The Rule of Laws by Fernanda Pirie

The Rule of Laws
by Fernanda Pirie
Basic Books, 2021

In her book The Rule of Laws, Fernanda Pirie, a professor of the anthropology of law at the University of Oxford, examines the history of law, starting in Mesopotamia 4000 years ago and ending at the present day. This history is not in any way a straight line, leading inevitably and logically to where we are currently. Many assumptions we may have about the law have not always been - and still are not - necessarily true: that it is confined by territorial boundaries, that it is separate from religion, or that it is expected to be followed precisely.

Pirie examines how and why law was created - or not created - throughout the ages and the globe, with the broadness and objectivity of an anthropologist: starting at the three cradles of law - Mesopotamia, India, and China - she goes on to write about Jewish and Islamic law, Roman law, the laws in Medieval Europe - both on the places that were part of the Roman Empire, like France and England, and in more peripheral societies, such as Ireland and Iceland - and about how colonialism shaped the law in colonized countries, international law, and communities that choose not to use legalism, like Tibetan nomads, Yemeni tribes, and the mafia.

At the heart of this book are two questions: why do we have laws and how do we use them to shape the world? It is, after all, possible to maintain control over a territory without written laws and, even after they were written, many societies continued to negotiate reconciliations instead of using the courts of law. In fact, the famous code of Hammurabi doesn’t seem to have ever been referred to in legal cases: it was never expected to be used as precisely as our current legal systems, instead it was a selection of examples of particular principles that should be used to guide judges towards reconciliation and justice. But justice is not necessarily the primary aim of laws: Indians were preoccupied with maintaining the cosmological order, and the Chinese with maintaining discipline by using crime and punishment. Laws can also be used to create or retain a sense of community and independence: Jewish law's importance resides in maintaining a sense of identity, not in avoiding shrimp. On the other hand, communities can adopt laws of cultures perceived as superior, as a mark of civilization.

What is universal is that “by making rules explicit, the authors turned their words into laws, and law itself became a social force.” Once the laws are written down, they are given objective standards and permanence, and therefore can be used to resist arbitrary exercise of power. Laws have power even when they cannot be enforced, as is the case with many international laws, because they express the moral view of the society at large, a powerful force in a social species such as ours. “The determined dictator might tear up the rule book, but he could not do it unnoticed.”

The Rule of Laws is a great overview of the history of law, covering four millennia and many different societies, that still manages to be accessible to a wide readership. It dispel ideas that our current western form of law is natural and by doing so, give us the liberty to question how it can be used or altered to make the world a better place. It also leaves us with the idea that it can be taken away. “[The rule of law] has emerged time and again to confront and challenge those who wield power, but it is neither inevitable nor invulnerable,” Pirie writes. “It is also ours to lose.”

—Carolina Siqueira is a young Brazilian living in Barcelona.