REMINDER: CORE Seminar in Legal Theory under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Laurent DE SUTTER: Fernanda Pirie on "The Rule of Laws"(Brussels: VUB, 1 DEC 2022 [HYBRID EVENT])

 

The Rule of Laws

Introduction

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. Where, then, did it all begin? And what has law been and done over the course of human history? In The Rule of Laws, Fernanda Pirie traces the development of the world's great legal systems - Chinese, Indian, Roman, and Islamic - and the innumerable smaller traditions they inspired. But she also hints at the fascinating, sophisticated approaches to justice that have been lost since the advent of modern, Western law – and at how these different laws helped, and still help, ordinary people in their struggles for a better world, outside of the realm of Western law.  

Biographical note

Fernanda Pirie is Professor of the Anthropology of Law at St. Cross College, Oxford University. A specialist in Tibetan societies, Fernanda uses both ethnographic and historical methods to study and compare legal practices and texts. She has argued for a new anthropology of law, which engages both with legal theory and legal history: The Anthropology of Law (OUP, 2013). Her most recent book is the international best-seller The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World (Profile Books, 2021).   

Practical information

Thursday 1 December 2022, 12 am  

Vrije Universiteit Brussel Room: 4C409 / (contact laurent at de sutter at vub dot be for the Teams-link)

Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus