Fernanda Pirie

From ancient Mesopotamia to today, the epic story of how humans have used laws to forge civilizations Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. In The Rule of Laws, 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.

A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World

The Rule of Laws

This anthropological study of Ladakh analyses the means by which small communities create spaces of order amidst the heterogeneous forces of modernity. In doing so it also filling a conspicuous gap in the secondary literature on Tibetan law.

The Construction of a Fragile Web of Order

Peace and Conflict in Ladakh

Judith Scheele

That law is, or should be, related to justice generally goes without saying; that communities are the basis for (or objects of) laws is also easily assumed; and notable theories of justice explicitly or implicitly elide the two. In this volume historians and anthropologists use empirical examples to unpick conceptual knots formed by law, justice, and community, asking how these relations appear in practice, and how fundamental they are.

Community and Justice

Legalism

Martijn van Beek

Arguing for the need to situate Ladakh in a South Asian context, albeit not neglecting its ties with Tibet, this volume brings together empirical studies from the region to analyse the change and continuity resulting from colonialism, independence and modernisation.

Anthropological Perspectives on Continuity and Change

Modern Ladakh

Toni Huber

Assessing the legacies of revolution, social upheaval and reform among minorities in communist Asia, the case studies in this volume analyse the experience of conflict and social disruption, while providing an original comparative perspective on Tibet and Inner Asia.

Conflict and Social Order in Tibet and Inner Asia

'Fascinating, insightful and gripping, The Rule of Laws provides a comprehensive exploration of the history underpinning our modern legal systems. A triumph' The Secret Barrister The laws now enforced throughout the world are almost all modelled on systems developed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During two hundred years of colonial rule, Europeans exported their laws everywhere they could. But they weren't filling a void: in many places, they displaced traditions that were already ancient when Vasco Da Gama first arrived in India. Even the Romans were inspired by earlier precedents. Where, then, did it all begin? And what has law been and done over the course of human history? In The Rule of Laws, pioneering anthropologist Fernanda Pirie traces the development of the world's great legal systems - Chinese, Indian, Roman, and Islamic - and the innumerable smaller traditions they inspired. At the heart of the story is a paradox: how did the pronouncements of the powerful became a vital weapon in ordinary people's fight for justice?

A 4000-year Quest to Order the World

From ancient Mesopotamia to today, the epic story of how humans have used laws to forge civilizations Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. In The Rule of Laws, 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.

Fernanda Pirie

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