Comparative legal history

Is comparative legal history an emerging discipline or a much-needed dialogue between two academic subjects? This research handbook presents the field in a uniquely holistic way, and illustrates how comparative law and legal history are inextricably related. Cementing a solid theoretical grounding for the discipline, legal historians and comparatists place this subject at the forefront of legal science. Comprehensive in coverage, this handbook collates theory and method for comparative legal history, as well as discussing international legal sources and judicial and civil institutions. Particular attention is paid to custom and codification, contracts, civil procedure and ownership. By assessing the evolution of law across European, Asian, African and American environments from the pre-modern era to the nineteenth century, the chapters provide stimulating and enlightening cases of legal history through a comparative lens. A centrepiece for this field of scholarship, this research handbook will be an essential resource for scholars interested in comparative law, legal theory and legal history, from both legal and social science backgrounds. Contributors: S.P. Donlan, S. Drescher, M. Dyson, P. Finkelman, D. Freda, A. Giuliani, J.-L. Halperin, D. Heirbaut, E. Kadens, M.S.-H. Kim, A. Masferrer, D. Michalsen, K.A. Modeer, O. Moreteau, J.A. Obarrio, A. Parise, H. Pihlajamaki, W. Swain, A. Taitslin, C.H. van Rhee, J. Vanderlinden

Contents: List of contributors Acknowledgments The emergence of comparative legal history Aniceto Masferrer, Kjell A. Modeer and Olivier Moreteau PART I Theory and Methods 1. What is comparative legal history? Legal historiography and the revolt against formalism, 1930-60 Adolfo Giuliani 2. Comparative? Legal? History? Crossing Boundaries Sean Patrick Donlan 3. Methodological perspectives in comparative legal history: an analytical approach Dag Michalsen 4. Comparative legal history: methodology for morphology Matthew Dyson PART II LEGAL SOURCES 5. Here, there, everywhere or... nowhere? Some comparative and historical afterthoughts about custom as a source of law Jacques Vanderlinden 6. Convergence and the colonization of custom in pre-modern Europe Emily Kadens 7. Custom as a source of law in European and East Asian legal history Marie Seong-Hak Kim 8. The ius commune as the 'ratio scripta' in the civil law tradition: a comparative approach to the Spanish case Aniceto Masferrer and Juan A. Obarrio 9. Legal education in England and continental Europe between the middle ages and the early-modern period: a comparison Dolores Freda PART III LEGAL INSTITUTIONS 10. The triumph of judicial review: the evolution of post-revolutionary legal thought Jean-Louis Halperin 11. Killing the vampire of human culture: Slavery as a problem in international law Paul Finkelman and Seymour Drescher 12. Continental European superior courts and procedure in civil actions (11th-19th centuries) C.H. (Remco) van Rhee 13. The genesis of concepts of possession and ownership in the civilian tradition and at common law: how did common law manage without a concept of ownership? Why Roman law did not Anna Taitslin 14. The common law and the Code civil: the curious case of the law of contract Warren Swain 15. When the wind turned from South to West: the transition of Scandinavian legal cultures 1945-2000, a comparative sketch Kjell A. Modeer PART IV CODIFICATION 16. Unification and codification in today's European private law and nineteenth-century Germany: the challenges and opportunities of comparing historical and ongoing events Dirk Heirbaut 17. Owning the conceptualization of ownership in American civil law jurisdictions and the origins of nineteenth-century code provisions Agustin Parise 18. Why was private law not codified in Sweden and Finland? Heikki Pihlajamaki Index