The British Empire in a comparative legal perspective

Volume 25 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History out now

The legal history of the British Empire is still in its infancy. This book attempts to fill some of the gaps by focusing on legal transfer and legal geography. Its chapters take us to present-day Australia, Canada and the United States, as well as to the Caribbean, East Asia and East and South Africa.

The edited book argues that a comparative approach can overcome jurisdictional and ahistorical biases still often present in the legal history of empires. In an imperial legal superstructure, such as the British Empire, models of legislative and interpretative methods were self-consciously adopted and adapted to different jurisdictions. Moreover, the process of decolonisation disclosed similarities and divergences in the legal development of these territories. Useful insights can be gleaned from a comparison across different methodologies which are concerned with a similar normative framework between and within societies, and their relationship to the natural world.