NOTE: This course is cross-listed with the History (HIST) department. Some classes may overlap with the Law School final exam period.
This graduate seminar takes as its central focus the role of law in history reading broadly across time and space from the ancient to the modern world. The course is intended to offer students an opportunity to think about the place of law in society by examining how individuals and societies throughout history have engaged with law, rules, and legal institutions. Second, to introduce students to major approaches to legal history and give students the opportunity to begin thinking about law and history related to their own scholarly interests. The seminar will examine a broad range of questions, including how historians understand the autonomy of law, how law forms and challenges regimes of power, how legal categories and concepts are shaped by and shape society, economy, and culture, how legal consciousness develops and spreads in society, how different legal regimes and normative systems coexist and compete, and how law and legal institutions shape identity and everyday life. No previous experience in legal history is expected or required.