legal history

Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory

Website of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory a research institute based in Frankfurt. It is one of the nine Max Planck institutes, engaged in advanced legal research, which forms part of the Max Planck Law network. Departments within the Institute focus on the following areas of legal research: European and Comparative Legal History, Historical Regimes of Normativity and Multidisciplinary Theory of Law. The site gives information on the research projects being undertaken along with seminars and events.

History of Law Blog

Blog on the history of law in England written by Tessa Shepperson who is a solicitor specialising in residential landlord and tenant law. The blog looks at the development of law, focusing on land law, starting from the Norman conquest. A timeline has key dates and posts covering significant events. There are also sections focusing on the ruling dynasties including articles on significant legal developments during these periods eg. the role of sheriffs, the Constitutions of Clarendon and the start of the common law system. A glossary gives definitions of unfamiliar terms.

Edinburgh Legal History Blog

The Edinburgh Legal History blog is written by academics at the University of Edinburgh Law School. Posts focus on Scottish and European legal history and the civil law tradition. These can be browsed by date or subject or searched by keyword. Subject headings include Roman law, Greek law, ancient law and Magna Carta. There are also posts on new books, events and resources.

University of Edinburgh Centre for Legal History

Website of the Centre for Legal History a research department at the University of Edinburgh. The Centre’s research interests focus on Roman law, learned laws in the Middle Ages, history of law in Europe, Scots law history and legal history of Louisiana. The site gives information on events including conferences, lectures and seminars organised by the Centre and links to relevant resources – other research centres, societies, websites and journals. A selection of videos of lectures is also made available on the site.

The Statutes Project

Free online access to historical acts of the English / British / UK parliaments from the thirteenth century onwards, provided by historian John Levin. As well as a searchable collection of digitised statutes, the site includes bibliographies of digitised legislation from the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man, former British colonies, France and Russia. It also has a Slavery Law section, with links to British legislation and cases relating to slavery and the slave trade.

New Zealand's Lost Cases

New Zealand's Lost Cases is a project located at the Victoria University of Wellington, which involves the identification and collation of early New Zealand cases from newspapers, manuscript collections, archives and judges notebooks.  The site currently holds details of all Supreme Court and Court of Appeal cases for the period 1842-1869, along with information on the sources used. The Cases database can be searched by keyword or using an advanced search option; most entries include transcripts of the original source. 

Irish legal history: an overview and guide to the sources

A bibliographic essay compiled by Janet Sinder, originally published in Law Library Journal in 2001. The essay is made available via BrooklynWorks, the scholarly repository of Brooklyn Law School. The essay lists sources for researching Irish legal history from the earliest days of the Brehon legal system to the date of publication. Brief explanations of the Irish legal system are provided. The essay is available as a free to download PDF.

Peter Forskaal: Thoughts on Civil Liberty

Website dedicated to and celebrating Peter Forsskål's influential treatise Tankar om borgerliga friheten (Thoughts on Civil Liberty) published in Sweden in 1792. Forsskal's work contributed to access to information and the abolition of prior censorship which was established in 1766 by law in Sweden. The site gives information about the history of the work, access to the original pamphlet text and in English translation and in several other languages. Details of events related to freedom of information, civil liberties and the legacy of Peter Forskaal are provided.

Haitian Law Digital Collection

The Haitian Law Digital Collection provides access to digitised versions of Haitian legal documents. The collection forms part of the Digital Library of the Caribbean a “cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean” administered by Florida International University in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands and the University of Florida. The site currently offers documents from the mid nineteenth century through to 2007 including legislation, government publications and periodicals.

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