Session Abstract

This panel explores the intersection of law and the humanities from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. Exploring such key concepts as the human, the problem of reference, detection and narrative, imperial subjects of law, and Islamic law, panelists will situate their own contributions to the historiography of the legal sciences within a broader meta-analytic framework. Tracing genealogies of knowledge production that traverse the boundaries both of the West and the non-West, panelists reflect critically upon the universalist assumptions and presentist agendas that have marked the study of the law and legal practices in the modern era. Mobilizing insights from anthropology, comparative literature, and history, panelists address questions of colonialism, sovereignty, violence, narrative structures, and the alleged transhistoricity of the law.