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Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition
The roots of modern Western legal institutions and concepts go back nine centuries to the Papal Revolution, when the Western church established its political and legal unity and its independence from emperors, kings, and feudal lords. Out of this upheaval came the Western idea of integrated legal systems consciously developed over generations and centuries.
Harold J. Berman describes the main features of these systems of law, including the canon law of the church, the royal law of the major kingdoms, the urban law of the newly emerging cities, feudal law, manorial law, and mercantile law. In the coexistence and competition of these systems he finds an important source of the Western belief in the supremacy of law.
Written simply and dramatically, carrying a wealth of detail for the scholar but also a fascinating story for the layman, the book grapples with wideranging questions of our heritage and our future. One of its main themes is the interaction between the Western belief in legal evolution and the periodic outbreak of apocalyptic revolutionary upheavals.
Berman challenges conventional nationalist approaches to legal history, which have neglected the common foundations of all Western legal systems. He also questions conventional social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the origin of modem Western legal systems and has therefore misjudged the nature of the crisis of the legal tradition in the twentieth century.
Harold J. Berman describes the main features of these systems of law, including the canon law of the church, the royal law of the major kingdoms, the urban law of the newly emerging cities, feudal law, manorial law, and mercantile law. In the coexistence and competition of these systems he finds an important source of the Western belief in the supremacy of law.
Written simply and dramatically, carrying a wealth of detail for the scholar but also a fascinating story for the layman, the book grapples with wideranging questions of our heritage and our future. One of its main themes is the interaction between the Western belief in legal evolution and the periodic outbreak of apocalyptic revolutionary upheavals.
Berman challenges conventional nationalist approaches to legal history, which have neglected the common foundations of all Western legal systems. He also questions conventional social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the origin of modem Western legal systems and has therefore misjudged the nature of the crisis of the legal tradition in the twentieth century.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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July 23, 2014
What a slog and what a wealth of ideas! This is both the most over-argued and most insightful book I've ever read on medieval or legal history, and though it's sometimes hard to separate the gold from the ore, its impossible to view Western history in the same light after reading it.
The main argument of this book is that the historical West had a distinct legal culture from the rest of the globe, namely in that "law" was and is seen as a distinct occupation and sphere apart from governance or religion, and that this legal focus has given the West a singular view of political power as something that arises out of a separate sphere called law, rather than out of mere religion or power. Although the rest of the world has of course adopted this structure in many respects, creating independent lawyers and universalistic laws and legal codes parsed by experts, this has largely been the result of European imperialism. The West's law was always different.
The author traces the roots of European distinctiveness not to the Greeks or the Romans, but to the period between about 1050 and 1150, during what he calls the Papal Revolution. In this period, the church and the papacy struggled for independence from the different governments of Europe, and through the efforts of great reformers like Pope Gregory VII, largely succeeded. In this they divorced for the first time religion from government, and made religion a distinct and separate sphere. Into the gap between these two, once inseparable, fields, came the law, which was able to exert its own force as a stabilizing influence. Canon lawyers for the church first routinized a farrago of individual rulings and judgments into the study of a "corpus" of universal laws, and then used this corpus as means to control kings and aristocrats. The church's legal influence over wills and benefices and marriages gave it a power (and income from court fees) that allowed it to maintain its cohesion after it had separated from government. Likewise, newly emergent kings, like Henry II in England, Philip Augustus in France, and importantly, Roger II of Sicily, used law to unify their power over their aristocratic vassals and create a direct relationship between them and the common people based on abstract, universal principles that strengthened their monarchy. By incorporating feudal laws and manorial customs into one universal "common law," a term not just in England but among many new kingdoms in Europe, they universalized the state. The long story, though, is that law in a sense captured both popes and kings, since even in its inception its universalist principles meant even they could be held to account (and the author has some great quotes here from legal minds like John of Salisbury arguing that, even in the 12th century, a king's disobeyal of a fundamental law implied a right of disobedience from his subjects). The revolutions of later centuries, often lead by lawyers and legal minds against kings and popes, were in this story the revenge of legalism against its creators.
So this is a broad theory with wide scope, but it is largely convincing and well-argued. The importance of the Papal Revolution itself, as opposed to wider changes that caused centrifugal forces to dominate in this era and created the need for unifying laws, is still somewhat unclear to me. The fact that much of the legal work of the era came from priests and monks who formed a "science" of canon law principles based on older Roman and Greek examples, like the Bolognese monk Gratian, does lend his theory credence, and the ability of these semi-religious officials (often through offices of Chancery as in England) to also bring law to newly empowered monarchs also gives it weight, but sussing out the different influences remains difficult and perhaps impossible.
I have to admit this book took me a long time to read because the first part is slow, ponderous stuff, often given to either circuitous or overly neat explanations, argued ex nihilio. But as the author gets into the nitty gritty of the rise of royal law, one can comprehend a scope of Western history more clearly than in anything else I've read. I'm very glad I stuck it through.
The main argument of this book is that the historical West had a distinct legal culture from the rest of the globe, namely in that "law" was and is seen as a distinct occupation and sphere apart from governance or religion, and that this legal focus has given the West a singular view of political power as something that arises out of a separate sphere called law, rather than out of mere religion or power. Although the rest of the world has of course adopted this structure in many respects, creating independent lawyers and universalistic laws and legal codes parsed by experts, this has largely been the result of European imperialism. The West's law was always different.
The author traces the roots of European distinctiveness not to the Greeks or the Romans, but to the period between about 1050 and 1150, during what he calls the Papal Revolution. In this period, the church and the papacy struggled for independence from the different governments of Europe, and through the efforts of great reformers like Pope Gregory VII, largely succeeded. In this they divorced for the first time religion from government, and made religion a distinct and separate sphere. Into the gap between these two, once inseparable, fields, came the law, which was able to exert its own force as a stabilizing influence. Canon lawyers for the church first routinized a farrago of individual rulings and judgments into the study of a "corpus" of universal laws, and then used this corpus as means to control kings and aristocrats. The church's legal influence over wills and benefices and marriages gave it a power (and income from court fees) that allowed it to maintain its cohesion after it had separated from government. Likewise, newly emergent kings, like Henry II in England, Philip Augustus in France, and importantly, Roger II of Sicily, used law to unify their power over their aristocratic vassals and create a direct relationship between them and the common people based on abstract, universal principles that strengthened their monarchy. By incorporating feudal laws and manorial customs into one universal "common law," a term not just in England but among many new kingdoms in Europe, they universalized the state. The long story, though, is that law in a sense captured both popes and kings, since even in its inception its universalist principles meant even they could be held to account (and the author has some great quotes here from legal minds like John of Salisbury arguing that, even in the 12th century, a king's disobeyal of a fundamental law implied a right of disobedience from his subjects). The revolutions of later centuries, often lead by lawyers and legal minds against kings and popes, were in this story the revenge of legalism against its creators.
So this is a broad theory with wide scope, but it is largely convincing and well-argued. The importance of the Papal Revolution itself, as opposed to wider changes that caused centrifugal forces to dominate in this era and created the need for unifying laws, is still somewhat unclear to me. The fact that much of the legal work of the era came from priests and monks who formed a "science" of canon law principles based on older Roman and Greek examples, like the Bolognese monk Gratian, does lend his theory credence, and the ability of these semi-religious officials (often through offices of Chancery as in England) to also bring law to newly empowered monarchs also gives it weight, but sussing out the different influences remains difficult and perhaps impossible.
I have to admit this book took me a long time to read because the first part is slow, ponderous stuff, often given to either circuitous or overly neat explanations, argued ex nihilio. But as the author gets into the nitty gritty of the rise of royal law, one can comprehend a scope of Western history more clearly than in anything else I've read. I'm very glad I stuck it through.
March 3, 2019
Just incredible. If you've been reading your Charles Taylor or Alasdair MacIntyre, you're probably also on the hunt for the classic whodunit of the modern era. Who's responsible for this monstrosity called modernity? Who killed the quaint pre-modern "noble savage" we so earnestly miss?
As a tour-de-force history of the foundations of Western law, Berman offers an extremely detailed and erudite analysis of the theological, economic, and political foundations of the Western legal apparatus which he primarily credits to Gregory VII's revolutionary reform programme. However, he does not blame Gregory VII and the subsequent Investiture Controversy with starting modernity. Instead, he asserts a compelling case for why the conventional distinction between medieval and modern times does more to obscure than elucidate our understanding of the subject matter.
It is detailed studies like these that demonstrate to me how hollowed out and injudicious a term like "modernity" really is. Often deployed by Catholic nostalgists, modernity is as much a fiction as the "pre-modern" period publications like First Things so blatantly fetishizes. The mantras and practices of bureaucracy are already present in 11th century ecclesiastical canon lawyers. 13th century mercantile law already contained socialist or capitalist practices depending on the region you're looking at.
Berman closes with some well-aimed remarks at historians/theorists who liberally throw around watered-down versions of Marx or Weber's axioms. If one actually pays attention to the historical evidence, it is clear that law is not derived from the economically privileged (Marx) or an ideological elite (Weber), to reduce law to power does a major disservice to the actual history of law (even if it is a rather convenient myth for the postmodern media machine to propagate).
Law developed piecemeal out of prior custom, out of scholarly attention to Roman documents, out of theological convictions of morality, and yes also out of interests of power. To say that only one of these dimensions comprehensively defines the nature of law is to demonstrate one's own ignorance. It shows you are blindly swallowing from the propagandic sippy cup of the Fourth Estate rather than noticing what is easily observable in the real world.
As a tour-de-force history of the foundations of Western law, Berman offers an extremely detailed and erudite analysis of the theological, economic, and political foundations of the Western legal apparatus which he primarily credits to Gregory VII's revolutionary reform programme. However, he does not blame Gregory VII and the subsequent Investiture Controversy with starting modernity. Instead, he asserts a compelling case for why the conventional distinction between medieval and modern times does more to obscure than elucidate our understanding of the subject matter.
It is detailed studies like these that demonstrate to me how hollowed out and injudicious a term like "modernity" really is. Often deployed by Catholic nostalgists, modernity is as much a fiction as the "pre-modern" period publications like First Things so blatantly fetishizes. The mantras and practices of bureaucracy are already present in 11th century ecclesiastical canon lawyers. 13th century mercantile law already contained socialist or capitalist practices depending on the region you're looking at.
Berman closes with some well-aimed remarks at historians/theorists who liberally throw around watered-down versions of Marx or Weber's axioms. If one actually pays attention to the historical evidence, it is clear that law is not derived from the economically privileged (Marx) or an ideological elite (Weber), to reduce law to power does a major disservice to the actual history of law (even if it is a rather convenient myth for the postmodern media machine to propagate).
Law developed piecemeal out of prior custom, out of scholarly attention to Roman documents, out of theological convictions of morality, and yes also out of interests of power. To say that only one of these dimensions comprehensively defines the nature of law is to demonstrate one's own ignorance. It shows you are blindly swallowing from the propagandic sippy cup of the Fourth Estate rather than noticing what is easily observable in the real world.
February 4, 2014
It is not often a book appears that forces the reader to change or challenge long held historic concepts and narratives. Harold Berman’s Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition is one such book.
Magisterial in its development, prodigious in its documentation, brilliant in its insight, Berman’s 550-page work traces the history of the Western legal tradition with erudition. In his search for legal roots, he disregards commonly held assumptions and explores horizons often ignored. The conclusions are startling and refreshing.
The book’s central thesis is that at the end of the eleventh century and in the early twelfth century, legal systems appeared for the first time in history. Prior legal orders were primitive, incomplete or undeveloped as he shows in his analysis of Roman and folk law. Berman claims these orders were not systems but collections of rules and concepts embedded inside social custom, which failed to form a conscious body of law. Medieval law, he insists, was the first system with a cohesive body of law, a class of lawyers and a professional judiciary.
Such a claim comes as a major vindication for medieval culture which historians have long turned into a “dark age” where no major progress was made. On the contrary, Berman explodes this myth by citing, with ample evidence, the dynamic nature of medieval legal studies that are the foundation for modern Western law. It was the medieval law commentators (called glossators) who refined and systematized Roman law. They organized into structures past legal codes which were scrambled mosaics of concepts, customs and rules.
Adding to this vindication comes yet another. For the Catholic, it is a pleasant surprise to find Berman, a non-Catholic, unexpectedly citing the Roman Catholic Church’s canon law as the first systematized legal system in history. Moreover, upon the firm foundation of this canon law was built all other Western law systems. In this regard, Berman painstakingly traces how law was, and even now is, influenced by Saint Gregory VII, Saint Anselm, the scholastics and the monastic communities of Cluny.
Another misconception that Berman destroys is the notion of arbitrary rule. He clearly shows that medieval law broke from the ancient and tribal past and established the notion of the rule of law under which ruler and ruled were held accountable under the law. He further shows how all law was subject to natural law if it was to be valid—a tradition that extended even to the foundations of American law, despite modern interpretations to the contrary.
Perhaps one of his most refreshing insights is his explanation of the organic nature of Western law. It differed from static legal orders that existed among barbarian and pagan peoples. From the foundation of the canon law, the author extensively describes the organic development of flexible medieval law systems that included feudal, manorial, commercial, urban and royal law. The vitality of each system depends upon what Berman calls “the belief in the ongoing character of law,” “its capacity for growth over generations and centuries,” and “a built-in mechanism for organic change.”
Unlike past cultures that relied upon a single legal order for all citizens, the medieval organic order allowed for the maximum autonomy of associations, communities and nations. No other legal order ever managed to provide such freedom to individuals and communities to be governed according to their needs and circumstances. A unique feature of Western law was the fact that the individual person could live under a plurality of legal systems corresponding to the overlapping subcommunities of family, community and faith of which the person was a member.
It becomes evident that it was not only law that progressed inside this order but a whole civilization and its economy benefited from a solid legal foundation never before seen in history.
Written in 1984 and reprinted many times, one perceives that Berman’s work is not the product of some political agenda. He displays a love of law and a zeal for truth that transcends partisan politics. He also laments the decay of law in modern times. The late Harvard University law professor made no secret of the fact that he thought the West is in “the midst of an unprecedented crisis of legal values and of legal thought, in which our entire legal tradition is being challenged.”
What moved Berman to write was his conviction that the only way to fight this crisis is to instinctively return to one’s origins and roots, and there find the elements for a restoration. Law and Revolution is a splendid contribution toward this return to order since, as Berman notes, “at the most crucial turning points of Western history a projection into the distant past has been needed to match the projection into the distant future. Both the past and future have been summoned, so to speak, to fight against the evils of the present.”
John Horvat
Author of Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society Where
Magisterial in its development, prodigious in its documentation, brilliant in its insight, Berman’s 550-page work traces the history of the Western legal tradition with erudition. In his search for legal roots, he disregards commonly held assumptions and explores horizons often ignored. The conclusions are startling and refreshing.
The book’s central thesis is that at the end of the eleventh century and in the early twelfth century, legal systems appeared for the first time in history. Prior legal orders were primitive, incomplete or undeveloped as he shows in his analysis of Roman and folk law. Berman claims these orders were not systems but collections of rules and concepts embedded inside social custom, which failed to form a conscious body of law. Medieval law, he insists, was the first system with a cohesive body of law, a class of lawyers and a professional judiciary.
Such a claim comes as a major vindication for medieval culture which historians have long turned into a “dark age” where no major progress was made. On the contrary, Berman explodes this myth by citing, with ample evidence, the dynamic nature of medieval legal studies that are the foundation for modern Western law. It was the medieval law commentators (called glossators) who refined and systematized Roman law. They organized into structures past legal codes which were scrambled mosaics of concepts, customs and rules.
Adding to this vindication comes yet another. For the Catholic, it is a pleasant surprise to find Berman, a non-Catholic, unexpectedly citing the Roman Catholic Church’s canon law as the first systematized legal system in history. Moreover, upon the firm foundation of this canon law was built all other Western law systems. In this regard, Berman painstakingly traces how law was, and even now is, influenced by Saint Gregory VII, Saint Anselm, the scholastics and the monastic communities of Cluny.
Another misconception that Berman destroys is the notion of arbitrary rule. He clearly shows that medieval law broke from the ancient and tribal past and established the notion of the rule of law under which ruler and ruled were held accountable under the law. He further shows how all law was subject to natural law if it was to be valid—a tradition that extended even to the foundations of American law, despite modern interpretations to the contrary.
Perhaps one of his most refreshing insights is his explanation of the organic nature of Western law. It differed from static legal orders that existed among barbarian and pagan peoples. From the foundation of the canon law, the author extensively describes the organic development of flexible medieval law systems that included feudal, manorial, commercial, urban and royal law. The vitality of each system depends upon what Berman calls “the belief in the ongoing character of law,” “its capacity for growth over generations and centuries,” and “a built-in mechanism for organic change.”
Unlike past cultures that relied upon a single legal order for all citizens, the medieval organic order allowed for the maximum autonomy of associations, communities and nations. No other legal order ever managed to provide such freedom to individuals and communities to be governed according to their needs and circumstances. A unique feature of Western law was the fact that the individual person could live under a plurality of legal systems corresponding to the overlapping subcommunities of family, community and faith of which the person was a member.
It becomes evident that it was not only law that progressed inside this order but a whole civilization and its economy benefited from a solid legal foundation never before seen in history.
Written in 1984 and reprinted many times, one perceives that Berman’s work is not the product of some political agenda. He displays a love of law and a zeal for truth that transcends partisan politics. He also laments the decay of law in modern times. The late Harvard University law professor made no secret of the fact that he thought the West is in “the midst of an unprecedented crisis of legal values and of legal thought, in which our entire legal tradition is being challenged.”
What moved Berman to write was his conviction that the only way to fight this crisis is to instinctively return to one’s origins and roots, and there find the elements for a restoration. Law and Revolution is a splendid contribution toward this return to order since, as Berman notes, “at the most crucial turning points of Western history a projection into the distant past has been needed to match the projection into the distant future. Both the past and future have been summoned, so to speak, to fight against the evils of the present.”
John Horvat
Author of Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society Where
April 12, 2015
Gold standard. The revolution of the title concerns the transformation of catholic doctrine in the 12th century. Hard to overstate the quality here.
December 1, 2025
Or, 'How the West was Won.'
July 2, 2014
This is one of those books that makes you wish you understood it....
I could understand enough to want to understand more. He makes legal history interesting (where I could understand it). I don't know enough about legal history (i.e. next to nothing) to judge his thesis about the legal tradition coming from the papal revolution, but he certainly marshaled a lot of evidence. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to re-read it. I do have the 2nd volume and another book of his. I'll see if I'm brave enough to venture in.
I could understand enough to want to understand more. He makes legal history interesting (where I could understand it). I don't know enough about legal history (i.e. next to nothing) to judge his thesis about the legal tradition coming from the papal revolution, but he certainly marshaled a lot of evidence. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to re-read it. I do have the 2nd volume and another book of his. I'll see if I'm brave enough to venture in.
Currently reading
September 14, 2008argues that the origins of western law are found not with ancient greece or rome but with the papal revolution of the late 11th and 12th century.
December 31, 2020
I have mixed feelings about this book. At a higher level, its main argument is very persuasive. I would say Berman is successful in establishing the importance of Pope Gregory VII's 1075 Dictates and the ensuing Investiture Struggle as a defining moment in Western legal history. At a more granular level though, the sub-arguments aren't really compelling. Concrete examples are plentiful, but there is rarely discussion of alternatives to Berman's interpretation of them. This failure to consider alternatives was the book's biggest fault.
The sources that Berman draws on vary widely, and it's evident that he's extremely well read. Most of these sources were new to me, and so I had no independent way to judge his interpretation of them. It was a little concerning to me though that, when he referenced a source I was already familiar with, he either misconstrued its significance or the actuals facts about it. For example, his discussion about the relationship between the development of medieval Canon Law and scholastic philosophy was impressive in how little it got right about the philosophy side of things. This left me questioning the accuracy of his other citations.
The sources that Berman draws on vary widely, and it's evident that he's extremely well read. Most of these sources were new to me, and so I had no independent way to judge his interpretation of them. It was a little concerning to me though that, when he referenced a source I was already familiar with, he either misconstrued its significance or the actuals facts about it. For example, his discussion about the relationship between the development of medieval Canon Law and scholastic philosophy was impressive in how little it got right about the philosophy side of things. This left me questioning the accuracy of his other citations.
January 13, 2024
Jeg læste kun den første del, som er helt i top. Tesen er, at kirken blev uafhængig af de verdlige, men fasthold en over-mission, således at kirken kunne påvirke kongers og andres adfærd og tro. Dette fører frem til det særlige ved vestlig civilisation, nemlig monogami og adskillelse af kirke og stat.
Sjov brug af revolution. Tænker at forfatteren var barn af sin tid og derfor valgte at gøre meget ud af revolution.
Sjov brug af revolution. Tænker at forfatteren var barn af sin tid og derfor valgte at gøre meget ud af revolution.
January 15, 2018
Exceptionally comprehensive history of the twelfth century emergence of the canon law through the Papal Revolution and Gregorian Reforms, and the birth of the secular state with the consolidating power of Henry II, Phillipe Auguste, etc., and the formation of royal law. One of those books that revolutionizes the way you think about the entire world: about law, theology, and society broadly.
February 28, 2021
A masterful and invaluable history. I found this book to be challenging, as I have limited knowledge of medieval history and law, but also rewarding as well.
May 21, 2012
An important work by an accomplished legal scholar. Berman provides diligent scholarship on the origins of Western law. He traces the root to the Gregorian Reforms where the canons of the Roman Church were universalized in conflict with the secular power of the monarchs or nobility.
One of the great revolutions of history, the legal code of the present day can be founded in the ancient doctrines of Church praxis in addition to recovery of ancient Roman legal codes (Justinian). More importantly, law in essence is deeply contingent on the theological disputes that arose from the time of Anselm of Canterbury or the flourishing of the Medieval University.
Juridical atonement or the notion that redemption is vicarious in the legal sense is a departure from the theology of the Greek fathers that the West separated from. Moreover, the most significant break with precedent in terms of secular law is the acceptance that the law is universally binding on every state. Catholic or universal truth extends beyond the rudiments in scripture in order to inform the entire world of state-craft or culture.
Thus the Middle Ages sprang from this vital root in ancient codes re-constructed or re-interpreted in the frame of newly founded Christian civilization unified by the Papacy in Rome. The importance cannot be doubted even today when attempting to understand the nature of our civilization.
A beautiful book that delves into the tribal laws of ordeal, the merchant class laws of rising burghers, the theological disputes of penance, God, atonement, and the rivalry between Gregory VII with the Holy Roman Empire. Berman ties everything together with modern concerns regarding the meaning of recent revolutions in legal systems from the Bolsheviks, to National Socialism, to the French Revolution, or the present bureaucratic State.
One of the great revolutions of history, the legal code of the present day can be founded in the ancient doctrines of Church praxis in addition to recovery of ancient Roman legal codes (Justinian). More importantly, law in essence is deeply contingent on the theological disputes that arose from the time of Anselm of Canterbury or the flourishing of the Medieval University.
Juridical atonement or the notion that redemption is vicarious in the legal sense is a departure from the theology of the Greek fathers that the West separated from. Moreover, the most significant break with precedent in terms of secular law is the acceptance that the law is universally binding on every state. Catholic or universal truth extends beyond the rudiments in scripture in order to inform the entire world of state-craft or culture.
Thus the Middle Ages sprang from this vital root in ancient codes re-constructed or re-interpreted in the frame of newly founded Christian civilization unified by the Papacy in Rome. The importance cannot be doubted even today when attempting to understand the nature of our civilization.
A beautiful book that delves into the tribal laws of ordeal, the merchant class laws of rising burghers, the theological disputes of penance, God, atonement, and the rivalry between Gregory VII with the Holy Roman Empire. Berman ties everything together with modern concerns regarding the meaning of recent revolutions in legal systems from the Bolsheviks, to National Socialism, to the French Revolution, or the present bureaucratic State.
May 12, 2013
Berman thesis presents how the seeds of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the Capitalist society were planted in the Middle Ages after the Papal Revolution. This thesis is very interesting since by presents the parallels of different kingdoms after the Papal Revolution he shows how they built upon the experience of the establishment of the Church as a State. The rivalry between the Pope and the King, the interrelationship between different kingdoms, and the mobility of people and goods help to spread the systemic view of the Law as a tool for management of societies.
Berman thesis opens a lot of questions. For instance. Is it possible for other traditions to adopt the benefits of the Western Traditions considering that they didn't go through such long and evolutionary process? Is the traditional misconception of the origins of the western tradition a source of conflict with other parts of the world? Is the Legal tradition actually a sound foundation for the construction of better societies instead of the result of other causes like Economic Progress or Political Freedom?
Berman thesis opens a lot of questions. For instance. Is it possible for other traditions to adopt the benefits of the Western Traditions considering that they didn't go through such long and evolutionary process? Is the traditional misconception of the origins of the western tradition a source of conflict with other parts of the world? Is the Legal tradition actually a sound foundation for the construction of better societies instead of the result of other causes like Economic Progress or Political Freedom?
Read
August 20, 2011I feel like my rating would not mean anything. It seems very persuasive, but the book kind of presumes a large and esoteric body of prerequisite literature, which, for the most part, I didn't have. At times I felt like I had to force myself to read it, and my reasons for continuing were: 1) to pursue more variety in my reading, and 2) to mentally index the different parts of the book that I thought might prove useful later. The larger movements of the book are interesting enough to make me re-read it at a later time after I become more familiar with the prerequisite lit.
December 9, 2013
I met Prof. Berman at Harvard once upon a time. Wonderful man. And a perceptive one. As he puts it, the power of the papacy led to the power of the nation state. This was not a cynical observation but the understanding that the accident of papal power had to devolve to secular power. The beginning of the process is described in this book. The end of the process is described in the Unintended Reformation.
November 22, 2009
Nice chapters on the theological roots of western jurisprudence.
September 23, 2010
Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition by Harold J. Berman (1983)
May 16, 2014
magisterial. a trip to learn about the papal revolution.
Want to read
August 5, 2017While reading "Lost Modernities"
Obviously this book is too small to do as conclusively for the three mandarinates what Harold Berman did for the history of the Western legal tradition. That is, to demonstrate the modern characteristics in a supposedly premodern era; document the abundance of resources of human rationality in state building that existed before the Renaissance or the Enlightenment; and prove that modernizing developments, in something like law, could occur quite independently of capitalism and industrialization, as well as at their own rates.
Woodside, Alexander. Lost Modernities : China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History, Harvard University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, .
Created from earlham-ebooks on 2017-08-05 15:19:08.
https://www.mendeley.com/viewer/?file...
Obviously this book is too small to do as conclusively for the three mandarinates what Harold Berman did for the history of the Western legal tradition. That is, to demonstrate the modern characteristics in a supposedly premodern era; document the abundance of resources of human rationality in state building that existed before the Renaissance or the Enlightenment; and prove that modernizing developments, in something like law, could occur quite independently of capitalism and industrialization, as well as at their own rates.
Woodside, Alexander. Lost Modernities : China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History, Harvard University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, .
Created from earlham-ebooks on 2017-08-05 15:19:08.
https://www.mendeley.com/viewer/?file...
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