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THE RULE OF LAWS: A 4,000-YEAR QUEST TO ORDER THE WORLD, Fernanda Pirie. New York: Basic Books, 2021. 570pp. Cloth $35.00. ISBN: 9781541617940. Ebook $19.99. ISBN 9781541617957.
Reviewed by Brian Z. Tamanaha. John S. Lehmann University Professor, Washington University in St. Louis. Email: btamanaha@wustl.edu.
The Rule of Laws is an impressive achievement. Oxford anthropology Professor Fernanda Pirie traces the historical trajectory of a number of great legal traditions of the world (mainly Mesopotamian law, Hindu law, Chinese law, Roman law, Jewish law, Islamic law, Civil law, Common law, and international law), while, along the way, providing detailed close-ups of many particular manifestations of law, including Irish law, Icelandic law, colonial law, Tibetan law, and more. Written in lively prose, Pirie treats readers to an unmatched historical tour of law around the globe over the past four millennia, drawing on a broad range of studies by historians, anthropologists, legal scholars, religious scholars, and other fields. No other work of world history covers law with such scope and depth. These qualities make The Rule of Law a commendable work of popular history that many readers will find informative and well-worth reading.
What is a terrific book for a popular audience, however, can be problematic for an academic audience. Popular audiences seek informative, entertaining, and readable treatments of a given subject. Academics demand that concepts be carefully defined and consistently applied, that empirical claims be backed by evidence, and that complex matters be treated with nuance. These respective objectives can be reconciled, but sometimes they clash. In several critical respects, it appears (to me) that academic concerns gave way to the demands of popular consumption.
The book is presented as a history of “law” and of “the rule of law.” In the Introduction, Pirie declares, “The rule of law [emphasis added] has a history, and we need to understand that history if we are to appreciate what law is [emphasis added], what it does, and how it can rule our world for better, as well as for worse” (p. 14). Her exploration purports to show that “law” and “the rule of law” emerged together in the distant past, gradually ascending and spreading over 4,000 years of human history. Although they coincide, law and the rule of law are not the same (Pirie emphasizes that China has had law for over two millennia, but not the rule of law). Thus, it is essential to understand each notion separately as well as how they relate to one another.
Scholars have long debated the meaning of “law” and have long debated the meaning of “the rule of law.” Pirie eschews these debates, giving readers no hint that each notion is the source of endless scholarly disagreement. Avoidance of theoretical complexity is a defensible strategy for a popular book,