Alain Wijffels: Civil Procedural Law, the Judiciary, and Legal Professionals
- 30: Ulrike Müßig: Jurisdiction, Political Authority, and Territory
- 31: Bernardo Sordi: Public Law Before 'Public Law'
- V. European Law in the Early Modern Period: The Age of Expansion
- 32: Peter Oestmann: The Law of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
- 33: Serge Dauchy: French Law an
About the author
Heikki Pihlajamäki is Professor of Comparative Legal History at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki.
Markus D. Dubber is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto.
Mark Godfrey is Professor of Legal History at the University of Glasgow.
Summary
This handbook provides a broad overview of the development of European legal history from Ancient Greece to the twenty-first century. It engages with current research questions in international scholarship, and, in addition to Europe's heartland, details the history of its geographical 'fringes', such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
