The American Society for Legal History has announced the winners of its 2024 book prizes -- starting with the Peter Gonville Stein Book Award. About the award:
The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award is awarded annually for the best book in non-US legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all regions outside the United States, as well as global and international history.
This year's winner is Yanna Yannakakis (Emory University) for Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke, 2023). The citation:
Yanna Yannakakis’ Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico is a magistral work in global legal history. Yannakakis offers an innovative account of how the concept and significance of custom developed through interactions among multiple legal cultures spread over two continents. The book seamlessly shifts registers as it moves across vast expanses of time and space — from 12th century Europe to 18th century Mexico – and multiple levels of analysis. The stunning scope of Yannakakis’ examination of law and legal theory is matched by her fascinating analysis of how Spanish colonizers and their colonial subjects navigated plural legal traditions to strategically define indigenous custom. Drawing from a diverse array of European and indigenous primary documents, including a large collection of indigenous codices and legal petitions and disputes, Time Immemorial weaves together multiple sources of European and indigenous law with a rich microhistorical analysis of legal practice. The result is a compelling story of how indigenous subjects of diverse social rank participated in the history of Atlantic legal culture.
Congratulations to Professor Yannakakis!
-- Karen Tani
