The Rule of Laws

“In the course of her survey, Ms. Pirie, a professor of legal anthropology at Oxford, takes us on many an intriguing legal byway… [An] exceptionally rich narrative…”

"In this panoramic history, Pirie tells the story of the rise and fall of systems of law across the civilizations, empires, and societies of the ancient and modern world."

"An ambitious account of the rise and fall of the world's great legal systems...richly informative and consistently thought-provoking...Fernanda Pirie's work will command, and deserve, a wide readership."

“[Pirie’s] collection of stories offers a comprehensive insight into how civilizations were founded and ruled… Furthermore, it bolsters our appreciation for the laws at our civilization’s foundational structure.”

“A valuable study for students of the law and its evolution over the millennia."

“An intriguing synthesis of the history of global legal codes and their origins.”

"The Rule of Laws is a fascinating, comprehensive study that forces us to think again about what law is, and why it matters. Far from being a dry set of rules, Fernanda Pirie argues, law is nothing less than a way of creating order and civilization. For those who want to understand why human society has emerged as it has, this is essential reading.”

"The Rule of Laws offers a pathbreaking and stimulating account of how societies across different regions and epochs drew upon secular, sacred, and scholarly traditions to create laws that organized the lives of their citizens. Pirie leads readers across five millennia to show the diverse and sophisticated legal systems developed in states across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas before explaining how the European-derived legal structures of our time achieved a rather unlikely and historically anomalous global dominance. This expansive narrative challenges what we think we know about legal history and the assumptions we make about law’s future.”