This book has been a great reading experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This book is divided into three parts. The first, longest, and best part is a history of law and legal codes from before Hammurabi up to the present day. It jumps from location to location working its way forward in time showing what laws were being written, by whom, and in what historical context they came about. Ever since I read A History of God by Karen Armstrong a couple of decades back, I have been a fan of this type of history. It presents a single-volume broad sweep of the history of civilization with a specific subject as its focus. If this first part of the book were the entire book, as I was expecting, I would have been a happy man and would recommend it to anyone.

A few highlights from this section:

"It was a law designed to limit retaliation, rather than an order that [God's] people should always take revenge for a wrong." - comment on the Mosaic precept of an eye for an eye.

"It is only when a state is about to fall, he [Confucious] concluded, that it introduces legislation."

In Ireland... "They distinguished three ranks of kingship, several classes of freemen, and the unfree. The laws also classified professional groups - the clergy, lawyers, and poets - specifying their skills and duties. They described physicians, smiths, carpenters, musicians, and entertainers, and one text talks of jugglers, jesters, acrobats, and professional farters." I want that last job... where do I apply?

"The brutality of the Spanish conquest is well established. What is less well known is the fierce opposition voiced by Spanish theologians and the protracted debates they conducted about the legitimacy of these ventures." Contrary to modern mythology, it was the pastors, priests, and theologians that were at the forefront of anti-colonialism.

The second part of the book was OK. It demonstrated why the Western style of legal tradition won out over the South Asian and Far East legal codes. Namely, that is because it was primarily based on justice rather than discipline or duty. I did appreciate how he pointed out that often the British and the French (the Spanish, not so much) did their best to respect the cultures and legal traditions of their colonies. Often they set up two separate courts, one for expats and one for the locals. But time and again, the local population rejected their own traditional legal system when recognizing the superiority of the Western legal systems.

The third part looked at alternative legal systems that continue into the modern era. The first and largest of these is Shariah (Islamic) law. Pirie here presents an overly simplistic view of what Shariah las really is portraying the ignorance common in western outsiders. More than once I found myself thinking, "That would be nice if it really were true." Other legal (or law-like) systems the author looked at were Tibetian mountain tribes, Yemeni bedouin, the American and Sicilian mafia, and the diamond sellers guild. Finally, Pirie looked at international systems like the UN and the IMF. Honestly, this part of the book was uninteresting drudgery for me and I did my best just to grind through to the end.

In all, this book looks like it would make a decent textbook or supplement for an undergrad pre-law major like Poly-Sci or Criminal Justice. Outside that, I would just say skip it. It accomplishes what it set out to do, but it is clearly a niche book and not one for the masses.

First of all thanks to Netgally for letting me read this book... I loved this book when j was child I always wanted to be lawyer... this book showed me all I'm missing .. . I understand things better now.

A very entertaining and comprehensive history of laws.
My full review can be read at Open Letters Review:
https://openlettersreview.com/posts/the-rule-of-laws-by-fernanda-pirie

Pirie has written an ambitious book of massive scope. To cover the history of civilization on a global basis - and do so in a single volume that is sizable but not overwhelming - is no mean feat. And that is what has been done here. There is certainly a lot of detail provided (I think I would have found parts of the book difficult to follow without having taught world history for a number of years), but Pirie avoids getting totally lost in that detail and instead provides large, thematic overviews on the role of law in shaping our societies. Certainly gave much to think about and enhanced my understanding of law's place in our world.

Absolutely fascinating! As a lawyer, I found it engaging to find out the facts of how my profession came to be and how we as a species came to develop the laws we live by, no matter what they are.

This book describes the history of Law, from the early Mesopotamia king Ur-Namma through the ancient law makers of India and China to the modern-day international NGOs creating. It discusses the origins of Islamic, Jewish and European laws and shows how law makers use well-worn methods to create their laws designed mostly to retain the power of current leaders and keep the majority of populations in place from civil and religious unrest.
The book really provided me with some great new information and enlightened me on the cause of some of todays’ world problems as the various strands of law compete to be international law.
My only two dislikes in this book is that it appears to repeat many subjects and jumps backward and forwards in time as the author covers specific subjects. I would prefer it to start at the origins of laws and end with modern law and the rise of international NGOs such as the IMF.
Overall an interesting read from a clearly knowledgeable author who increased my knowledge of law and its origins. Recommended for anyone interested in why we still look to ancient Rome for de regula iuris.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this book informative though the subject could be dry at times the author did a good job keeping it interesting

This is a rather ambitious survey of how three (3) legal models developed and how they were used. Most of the text focused on Western Law … arguably the predominant model in the modern world. Then we get legal systems development around the Indus valley by legal specialist/scholars (Brahmin) as well as a brief examination of the bureaucratic legalism of the Chinese code of laws. All of these sought to bring about order within a society and were frequently seen as a marker for “civilization” itself, even if compliance/enforcement was marginal most of the time. The book wraps up with how smaller social units/clubs/et. al frequently had there own set of rules/laws that were used to mediate conflicts before they were escalated to the superior/national courts; which were typically a solution of last resort for many different reasons.

There was quite a lot of interesting information … and at times, it became somewhat repetitive (so this is not really a book to read through in one setting … take you time with it). I think this book would be of interest to any reader interested in history and sociology/political science.

<spoiler>Introduction: The Promise of Law

Part I: Visions of Order
Chapter 1 - Mesopotamia and the Land of the Bible
Chapter 2 - Indian Brahmins: The Order of the Cosmos
Chapter 3 - Chinese Emperors: Codes, Punishments, and Bureaucracy
Chapter 4 - Advocates and Jurists: Intellectual Pursuits in Ancient Rome
Chapter 5 - Jewish and Islamic Scholars: God’s Path for the World
Chapter 6 - European Kings: Courts and Customs After the Fall of Rome

Part II: The Promise of Civilization
Chapter 7 - At The Margins: Lawmaking on the Fringes of Christianity and Islam
Chapter 8 - Embracing the Laws of Religion: The Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim Worlds
Chapter 9 - Imperial Law and Divine Justice in the Medieval China
Chapter 10 - Courts and Customs in the European Middle Ages
Chapter 11 - The Problem of Judgement: Oaths, Ordeals, and Evidence

Part III: Ordering The World
Chapter 12 - From Kings to Empires: The Rise of Europe and America
Chapter 13 - Colonialism: Exporting the Law
Chapter 14 - In the Shadow of the State: Islamic Law in the Modern World
Chapter 15 - Turning Their Backs on the State: Tribes, Villages, Networks, and Gangs
Chapter 16 - Beyond the State: International Laws</spoiler>

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
# TheRuleOfLaws #NetGalley

The Rule of Laws covers a vast span of time and place, and provides the reader with an excellent overview of how law was used in different ways. The reader gets a good sense of how law related to status, commerce, and religion. The broad scope of the book is helpful in introducing the topic to a reader who knows nothing about the history of law. But this is also the downside of it- there are sections of the book that are too vague and could have used more specific examples. I read several times that the brahmins of India laid out what the 'proper behavior' of a person should be, but there are almost no examples of what that actually consisted of. Although archeological information may be scarce in some cases, I wish that some places in the book hadn't been overly broad.

There is also a lot of repetition in this book. From the introduction:

"The intricate scholarship of the Muslim jurists, the learning of the Hindu brahmins, and the elaborate codes of the Chinese law..."

A few pages later,
"The Mesopotamian kings promised justice, Chinese emperors claimed they were upholding the order of the cosmos, and Hindu brahmins described the dharma that their rules enacted."

And a few pages later,
"The innovation of the Mesopotamian kings, the Chinese emperors, and the Hindu brahmins was to create rules that would take a life of their own."

Most of the book is written in this format, where the sentence is divided into three points. The book never really delves into the nitty gritty but always skates on the surface. There are a lot of sentences I would call "filler" and it needs more examples to illustrate the author's point. Furthermore, there needs to be more clarification when discussing timelines. Often I had to skip back to be reminded of what century was being discussed- again, a problem with being too vague.

Overall I did enjoy this book, having learned quite a lot about law and how it has been interpreted in different times and places. It was a good introduction to the subject but could use a lot more details.