HIST 6241

Transformations of Law in the Age of Empire and Enlightenment

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

Recent scholarship has illuminated several significant changes between the 16th through early 19th centuries in the working of legal systems and in concepts of what law is and why it matters. The course readings will focus on four interrelated questions or themes: the emergence of a concept of human rights; changing standards of evidence; changes to the legal regulation of marriage, inheritance and sexuality; and the legal complexities associated with the acquisition of overseas empires (problems of sovereignty, native encounters with metropolitan legal systems, legal "hybridity" or pluralism, the emergence of international law). Note that this is a historiographical reading course, not a research course. Students wishing to develop a research paper on issues covered in this course are encouraged to sign up for History 6000 in the Spring.

When Offered Fall.

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