Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Cavanagh and friends on empire and legal thought

Empire and Legal Thought: Ideas and Institutions from Antiquity to Modernity, edited by Edward Cavanagh (University of Edinburgh), is now out with Brill. It is volume 41/16 in Studies in the History of International Law. From the press:
Emphatic of the importance of legal thought to the rise and fall of empires, this book highlights the centrality of empires to the development of legal thought. 

Comprehension of the development of legal thought over time is necessary for any historical, philosophical, practical, or theoretical enquiry into the subject today, it is argued here. When seen against the background of broad geopolitical, diplomatic, administrative, intellectual, religious, and commercial changes, law begins to appear very resilient. It withstands the rise and fall of empires. It provides the framework for the establishment of new orders in the place of the old. 

Today what analogies, principles, and authorities of law have survived these changes continue to inform much of the international legal tradition. 

Contributors are: Clifford Ando, Lia Brazil, Joseph Canning, Edward Cavanagh, Zachary Chitwood, Emanuele Conte, Matthew Crow, Alberto Esu, Tiziana Faitini, Dante Fedele, Naveen Kanalu, Alexandre A. Loktionov, P. G. McHugh, Jordan Rudinsky, Mark Somos, Joshua Smeltzer, Lorenzo Veracini, Halcyon Weber, and Sarah Winter.
Further information (including the full Table of Contents) is available here.

--posted by Mitra Sharafi