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The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-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.
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.
576 pages, Hardcover
Published November 9, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
April 2, 2022
I assume it's a gigantic task for any author to sum up the whole legal system of any one country, but Pirie actually does a competent, interesting, readable explanation of the whole world's efforts to make decent laws for the past 4,000 years. She makes you think about what we've tried to do with laws and how we've viewed them. Were ancient laws just records of how particular problems were solved in the past? Were they moral teachings that it was virtuous to follow? Were they commands that must be obeyed to the letter on pain of dire punishment? Were ordinary people obligated to enforce the rules on their neighbors?
Pirie describes how ancient people in the Middle East, India, and China moved from protecting their interests through rather indiscriminate vengeance to forming conventions for settling guilt and compensation, usually through oath-taking or trials by ordeal. The law codes move from just listing punishments for each offense against each class of people into vast accumulations of "common law" conventions, later codified and slowly expanded to cover issues of credit, debt, commerce, diplomacy, investment, product safety, human rights, crimes against humanity, ecosystem protection, and international telecommunications.
Pirie shows how law gets used to hold both subjects and rulers accountable to shifting standards. It's a problem-solving quest for some better sort of justice, or duty, or just order. Maybe Pirie's most important argument concerns how law-making affects our social standards of judgment, and how that sort of judgment is a force in itself, even if it's very hard to actually, consistently, enforce.
Pirie describes how ancient people in the Middle East, India, and China moved from protecting their interests through rather indiscriminate vengeance to forming conventions for settling guilt and compensation, usually through oath-taking or trials by ordeal. The law codes move from just listing punishments for each offense against each class of people into vast accumulations of "common law" conventions, later codified and slowly expanded to cover issues of credit, debt, commerce, diplomacy, investment, product safety, human rights, crimes against humanity, ecosystem protection, and international telecommunications.
Pirie shows how law gets used to hold both subjects and rulers accountable to shifting standards. It's a problem-solving quest for some better sort of justice, or duty, or just order. Maybe Pirie's most important argument concerns how law-making affects our social standards of judgment, and how that sort of judgment is a force in itself, even if it's very hard to actually, consistently, enforce.
February 2, 2022
This book is divided into three parts. The first, longest, and best part is a history of law and legal codes from before Hammurabi up to the present day. It jumps from location to location working its way forward in time showing what laws were being written, by whom, and in what historical context they came about. Ever since I read A History of God by Karen Armstrong a couple of decades back, I have been a fan of this type of history. It presents a single-volume broad sweep of the history of civilization with a specific subject as its focus. If this first part of the book were the entire book, as I was expecting, I would have been a happy man and would recommend it to anyone.
A few highlights from this section:
"It was a law designed to limit retaliation, rather than an order that [God's] people should always take revenge for a wrong." - comment on the Mosaic precept of an eye for an eye.
"It is only when a state is about to fall, he [Confucious] concluded, that it introduces legislation."
In Ireland... "They distinguished three ranks of kingship, several classes of freemen, and the unfree. The laws also classified professional groups - the clergy, lawyers, and poets - specifying their skills and duties. They described physicians, smiths, carpenters, musicians, and entertainers, and one text talks of jugglers, jesters, acrobats, and professional farters." I want that last job... where do I apply?
"The brutality of the Spanish conquest is well established. What is less well known is the fierce opposition voiced by Spanish theologians and the protracted debates they conducted about the legitimacy of these ventures." Contrary to modern mythology, it was the pastors, priests, and theologians that were at the forefront of anti-colonialism.
The second part of the book was OK. It demonstrated why the Western style of legal tradition won out over the South Asian and Far East legal codes. Namely, that is because it was primarily based on justice rather than discipline or duty. I did appreciate how he pointed out that often the British and the French (the Spanish, not so much) did their best to respect the cultures and legal traditions of their colonies. Often they set up two separate courts, one for expats and one for the locals. But time and again, the local population rejected their own traditional legal system when recognizing the superiority of the Western legal systems.
The third part looked at alternative legal systems that continue into the modern era. The first and largest of these is Shariah (Islamic) law. Pirie here presents an overly simplistic view of what Shariah las really is portraying the ignorance common in western outsiders. More than once I found myself thinking, "That would be nice if it really were true." Other legal (or law-like) systems the author looked at were Tibetian mountain tribes, Yemeni bedouin, the American and Sicilian mafia, and the diamond sellers guild. Finally, Pirie looked at international systems like the UN and the IMF. Honestly, this part of the book was uninteresting drudgery for me and I did my best just to grind through to the end.
In all, this book looks like it would make a decent textbook or supplement for an undergrad pre-law major like Poly-Sci or Criminal Justice. Outside that, I would just say skip it. It accomplishes what it set out to do, but it is clearly a niche book and not one for the masses.
A few highlights from this section:
"It was a law designed to limit retaliation, rather than an order that [God's] people should always take revenge for a wrong." - comment on the Mosaic precept of an eye for an eye.
"It is only when a state is about to fall, he [Confucious] concluded, that it introduces legislation."
In Ireland... "They distinguished three ranks of kingship, several classes of freemen, and the unfree. The laws also classified professional groups - the clergy, lawyers, and poets - specifying their skills and duties. They described physicians, smiths, carpenters, musicians, and entertainers, and one text talks of jugglers, jesters, acrobats, and professional farters." I want that last job... where do I apply?
"The brutality of the Spanish conquest is well established. What is less well known is the fierce opposition voiced by Spanish theologians and the protracted debates they conducted about the legitimacy of these ventures." Contrary to modern mythology, it was the pastors, priests, and theologians that were at the forefront of anti-colonialism.
The second part of the book was OK. It demonstrated why the Western style of legal tradition won out over the South Asian and Far East legal codes. Namely, that is because it was primarily based on justice rather than discipline or duty. I did appreciate how he pointed out that often the British and the French (the Spanish, not so much) did their best to respect the cultures and legal traditions of their colonies. Often they set up two separate courts, one for expats and one for the locals. But time and again, the local population rejected their own traditional legal system when recognizing the superiority of the Western legal systems.
The third part looked at alternative legal systems that continue into the modern era. The first and largest of these is Shariah (Islamic) law. Pirie here presents an overly simplistic view of what Shariah las really is portraying the ignorance common in western outsiders. More than once I found myself thinking, "That would be nice if it really were true." Other legal (or law-like) systems the author looked at were Tibetian mountain tribes, Yemeni bedouin, the American and Sicilian mafia, and the diamond sellers guild. Finally, Pirie looked at international systems like the UN and the IMF. Honestly, this part of the book was uninteresting drudgery for me and I did my best just to grind through to the end.
In all, this book looks like it would make a decent textbook or supplement for an undergrad pre-law major like Poly-Sci or Criminal Justice. Outside that, I would just say skip it. It accomplishes what it set out to do, but it is clearly a niche book and not one for the masses.
February 4, 2022
#theruleoflaws – Fernanda Pirie
#Profilebooks
#JonathanBall
“Everywhere in the world laws organise, protect and restrict our lives. But where did they come from, what power do they have – and how might they have been different?”
Our modern legal world can trace most of its roots back to the models developed in Western Europe, in its turn initially framed by the Romans, in the 18th and 19th centuries. European colonizers exported their laws; sometimes filling a void and sometimes displacing ancient local traditions. But the question investigated by this mammoth book of almost 600 pages, is: when and where did it all begin? The author, a pioneering anthropologist and legal scholar, drew on cutting edge archaeology and textual research to complete this landmark global history of law, spanning 4000 years.
Although various systems are discussed, the focus is on the Chinese, Indian, Roman and Islamic legal systems, starting with Mesopotamia and the lands of the Bible; the Indian Brahmins; Chinese emperors and ancient Rome and closing with the modern-day concepts of human rights and international laws. Some views, statements and events are somewhat cynical, such as ‘Passing a law gives citizens the impression that politicians are in control of the situation.’ (p.10); others seem bizarre, like Nawawi’s (a respected Muslim jurist in the 13the century) obsessive interest in rules regulating the lives of hermaphrodites; King Alfred’s insistence that the angle of a spear accidentally injuring another, should bear relevance on the amount of compensation; Justinianus claiming, in the year 533, that his Corpus Iuris Civilis contained all Roman law and would remain valid for all time; the exception on the Irish law forbidding works on Sundays, allowing bee owners to catch their swarms if they should escape on a Sunday; the rules of evidence explaining how a woman should go about proving that she was menstruating on a certain day; the Icelandic law demanding the a land owner should separate hay that had blown onto their land from a neighbour from their own and return it; the Byzantine prohibition on priests having sexual intercourse with their wives on Mondays; Chinese laws instructing the gods of the afterlife when the sins of deceased should be regarded as forgiven; Tang law requiring offenders to be tortured into confession, even when admitting guilt, before they could be sentenced and the practice of the truth of statements being proven by forcing the deponents to submit to strange ordeals, like balancing on sticks (Iceland, again !)
Some legal systems and laws (Islamic, for example) have always had religious, rather than political roots and was based on the idea of cosmological order enshrined in the wisdom of the ancients. Its focus was on duties, not on rights. Others were aimed at organising society and providing general order (Roman, for example) and others confirmed the alleged divine origin of the rulers (Chinese, for example). An interesting consequence of the nature of ancient Chinese law, was that it was overwhelmingly penal; everything the rulers wanted to control, was made the subject of criminal sanctions. The development of principals like witnesses taking the oath, the jury system, the concept of reasonable doubt and the difference between common and statutory law are also discussed. An interesting chapter, titled ‘Turning their backs on the state’ discusses alternative systems of law enforcement, such as the Italian Mafia.
My personal highlight was Cicero’s guidelines for advocates on p. 109-110: ‘… (they) were expected to wear togas…; to speak in proper Latin….. (should) avoid displaying anger…..not vomit from drunkenness and not (be) smothered in kisses by ardent admirers.’
Although this book is very much academic in nature, it will be enjoyed by readers interested in history, law and those wanting to understand why human society has emerged as it has.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Uitdieperdsebek
#Profilebooks
#JonathanBall
“Everywhere in the world laws organise, protect and restrict our lives. But where did they come from, what power do they have – and how might they have been different?”
Our modern legal world can trace most of its roots back to the models developed in Western Europe, in its turn initially framed by the Romans, in the 18th and 19th centuries. European colonizers exported their laws; sometimes filling a void and sometimes displacing ancient local traditions. But the question investigated by this mammoth book of almost 600 pages, is: when and where did it all begin? The author, a pioneering anthropologist and legal scholar, drew on cutting edge archaeology and textual research to complete this landmark global history of law, spanning 4000 years.
Although various systems are discussed, the focus is on the Chinese, Indian, Roman and Islamic legal systems, starting with Mesopotamia and the lands of the Bible; the Indian Brahmins; Chinese emperors and ancient Rome and closing with the modern-day concepts of human rights and international laws. Some views, statements and events are somewhat cynical, such as ‘Passing a law gives citizens the impression that politicians are in control of the situation.’ (p.10); others seem bizarre, like Nawawi’s (a respected Muslim jurist in the 13the century) obsessive interest in rules regulating the lives of hermaphrodites; King Alfred’s insistence that the angle of a spear accidentally injuring another, should bear relevance on the amount of compensation; Justinianus claiming, in the year 533, that his Corpus Iuris Civilis contained all Roman law and would remain valid for all time; the exception on the Irish law forbidding works on Sundays, allowing bee owners to catch their swarms if they should escape on a Sunday; the rules of evidence explaining how a woman should go about proving that she was menstruating on a certain day; the Icelandic law demanding the a land owner should separate hay that had blown onto their land from a neighbour from their own and return it; the Byzantine prohibition on priests having sexual intercourse with their wives on Mondays; Chinese laws instructing the gods of the afterlife when the sins of deceased should be regarded as forgiven; Tang law requiring offenders to be tortured into confession, even when admitting guilt, before they could be sentenced and the practice of the truth of statements being proven by forcing the deponents to submit to strange ordeals, like balancing on sticks (Iceland, again !)
Some legal systems and laws (Islamic, for example) have always had religious, rather than political roots and was based on the idea of cosmological order enshrined in the wisdom of the ancients. Its focus was on duties, not on rights. Others were aimed at organising society and providing general order (Roman, for example) and others confirmed the alleged divine origin of the rulers (Chinese, for example). An interesting consequence of the nature of ancient Chinese law, was that it was overwhelmingly penal; everything the rulers wanted to control, was made the subject of criminal sanctions. The development of principals like witnesses taking the oath, the jury system, the concept of reasonable doubt and the difference between common and statutory law are also discussed. An interesting chapter, titled ‘Turning their backs on the state’ discusses alternative systems of law enforcement, such as the Italian Mafia.
My personal highlight was Cicero’s guidelines for advocates on p. 109-110: ‘… (they) were expected to wear togas…; to speak in proper Latin….. (should) avoid displaying anger…..not vomit from drunkenness and not (be) smothered in kisses by ardent admirers.’
Although this book is very much academic in nature, it will be enjoyed by readers interested in history, law and those wanting to understand why human society has emerged as it has.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Uitdieperdsebek
January 21, 2022
This is a rather ambitious survey of how three (3) legal models developed and how they were used. Most of the text focused on Western Law … arguably the predominant model in the modern world. Then we get legal systems developed around the Indus valley by legal specialist/scholars (Brahmin) as well as a brief examination of the bureaucratic legalism of the Chinese code of laws. All of these sought to bring about order within a society and were frequently seen as a marker for “civilization” itself, even if compliance/ enforcement was marginal most of the time. The book wraps up with how smaller social units/clubs/et. al frequently had their own set of rules/laws that were used to mediate conflicts before they were escalated to the superior/national courts; which were typically a solution of last resort for many different reasons. There is also a brief discussion on the development of international courts.
There was quite a lot of interesting information … and at times, it became somewhat repetitive (so this is not really a book to read through in one setting … take you time with it). I think this book would be of interest to any reader interested in history and sociology/political science.
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
# TheRuleOfLaws #NetGalley
There was quite a lot of interesting information … and at times, it became somewhat repetitive (so this is not really a book to read through in one setting … take you time with it). I think this book would be of interest to any reader interested in history and sociology/political science.
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
# TheRuleOfLaws #NetGalley
November 26, 2021
A major overview of law making and the reasons why over the 4000 year period from Mesopotamia and India and China to the contrmporary time, with acknowledgement the western world largely, at least conceptually, won the day. However, notions of advancement also suggest notions of decline or replacement. The law as a force for justice can easily erode. Keen inisghts into the role and rule of law are necesssary by an informed citizenry.
October 12, 2021
Absolutely fascinating! As a lawyer, I found it engaging to find out the facts of how my profession came to be and how we as a species came to develop the laws we live by, no matter what they are.
May 28, 2024
Really liked this book :) If you can get ahold of the special edition with notes in the book it’s a lot more entertaining and enjoyable. My favourite part was the pictures section.
May 18, 2022
Summary: A four thousand-year history of the ways different cultures have ordered their societies through various forms of law.
Every group of people develops rules to order their life together. And this has been true throughout history, whether through rulings of the city elders at the gate resolving various disputes through various legal codes. Fernanda Pirie set herself the task in this book of describing and making some sense of the four thousand year global history of laws in their various forms.
She identifies three major streams of law, the Mesopotamian that influenced the West, the Indian Brahmin, and that of China, influence much of east and southeast Asia. The book consists of three parts: the visions of order that accounted for the rise of these traditions from the Code of Hammurabi through to the European courts that arose in the wake of the fall of Rome; the development of these traditions in the Medieval period tracing the expansion upon religious law, imperial law in China and the courts and customs of Europe; and finally, law in the modern law and the development of the rule of law in western democracies and its import into colonial situations, the growth of Islamic Law, and the expansion of international law.
She traces a common thread through history: the use and development of law to order society–punishing murder, compensating injuries and damages, regulating marriage, family, and inheritance, protecting property and regulating commerce. She explores the various forms of laws from case laws to legal codes and common law, administrative structures to promulgate and implement legal codes from trade associations to royal courts, and the judicial structures to adjudicate disputes, determining guilt and innocence, and passing sentences. One of the most fascinating chapters traced the use of ordeal when the veracity of witnesses could not be readily discerned to the subsequent development of rules of evidence and trials by a jury of one’s peers. What is also striking is the fascinating array of ways in which all this was implemented from mediators to local to royal rulers and emperors, to our modern courts.
For me, the book alternated between fascinating discussions and hard slogs through an array of practices and their variations in various European royal courts, along with movement, often within chapters from European to Islamic to Chinese systems. The array of detail made it difficult at times to see the forest for all the individually interesting trees. I found it hard to discern a larger argument or structure with the mass of descriptive detail, apart from the overview and concluding discussions of the universal development of legal systems to organize social life.
Perhaps it is the task this author set herself, one for which she evidences obvious enthusiasm, to render a global history of law in under 460 pages of text. The tension between comprehensiveness and elegant structure must have been a challenge. The work has this in its favor, it is free of legal jargon and highly readable over all. And it raises the profound question of why so many and various cultures found it necessary to use laws to order their lives.
Every group of people develops rules to order their life together. And this has been true throughout history, whether through rulings of the city elders at the gate resolving various disputes through various legal codes. Fernanda Pirie set herself the task in this book of describing and making some sense of the four thousand year global history of laws in their various forms.
She identifies three major streams of law, the Mesopotamian that influenced the West, the Indian Brahmin, and that of China, influence much of east and southeast Asia. The book consists of three parts: the visions of order that accounted for the rise of these traditions from the Code of Hammurabi through to the European courts that arose in the wake of the fall of Rome; the development of these traditions in the Medieval period tracing the expansion upon religious law, imperial law in China and the courts and customs of Europe; and finally, law in the modern law and the development of the rule of law in western democracies and its import into colonial situations, the growth of Islamic Law, and the expansion of international law.
She traces a common thread through history: the use and development of law to order society–punishing murder, compensating injuries and damages, regulating marriage, family, and inheritance, protecting property and regulating commerce. She explores the various forms of laws from case laws to legal codes and common law, administrative structures to promulgate and implement legal codes from trade associations to royal courts, and the judicial structures to adjudicate disputes, determining guilt and innocence, and passing sentences. One of the most fascinating chapters traced the use of ordeal when the veracity of witnesses could not be readily discerned to the subsequent development of rules of evidence and trials by a jury of one’s peers. What is also striking is the fascinating array of ways in which all this was implemented from mediators to local to royal rulers and emperors, to our modern courts.
For me, the book alternated between fascinating discussions and hard slogs through an array of practices and their variations in various European royal courts, along with movement, often within chapters from European to Islamic to Chinese systems. The array of detail made it difficult at times to see the forest for all the individually interesting trees. I found it hard to discern a larger argument or structure with the mass of descriptive detail, apart from the overview and concluding discussions of the universal development of legal systems to organize social life.
Perhaps it is the task this author set herself, one for which she evidences obvious enthusiasm, to render a global history of law in under 460 pages of text. The tension between comprehensiveness and elegant structure must have been a challenge. The work has this in its favor, it is free of legal jargon and highly readable over all. And it raises the profound question of why so many and various cultures found it necessary to use laws to order their lives.
August 21, 2023
The title is 100% true to the content: it's covering about 4k years of history of law, necessarily briefly yet with so much minutiae that it also feels like 4k years and you are on some quest to figure out how this all fits together and how you can order this world of law, because the author is being very sparse with synthesis and liberal with repetition.
The first two thirds of the book broadly covers middle east, india, china, and europe, twice, for some reason. There was clearly some tension between sticking to chronological order and grouping things by theme, and I think going with themes more strongly would have been a better choice – this is too brief/broad to be of much interest to anyone interested in the historical side of things, and too stretched out to be interesting to the layman who suddenly got interested in "the hell is law, what does it do and where does it come from" question (me, I am the layman).
The last third is a lot more interesting, not so much because it covers more recent territory that would be familiar to readers from the news and whatnot, but because it shifts from 5% synthesis and 95% historical trivia to like maybe 15% synthesis (Sharia is Not Evil Incarnate And Those Guys In The Middle East Are Just Trying To Sort Their Shit Out, An Essay for The Western Reader). The last third of the book also only really depends on the information given in the chapter on Roman law, which makes the other ancient history chapter feel all the more redundant (but you can't throw them out because the title promised 4k years).
I think upping the synthesis to >30% and giving it another editorial pass to slightly boil down the trivia early on would have made this a lot more engaging and a lot more conductive to the message appended in the Conclusion chapter exactly how I used to write conclusions in my undergrad papers –repetitively and too last minute.
The first two thirds of the book broadly covers middle east, india, china, and europe, twice, for some reason. There was clearly some tension between sticking to chronological order and grouping things by theme, and I think going with themes more strongly would have been a better choice – this is too brief/broad to be of much interest to anyone interested in the historical side of things, and too stretched out to be interesting to the layman who suddenly got interested in "the hell is law, what does it do and where does it come from" question (me, I am the layman).
The last third is a lot more interesting, not so much because it covers more recent territory that would be familiar to readers from the news and whatnot, but because it shifts from 5% synthesis and 95% historical trivia to like maybe 15% synthesis (Sharia is Not Evil Incarnate And Those Guys In The Middle East Are Just Trying To Sort Their Shit Out, An Essay for The Western Reader). The last third of the book also only really depends on the information given in the chapter on Roman law, which makes the other ancient history chapter feel all the more redundant (but you can't throw them out because the title promised 4k years).
I think upping the synthesis to >30% and giving it another editorial pass to slightly boil down the trivia early on would have made this a lot more engaging and a lot more conductive to the message appended in the Conclusion chapter exactly how I used to write conclusions in my undergrad papers –repetitively and too last minute.
March 1, 2022
Resumen:
-El libro se enfoca en describir la historia de los diferentes sistemas legales que han existido y comparandolos. Desde Mesopotamia, China e India hasta las leyes y organismos internacionales que rigen en la actualidad.
-Se divide en tres partes o periodos de tiempo
*El origen de los primeros intentos codificar sistemas de leyes y las diferencias entre ellos
*Una comparativa entre códigos un poco más sistematizados después de la caída de roma
*Finalmente el producto de la expansión europea, la integración de otros sistemas regionales a este, la descentralización del poder y los sistemas actuales
Qué me gustó:
-Enfoque más allá de solo Europa (me encanta entender otras posibilidades de realidades contra la que me educó y más conozco)
-La cantidad y diversidad de ejemplos (desde el Tibet hasta islandia)
-La relación de las leyes con otros sistemas (religión, política, economía y finanzas)
Qué no me gustó:
-Demasiado descriptivo, podría beneficiarse de un análisis comparativo o de las conclusiones del “big picture”, los famosos “so what’s”
-Algo repetitivo y en ciertos casos demasiado específico como para un texto que resume toda la historia de un campo de conocimiento
-Falta una descripción sistemática de los diferentes componentes de la ley
Recomendación:
-Honestamente…apenas pasa como para recomendarlo
-Dentro de sus bondades el libro deja mucho que desear, a veces puede ser aburrido y se siente algo textbookish
-Lo recomiendo a aquellos que tienen un nivel intermedio de historia mundial, sino la cantidad de detalle que te llega puede ser abrumador. Como tomar agua de una manguera de bomberos.
-Si lo recomendaría sería debido a que aparte de historia legal aprendes bastante de religión, economía e historia en general, “that’s always a win”.
September 23, 2021
This book describes the history of Law, from the early Mesopotamia king Ur-Namma through the ancient law makers of India and China to the modern-day international NGOs creating. It discusses the origins of Islamic, Jewish and European laws and shows how law makers use well-worn methods to create their laws designed mostly to retain the power of current leaders and keep the majority of populations in place from civil and religious unrest.
The book really provided me with some great new information and enlightened me on the cause of some of todays’ world problems as the various strands of law compete to be international law.
My only two dislikes in this book is that it appears to repeat many subjects and jumps backward and forwards in time as the author covers specific subjects. I would prefer it to start at the origins of laws and end with modern law and the rise of international NGOs such as the IMF.
Overall an interesting read from a clearly knowledgeable author who increased my knowledge of law and its origins. Recommended for anyone interested in why we still look to ancient Rome for de regula iuris.
The book really provided me with some great new information and enlightened me on the cause of some of todays’ world problems as the various strands of law compete to be international law.
My only two dislikes in this book is that it appears to repeat many subjects and jumps backward and forwards in time as the author covers specific subjects. I would prefer it to start at the origins of laws and end with modern law and the rise of international NGOs such as the IMF.
Overall an interesting read from a clearly knowledgeable author who increased my knowledge of law and its origins. Recommended for anyone interested in why we still look to ancient Rome for de regula iuris.
July 3, 2024
It is packed with information. The author put a lot of effort and research into it, making it a well-written book. However, because so much is included, some details are skimmed over. Despite this, it’s a great way to get a broad overview of the subject.
I read it throughout the year, often putting it down and coming back to it later. There’s so much information that it’s easy to forget and have to reread sections. It took me a long time to finish because of this, but you can sense the years of work that went into it. Each section felt like reading a research paper or article. Worth a read if you’re looking for a solid introduction to the topic.
I read it throughout the year, often putting it down and coming back to it later. There’s so much information that it’s easy to forget and have to reread sections. It took me a long time to finish because of this, but you can sense the years of work that went into it. Each section felt like reading a research paper or article. Worth a read if you’re looking for a solid introduction to the topic.
February 5, 2022
I may have given this more stars, if I hadn't've had higher expectations going into it. Like Francis Fukayama in The Origins of Political Order, she contrasts the three great traditions of the West (from Mesopotomia), India and China. She examines how law relates to order, justice and duty and what this means for the relationship between rulers and ruled, and rulers and priests. There are a fair number of very interesting insights but there are also pages of fairly long descriptions that don't seem to forward an overall argument.
July 25, 2022
It was an intersting read. It would have been nice if it had included more specific laws for comparing and contrasting legal systems (in addition to the outcomes of some of the cases mentioned), but I can see why they weren't there when the book was already at 456 pages. Otherwise, this work was informative on the goals of the three legal systems in the world. I would recommend it for someone hoping to find literature that encompasses both eastern Europe and other sections of the world.
July 29, 2023
A commendable primer on the history of law’s form (oral, written, casuistic, prescriptive …) as well as its purpose. Author does not really enter into the philosophical question as to: what is law? And that is perhaps for the best.
I thoroughly enjoyed the contextualisation of law in terms of culture, time and geographical location.
I thoroughly enjoyed the contextualisation of law in terms of culture, time and geographical location.
June 17, 2023
Rules of Law is an ambitious project zipping through the fragmented history of law globally. It oscillates between covering too much ground in too little time and then, paradoxically, too little in too much. The author's exhaustive approach creates a desultory journey through minutiae or loosely related facts with little purpose other than to present the material the author collected.
Despite the division into twelve chapters covering different aspects of history, most of the book feels like a whirlwind tour, darting from one tiny aspect of a societal structure to another, spanning time and space with little to no transition. This abrupt shifting of focus can leave the reader disoriented and struggling to follow the narrative thread. While ostensibly dedicated to exploring the specific legal codes of different cultures, the chapters often deviate into discussions on a wide array of topics ranging from formal rules to guidelines, from religious edicts and proclamations to societal norms and community guidelines.
'Rule of Laws' is teeming with anecdotes and details, which, while intriguing in their own right, often feel disjointed and tangential to the broader themes. The narrative frequently jumps from one era to another within the span of a few paragraphs. And still, across chapters, the book appears repetitive, with many themes or even societies/eras revisited multiple times. There is a wealth of information in every part, but with few, that would make a reader pause.
In conclusion, the ambitious book falls short of delivering a cohesive and enlightening narrative.
Despite the division into twelve chapters covering different aspects of history, most of the book feels like a whirlwind tour, darting from one tiny aspect of a societal structure to another, spanning time and space with little to no transition. This abrupt shifting of focus can leave the reader disoriented and struggling to follow the narrative thread. While ostensibly dedicated to exploring the specific legal codes of different cultures, the chapters often deviate into discussions on a wide array of topics ranging from formal rules to guidelines, from religious edicts and proclamations to societal norms and community guidelines.
'Rule of Laws' is teeming with anecdotes and details, which, while intriguing in their own right, often feel disjointed and tangential to the broader themes. The narrative frequently jumps from one era to another within the span of a few paragraphs. And still, across chapters, the book appears repetitive, with many themes or even societies/eras revisited multiple times. There is a wealth of information in every part, but with few, that would make a reader pause.
In conclusion, the ambitious book falls short of delivering a cohesive and enlightening narrative.
June 16, 2024
Surprisingly readable survey of the history of law. This book is more a work of anthropology than legal studies, so one can ready it without having a degree in law. Furthermore the writer clearly tried her best to be fair to other civilizations (i.e. Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese), despite her natural inclination to praise the western law development. For example, European judicial use of torture was an regretfully stage of development, while medieval Chinese use of judicial torture was obviously backward. Perhaps lack of existing research, the African continent was curiously missing in this book, along with very brief mention of North/South Americans outside of colonialism.
This book is divided according to the ancient, medieval and recent historical periods. Not much progress was made between ancient and medieval times, as portraited by the author, such that I found recurrent messages in those parts. An opportunity missed by the author would have been some analysis of why different civilizations developed similar legal techniques almost independently. It was hinted in the chapter on legal practices on the fringe of civilization, on how tribal societies at different continents almost develop similar practices. Perhaps a comparative analysis would really contrast how civilizations adopted similar but at times different approaches to legal challenges that are rooted in their unique societal environments. But this may be a philosophy the author may not agree to, and if I had to guess, would be in the belief of universal applicability of laws, if not just natural laws.
I find this to be a good book on the history of law, which the author did a great job on.
This book is divided according to the ancient, medieval and recent historical periods. Not much progress was made between ancient and medieval times, as portraited by the author, such that I found recurrent messages in those parts. An opportunity missed by the author would have been some analysis of why different civilizations developed similar legal techniques almost independently. It was hinted in the chapter on legal practices on the fringe of civilization, on how tribal societies at different continents almost develop similar practices. Perhaps a comparative analysis would really contrast how civilizations adopted similar but at times different approaches to legal challenges that are rooted in their unique societal environments. But this may be a philosophy the author may not agree to, and if I had to guess, would be in the belief of universal applicability of laws, if not just natural laws.
I find this to be a good book on the history of law, which the author did a great job on.
April 29, 2023
I discovered this book on TikTok of all places and wanted to give it a thorough read. I hadn't gotten more than a chapter in before I severely disagreed with the author's thesis, but I continued reading this over the past few months only to reconfirm my initial reaction. I did want to hear about the research she did on each of the civilizations that were covered.
She thoroughly discusses the history of 'western' law from a western perspective with the premise that "It is only in the past few centuries that the laws established in Western Europe have come to dominate practically the whole world." I couldn't disagree more and she provides examples that discredit this statement. This statement could just as easily have been from her own research that elements of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, Islamic, Jewish law, etc., continue to influence modern law practices. There's an entire chapter on how Islamic forms of law still dominate the Middle East. Elements of individual cultures do exist in law across the world.
Furthermore, she discredits civilizations with oral traditions and doesn't discuss them at all. Much of the world did have customary practices and the rulings of local leaders and elders. These no doubt gave way for written forms of law in other cultures. Be that as it may no book can thoroughly cover the entire human history of law. This one attempts it, but covers details from a western vantage. This same book could have been written without the strong opinions, but simply with research of each of the civilizations that were covered.
She thoroughly discusses the history of 'western' law from a western perspective with the premise that "It is only in the past few centuries that the laws established in Western Europe have come to dominate practically the whole world." I couldn't disagree more and she provides examples that discredit this statement. This statement could just as easily have been from her own research that elements of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, Islamic, Jewish law, etc., continue to influence modern law practices. There's an entire chapter on how Islamic forms of law still dominate the Middle East. Elements of individual cultures do exist in law across the world.
Furthermore, she discredits civilizations with oral traditions and doesn't discuss them at all. Much of the world did have customary practices and the rulings of local leaders and elders. These no doubt gave way for written forms of law in other cultures. Be that as it may no book can thoroughly cover the entire human history of law. This one attempts it, but covers details from a western vantage. This same book could have been written without the strong opinions, but simply with research of each of the civilizations that were covered.
April 6, 2023
This book is an excellent resource for learning about the origins of laws in the world's most important legal systems. I enjoyed refreshing my knowledge of English common law and Islamic law, as well as learning new information about the laws of ancient India and China. However, I was disappointed with the author's treatment of the origins of law in Kyivan Rus. First, Pirie uses the Russian spelling 'Kiev' instead of the correct Ukrainian spelling 'Kyiv.' The United Nations approved the use of 'Kyiv' in 2012, and it has become the common spelling in most English-speaking countries, including the UK. It's unfortunate that a scholar of Pirie's stature would ignore this important detail and choose to insult Ukrainian readers with an outdated spelling of Ukraine's capital city. Secondly, when discussing the Rurikids, Pirie writes that they 'moved into the lands of what are now Russia' (pp. 190-191, Profile Books edition, 2022). While some parts of Kyivan Rus are now located in Russia, the territory of Rus is also shared by Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and the Baltic States. This oversight might be an innocent mistake, but it still feels insulting to Ukrainian readers. I give this book three stars for these errors and I cannot be sure the author did not make similar mistakes when writing about other countries.
May 31, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, though it moves at a dizzying speed through 4,000 years of legal development and history. A lot is lost at this speed, some of which I was able to notice through my own fascination of Ancient Rome, medieval Byzantium and European colonialism. What I noticed from areas I was more familiar with made me wonder what I was missing in other areas I knew very little.
Honestly, I’d love this project to be taken over by a group of researchers across a multi-part project to trace legal development and thought in much greater detail. The project the author undertakes is worthwhile.
That said, the author provides a great primer and is accessible for anyone at any level to develop an understanding of the subject, and since it spans many regions, cultures, and times, I think even an expert of one legal history will find the comparisons with the others fascinating.
Honestly, I’d love this project to be taken over by a group of researchers across a multi-part project to trace legal development and thought in much greater detail. The project the author undertakes is worthwhile.
That said, the author provides a great primer and is accessible for anyone at any level to develop an understanding of the subject, and since it spans many regions, cultures, and times, I think even an expert of one legal history will find the comparisons with the others fascinating.
July 15, 2022
A very detailed historical account of mankind’s effort to standardize and improve the rule of laws, as social standards.
The history of law fills in the gaps of a lot of other historical account I have read.
This book does, however, take a decidedly obvious turn from objective history to a commentary on the evils of colonialism. The Biases of the author become very obvious by the conclusion.
Not a waste of time, but must be read, reflected open, and analyzed using critical thinking.
Definitely recommended for strong minded critical thinkers, not a good pick for the easily influenced or those seeking quotes or “proofs” to justify their predetermined agendas.
The history of law fills in the gaps of a lot of other historical account I have read.
This book does, however, take a decidedly obvious turn from objective history to a commentary on the evils of colonialism. The Biases of the author become very obvious by the conclusion.
Not a waste of time, but must be read, reflected open, and analyzed using critical thinking.
Definitely recommended for strong minded critical thinkers, not a good pick for the easily influenced or those seeking quotes or “proofs” to justify their predetermined agendas.
June 29, 2022
I enjoyed this book to a point. I was expecting something a little more accessible and flowing. The description of the three different worlds where laws evolved was interesting. How western systems of law became the dominant form also was informative. I would have liked more concrete examples of the laws as manifestations of the foundations on which the legal systems were built, with some compare and contrast with the other systems.
Still it was a worthwhile read and provided interesting insight into the cultures and personalities that provided the foundation for the Rule of Laws.
Still it was a worthwhile read and provided interesting insight into the cultures and personalities that provided the foundation for the Rule of Laws.
March 28, 2024
This is an informative guide to 4000 years of the Rule of Laws. The research that Fernanda Pirie performed must have been prodigious. The editing equally so. Pirie is a very good writer. The information is presented in a concise manner and considering the volumn of the subject matter, the totality of the book feels complete, that nothing crucial was omitted for the reason of space. There are thousands of off ramps that can be taken if the reader wishes to delve deeply into any specific subject that Pirie presents as a part of the whole of this history. Good read.
March 6, 2023
Pirie embarked on a massive undertaking -- to trace and compare the development of legal systems around the world and describe their multiple purposes. In her desire to be comprehensive, however, she sacrificed clarity of purpose. If you want a history of legal systems, this isn't a bad introduction and overview. However, if you're looking to understand the concept of the rule of law, look elsewhere.
January 10, 2024
Detailed and broad, covering the history of laws and the rule of law. I expected it to be interesting and it was, the way it changed my view of law was welcome and unexpected. I had never considered, e.g., that writing down laws would be empowering for less powerful people in society, akin to the publishing of the bible in local vernacular.
February 7, 2022
It was hard to engage with the topic. The last third I found more enjoyable. It's interesting to think that what we call modern rule of law is only about 300 years old... That's a thought nugget for sure.
March 22, 2024
Researching and writing a history of law covering 4,000 years is a massive undertaking that could result in an entire shelf of books. The fact that the author managed this in one book is truly a literary accomplishment. This is a very readable book that should not be just, but studied.
April 16, 2024
A great attempt to comprehend the history of law. Worth reading.
July 14, 2024
Decent coverage but too many conflicting counter examples to the thesis that were used to support the thesis. I recommend consulting a different source, but I still learned a lot from the book.
Read
March 23, 2022Comprehensive, particularly for the Western audience in that it does not explain legal systems which are well known to a modern Western reader. Pirie also effectively draws links between different systems to give a sense of the ways in which the law evolved, or did not.
This is a text much better suited to study than reading however, since each chapter is structured like an essay and hence it sometimes feels like points are repeated more often than they need to be.
This is a text much better suited to study than reading however, since each chapter is structured like an essay and hence it sometimes feels like points are repeated more often than they need to be.
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