Title:
The rule of laws : a 4,000-year quest to order the world
Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Date:
2024
2021
Publication Information:
New York : Basic Books, [2024]
©2021.
Physical Description:
iv, 570 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.
ISBN:
9781541617940
9781541606050
Abstract:
"In this book, Oxford scholar Fernanda Pirie traces the rise and fall of the sophisticated legal systems underpinning ancient empires and religious traditions, while also showing how common people--tribal assemblies, merchants, farmers--called on laws to define their communities, regulate trade, and build civilizations. Although legal principles originating in Western Europe now seem to dominate the globe, the variety of the world's laws has long been almost as great as the variety of its societies. What truly unites human beings, Pirie argues, is our very faith that laws can produce justice, combat oppression, and create order from chaos"-- Publisher's description
Contents:
The promise of law -- Visions of order. Mesopotamia and the lands of the Bible ; Indian Brahmins : the order of the cosmos ; Chinese emperors : codes, punishments, and bureaucracy ; Advocates and jurists : intellectual pursuits in ancient Rome ; Jewish and Islamic scholars : God's path for the world ; European kings : courts and customs after the fall of Rome -- The promise of civilization. At the margins : lawmaking on the fringes of Christianity and Islam ; Embracing the laws of religion : the Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim worlds ; Imperial law and divine justice in Medieval China ; Courts and customs in the European Middle Ages ; The problem of judgement : oaths, ordeals and evidence -- Ordering the world. From kings to empires : the rise of Europe and America ; Colonialism : exporting the law ; In the shadow of the state : Islamic law in the modern world ; Turning their backs on the state : tribes, villages, networks, and gangs ; Beyond the state : international laws -- The rule of laws.
Language:
English
