Common Law, Civil Law, and Colonial Law

William Eves is a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews who has published on law and legal procedure in England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries John Hudson is Professor of Legal History at the University of St Andrews and an L. Bates Lea Global Law Professor at Michigan Law. His books include The Formation of the English Common Law (expanded edn., 2017) and The Oxford History of the Laws of England, II: 871-1216 (2012). He is a Fellow of the British Academy. Ingrid Ivarsen is a Junior Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. She has published on language and law in Anglo-Saxon England. Sarah B. White is a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews. She has published on ecclesiastical and legal history, specifically argument and procedure, in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

• Introduction: Situating, researching and writing comparative legal History John Hudson and William Eves; 1 'In aliquibus locis est consuetudo': French lawyers and the Lombard customs of Fiefs in the mid-thirteenth century Attilio Stella; 2. What does Regiam maiestatem actually say (and what does it mean)? Alice Taylor; 3. James VI and I, rex et iudex: One king as judge in two kingdoms Ian Williams; 4. George Harris and the comparative legal background of the first English translation of Justinian's Institutes Łukasz Jan Korporowicz; 5. The nature of custom: Legal science and comparative legal History in Blackstone's commentaries Andrew J. Cecchinato; 6. Through a glass darkly: English common law seen through the lens of the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen (Eighteenth century) Carsten Fischer; 7. Looking afresh at the French roots of continuous easements in English law Ciara Kennefick; 8. Case law in Germany: The significance of Seuffert's Archiv Clara Günzl; 9. Leone Levi (1821–1888) and the History of comparative commercial law Annamaria Monti; 10. Radical title of the crown and aboriginal Title: North America 1763, New South Wales 1788 and New Zealand 1840 David V. Williams; 11. The High Court of Australia at mid-century: Concealed frustrations, private advocacy and the break with English Law Tanya Josev; 12. English societal laws as the origins of the comprehensive slave laws of the British West Indies Justine Collins.

'This fine and diverse collection of essays in comparative legal history successfully coheres around a project of illuminating the causes and nature of legal change. It includes essays which investigate different kinds of legal transplants (texts, ideas, people) and their complexities; break down assumptions about uniformity among and sometimes differences between different legal systems; and explore the work of earlier legal comparativists. The variety of comparative methods and range of subject matter (from mid-thirteenth century France to twentieth century Australia) stimulates, provokes and refines our understanding of what it is to study legal history.' Janet McLean, Professor of Law, The University of Auckland, New Zealand