1 - Introduction

Summary

If law and legal systems may be said to grow and develop in a way analogous to natural organisms, the shape into which they grow is not predetermined, but is fashioned by the choices and actions of individuals who present questions for lawyers to resolve, and by the intellectual choices made by lawyers, lawmakers, and judges, when faced with how to deal with new problems. In recent years, historians have become increasingly interested in exploring how legal development has been shaped by networks of particular individuals and groups, and by the connections are made between different ideas and concepts. Whether law changes as a result of litigation initiated in the courtroom or through legislation, the form which it takes may be shaped by the groups of people initiating the change, by the networks of legal intermediaries – whether lawyers or legislators – who are tasked with implementing it, and by the wider community networks with whose expectations the law must cohere.