Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900
Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900 By Lauren Benton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2001 | 300 Pages | ISBN: 052100926X | PDF | 2 MB
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2001 | 300 Pages | ISBN: 052100926X | PDF | 2 MB
This book advances a new perspective in world history, arguing that institutions and culture--and not just the global economy--serve as important elements of international order. Focusing on colonial legal politics and the interrelation of local cultural contests and institutional change, it uses case studies to trace a shift in plural legal orders--from the multicentric law of early empires to the state-centered law of the colonial and postcolonial world. Benton shows how Indigenous subjects across time were active in making, changing, and interpreting the law--and, by extension, in shaping the international order.