The Laws' Many Bodies.

Across the West, a legal system centred on the state, the creation of general national laws, the elimination of competing jurisdictions, and the marginalization of non-legal norms was a very long historical process. This volume examines the »poly-juralism« of Europe's past - its legal hybridity and jurisdictional complexity - through case studies from a number of perspectives and traditions: Anglo-American, continental, Nordic, and mixed. The authors remind us that law precedes and surrounds the state, which is but one source of norms. They contest the anachronistic projection of modern legal nationalism, positivism, and centralism into the past. And these studies challenge both ideas of deep correspondence between laws, culture, and society and the division of Western traditions into reasonably discrete, closed legal families. Indeed, the lessons of this plural past can shed considerable light on the present, both in the West and across the globe.

Seán Patrick Donlan lectures at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He has published in the areas of comparative law, legal history and legal philosophy. He is especially interested in mixed legal systems, legal pluralism and micro-jurisdictions. Donlan edits »Comparative Legal History« and is active in a number of associations, including the »European Society for Comparative Legal History«. He is past President of »Juris Diversitas«, co-edits their book series (Ashgate) and is a member of the »International Academy of Comparative Law«. Dirk Heirbaut is professor of legal history and Roman law at Ghent University. He publishes on comparative legal history, the history of private law codifications and medieval customary and feudal law. He currently leads a research team working mainly on modern Belgian legal history. He is a member of the »Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts« and of the »Academia Europea«, a member of the board of editors of the »Legal History Review« and »Pro Memorie« and co-editor of the series »Iuris Scripta Historica« and »Studies in the History of Private Law«. In 2014 he was awarded the Eike von Repgow prize of the City and the University of Magdeburg.