Essays in Law and History for David Ibbetson

Over the last 40 years, David Ibbetson has paved the way in a remarkably broad range of fields. In ancient law, his scholarship has spanned both the detailed doctrine of the Roman law of obligations and the cross-pollination of legal influences around the ancient Mediterranean. His work on English legal history has ranged from the earliest days of the common law through to the turn of the 20th century, combining forensic archival research with a sensitivity to how lawyers thought about their subject. In European legal history, Ibbetson has shown the porousness of the civil law and the extent to which it has been shaped by other areas of intellectual life, from theology to rationalist philosophy. The contributions in this volume mirror both the breadth and the depth of Ibbetson's scholarship. The book combines chapters from the leading scholars of Ibbetson's generation in his own and cognate fields, as well as a dozen of Ibbetson's own doctoral students. All have offered chapters that build upon or respond to Ibbetson's ideas, whether in published form or that have arisen out of his provocative style of teaching. It concludes with Ibbetson's own valedictory lecture on the importance of legal history to modern approaches to legal practice and scholarship.