Methods of Global Legal History

Methods of Global Legal History

Research Project

Each scholarly discipline requires continuous reflection on its methods. This is particularly true for legal history, for which the last decades’ discussions on global history and postcolonial methods have raised fundamental questions about its definition of law, its themes, methods and practices.  In recent years, we at the MPI have been thinking about what "global legal history" is and developing methods for a global legal history. We strive to apply and further develop these methods in various research projects.

In the production of legal-historical knowledge, we value collaboration with peoples whose epistemic and historical narratives have been underrepresented in the colonial research tradition of our field. With our support, indigenous communities in Bolivia (Memoria Oral Boliviana) and Peru (Multiversos Narrativos: Fuentes y Visiones Alternativas de la Historia del Derecho de Aguas y Tierras en los Andes del Perú) write their own legal history, and we engage in joint reflections with them on methods and concepts, historiographical practices, sources, and epistemologies.

Important publications in this research project (selection)

Books, Special issues

托马斯•杜斐 (Thomas Duve)
《全球法律史导论》, 李富鹏等译  (An Introduction To Global Legal History, translated by Li Fupeng et al.)
高仰光校,“全球法律史丛书”第一册,商务印书馆 (Chinese Series of Global Legal History 1, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2019)

Articles, Book Chapters

Duve, Thomas
“Nos entrevistaban, pero otros escribían”. ¿Historias plurinacionales para un estado plurinacional?
in: legalhistoryinsights.com
Duve, Thomas
„Wir werden interviewed, aber andere schreiben.“ Plurinationale Geschichten für einen plurinationalen Staat?
in: legalhistoryinsight.com
Duve, Thomas
Legal History as a History of the Translation of Knowledge of Normativity (September 19, 2022).
Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory Research Paper Series No. 2022-16
Duve, Thomas
Legal History as an Observation of Historical Regimes of Normativity (September 19, 2022).
Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory Research Paper Series No. 2022-17
Duve, T.: What is Global Legal History? Comparative Legal History (2020)
Duve, T.: Global Legal History: A Methodological Approach. In: Oxford Handbooks Online - Law (2017)

Picture: Source: Planisphere by Rumold Mercator, 1587 (Wikimedia Commons)

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