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LAW AND RELIGION: THE LEGAL TEACHINGS OF THE PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC REFORMATIONS. Eds Wim Decock, Jordan J Ballor, Michael Germann and Laurent Waelkens Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (www.v-r.de/en/), 2014. 278 pp. ISBN 9783525550748. €110.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 May 2015
Pages285-287
Published date01 May 2015
DOI10.3366/elr.2015.0283

This collection of essays aims to assess the similarities and differences between “the legal writings of the Catholic and Protestant reformers” of the early modern period (6). To those familiar with this field this might bring to mind the historical work of the late Harold J Berman. With this in mind, this review takes a wider view of the contribution this collection makes and its relationship to Berman's work. Indeed, one might say that it is important that some of the most respected legal historians in Europe and the USA have explored in greater detail some of Berman's historical insights.

Harold Berman was akin to a theoretical physicist who defied orthodox methodologies. One only needs to consider his later work on the concept of “world law” (H Berman, “World law: an ecumenical jurisprudence of the Holy Spirit” (2006) 63 Theology Today 365) to get a feel for his ambition as a thinker. Throughout his career he viewed things on a macro scale. He spoke of the “western legal tradition” not Civil Law or Common Law, and during the 1960s and 1970s he defined “soviet law” for comparison with “western law” (H Berman, Justice in the USSR (1963)). His legal theory was unique: he argued that legal theory needed to understand religion and theology before it could explain legal order (H Berman, Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion (2000)). However, it is his historical work that may be best known in Europe. Even then his approach was different from many other legal historians: Berman reflected on millennia not decades or centuries, and he wore his theology on his sleeve.

Berman's Law and Revolution I: the Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (1983) is well-known. It received much acclaim at the time, as well as criticism (E Peters, “The origins of the western legal tradition” (1984–85) 98 Harv LR 686). It was here that he argued for a re-appraisal of western legal history, and where he traced the origins of the western legal tradition to the eleventh century (Berman, Law and Revolution I, 520 ff). Twenty years later, in 2003, he published Law and Revolution II: the Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition. Here he focused upon the transformation of western legal systems during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and again his work received criticism on the detail but commendation on the topic (see T G Watkin (2005–6) 21 J of Law and Religion 479).

In Law and Revolution II, Berman noted, almost in passing, that...

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