Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900 (Studies in Comparative World History) [Paperback]

Lauren Benton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052100926X | ISBN-13: 978-0521009263 | Publication Date: December 3, 2001 | Edition: Text is Free of Markings

This book advances a new perspective in world history, arguing that institutions and culture--and not just the global economy--serve as important elements of international order. Focusing on colonial legal politics and the interrelation of local cultural contests and institutional change, it uses case studies to trace a shift in plural legal orders--from the multicentric law of early empires to the state-centered law of the colonial and postcolonial world. Benton shows how Indigenous subjects across time were active in making, changing, and interpreting the law--and, by extension, in shaping the international order.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lauren Benton's important new book deserves a careful reading from both legal historians and historians of imperialism. ...Benton is to be congratulated for these insights, and for bringing such far-flung, complex subjects together into a compelling whole. Naturally, in so doing, she reaches conclusions with which not everyone will be comfortable, but that is what good history does." H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online

"Lauren Benton has written an original and fascinating book...a major contribution to the fields of history and law." Canadian Journal of Law and Society

"This valuable compilation of contexts, examples, and analyses constitutes a fascinating and accessible read for scholars across disciplines. ...Benton's research is impeccable in its careful conceptualization and the breadth and depth of its analysis." American Journal of Sociology

"This is a bold, sweeping, and highly innovative book...The sheer scale of this book, and its conceptual achievements, will make it a landmark in world history." American Historical Review

"The greatest strength of this book is its development of a sophisticated argument that can act as a touchstone for future research on global cultural history...Benton provides a powerful counterpoint to the overdetermined narrative of European expansion...this book is a landmark in the creation of a more complex modern global cultural history built on more than just expansion and resistance, but on a shifting negotiation of power, culture, difference, homogenization, identity, and rights." Journal of World History

Book Description

This book advances a new perspective in world history, arguing that institutions and culture--and not just the global economy--serve as important elements of international order. Focusing on colonial legal politics and the interrelation of local cultural contests and institutional change, it uses case studies to trace a shift in plural legal orders--from the multicentric law of early empires to the state-centered law of the colonial and postcolonial world. Benton shows how Indigenous subjects across time were active in making, changing, and interpreting the law--and, by extension, in shaping the international order.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Text is Free of Markings edition (December 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052100926X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521009263
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars World History and Legal Regimes, March 23, 2004

By 

Tron Honto - See all my reviews

This review is from: Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900 (Studies in Comparative World History) (Paperback)

World histories are extremely difficult to do because it requires the historian to make broad, sweeping assertions about many different cultures concerning which the historian can never be an expert in each. As a specialist in Islam, I for one was sometimes left deeply dissatisfied by some of the sections focusing on Islam. This, in turn, made me question the nature of the analyses on areas concerning which I have no indepth knowledge such as in Spanish and Portugese empires.

This being said, however, the general outline presented in the book as a tendency of colonial cultures with regard to legal institutions (from multi-centric and informal to strictly state-centered and enforced with centralized compulsion) is widely corroborated and extremely helpful in grasping the evolution and centrality of legal institutions in the formation of these colonialial and, subsequently, post-colonial cutlures. The argument, therefore, makes great strides in supplementing merely economic historical accounts, such as dependency theory a la Wallerstein, with studies of colonial institutions as such and not as a mere apparatus of economic ideologies.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Contribution to Global History, May 2, 2009

By 

Coyote Lightning (The West) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900 (Studies in Comparative World History) (Hardcover)

As a creative work of synthetic history, the author charts the co-evolution of global legal institutions and their gradual convergence towards greater global uniformity, and later firmly situated in the modern nation-state. The author argues that, over the course of the European colonial era, a global legal framework emerged out of the conflicts between different cultures, as empires expanded and people became more mobile. Using a comparative approach to track this process globally, she explains that it was through such cross-cultural conflicts that similar "routines" and structural patterns emerged in legal regimes around the world.

Benton wants to resurrect culture as an element of global structures, emphasizing the importance of cultural identities. Traditionally, such discussions of "world systems" have tended to downplay, or even ignore entirely, human agency in history. She claims, rightfully, that by adding `cultural identity' into the debates about global structures, human agency then becomes central to the discussion. This is one of the book's main strengths and provides a solid model for future studies. Benton states that within the competing legal systems, historical actors were struggling for the ability to draw jurisdictions that best represented themselves and their interests, and resisted being defined (and therefore controlled) by foreign authorities. Benton illustrates that this point was well understood by the litigants in such legal disputes, creating space in her framework for human agency. As Benton demonstrates, these early European empires had legal boundaries that were not defined spatially. Instead, boundaries were drawn in the legal structures, through the creation of cultural distinctions, socially constructed.

Benton claims that her approach challenges Euro-centric views of world history, yet most of her focus is on world history...as it relates to European imperialism. Implicitly, European actions are still portrayed as the main historical generators of global connections. Positing that her general approach allows us to see global connections which antedate the modern inter-state system, her book perhaps would have been stronger if it had incorporated more examples of cross-cultural interactions that did not involve Europeans. (good luck with that, methodologically...in all sincerity) Although she clearly states that her objective is to challenge the supposition that all global "progress" emanated from Europe and the exceptionality of European institutions, Europe still remained central to her "de-centered" global history. To be fair, her work will serve as a piece of the foundation of future global studies, which will owe her a debt of gratitude for laying the ground-work for them.

The book is surprisingly comprehensible, given the breadth and complexity of the subject. Benton deftly weaves together an extremely broad, global structural evolution with individual legal case histories to illustrate human agency within these structures. It is not a dry read. She also perceptively identifies continuities shared between cultures. However, at times Benton's writing is imprecise and difficult to follow. When she journeys into the abstract gaps between cultures, her writing itself often reflects the same vague, intangible concepts she tries to capture. Perhaps this is unavoidable?

It is also foreseeable that regional specialists may encounter specific problematic points that may disrupt the neat conceptual continuity of the book. Additionally, one wonders whether the legal cases she has chosen to illustrate her points are indeed the most representative cases. If the cases chosen are found to be noticeably non-representative of "the norm," and diverge considerably from cases more typical, her overall arguments and conceptual framework would be weakened.

Overall, Benton's book is successful in achieving its ambitious aims. Her approach is useful because she examines the connections between: 1.) the local and global; 2.) the gaps between human agency and global structures; and 3.) the relations between culture and economy. No small task, for a text of less than 300 pages! The author aspired to create a basic approach for studying law as a global institution, as well as for global cultural history, generally. This she has accomplished. For scholars interested in histories dealing with cross-cultural interactions and global/transnational history, Benton's contribution will be valued well into the foreseeable future. Hats off for Dr. Benton.