European Supreme Courts: A Portrait through History

European Supreme Courts: A Portrait through History is an illustrated hardback book, the culmination of more than three years’ work by a team of leading legal historians and experts drawn from faculties across Europe and beyond. The book explores the history of supreme courts structures throughout the European continent from the high medieval period to the modern day.

The story is one of considerable diversity, but it also reveals many common themes which influenced the practice of law at the highest level in different times and places. To an extent which may surprise many readers, supreme courts in Europe, particularly in the pre-Napoleonic era, grappled with many of the problems of multifarious nationalities, languages, traditions and jurisdictions which are familiar challenges for lawyers working within the international supreme and supranational courts we know today. Indeed, the book serves to set the contemporary role of the international supreme courts within the context of a strikingly rich legacy of legal traditions, culture and history in Europe.

The authoritative text is accompanied by over 160 images from archives and collections across Europe, as well as present-day images of European and national courts and institutions. Many of these images are little known other than to specialists in their countries of origin, and are presented to the general European reader for the first time.

European Supreme Courts: A Portrait through History is designed to be read by legal professionals, officials, academics and law students alike, as well as the general reader with an interest in the history of the European judicature. The ambitious scope of this publication in terms of its historical coverage, geographical range and illustrative content has not previously been attempted in the field of legal history publishing. This is a groundbreaking and beautifully presented publication which discerning lawyers who are interested in the history of their profession will wish to own.

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