Global Legal History

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course examines topics in legal history from the last two centuries, surveying new and canonical histories from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. In recent years legal history has taken a global turn, moving away from the state-focused approach that long characterized the field. We will consider some of the questions that have come out of that turn. What counts as a "legal" institution, and who decides? How do different legal traditions - Civil Law, Sharia, Common Law, custom - interact with one another? How did law buttress or challenge ideas about race? Law can be a shield or a weapon, sometimes simultaneously. What it does depends on who is using it, and for what purpose. Readings will include history and some legal philosophy. Students will use primary sources extensively, including court records. The course will address historical topics including the use of law in European imperialism; law and the afterlife of Atlantic slavery; colonial regimes of law; the role of law in nationalist movements; law in revolutionary regimes and communist states; and contemporary debates on law enforcement and policing.