Legal history meets diachronic linguistics : understanding legal concepts and corresponding terminology

Lecture delivered et the Henri Pirenne Institute Medieval Seminar Series, University of Ghent, 28th January 2019. Please DO NOT quote from this paper

Hobbes and the common law

Hobbes is generally best known for his contribution to social and political philosophy, whilst his legal thought tended to get neglected. This paper examines Hobbes’s specific ideas on the common law. His legal thoughts did not just relate to a collection of particular norms, he was more concerned with constructing a jurisprudence, of which his theory of the common law was an integral part. While law played an important role in Hobbes’s political thought, it was not his starting point but rather something towards which he built throughout his life. This may also be grounded in the fact that, certainly during Hobbes’s time, there had been some reluctance to construct philosophical premises of the common law into a theoretical whole

Losing touch with the common tongues : the story of law French

This paper addresses the question of how, historically, the language of the English common law has become separated from the understanding by the ordinary man and woman. The use of an archaic language - law French - for over half a millennium has meant that legal matters had to be left in the hands of a small specifically trained elite. Law French is a language, originally based on Old Norman, Old French and Anglo-Norman. Its evolution is a complex one: its roots in Latin, it was in constant contact with the various dialects of both continental and insular French as well as the upcoming Middle English, all of which had a major impact on the medieval linguistic and cultural landscape of England. The present paper tells the story of that language, which although long gone, is still present in today's common law English. Now, as then, it contributes little to enhancing the understanding by the ordinary man and woman

Soviet Strategic Thinking, 1917-1962: Some History Reexamined

Some observers have characterized the current mood surrounding relations between the superpowers as moving toward détente, while others have decried the ever-growing Soviet military might, both strategic and conventional, claiming it represents the principal threat to Western security