Legal history volume launched in Belfast
The North’s Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhán Keegan launched Confluences of Law and History: Irish Legal History Society Discourses, 2011–2021 at a reception at Queen's University Belfast on Friday (14 November).
The event brought together members of the judiciary, academics, legal practitioners and supporters of the Irish Legal History Society to mark the publication.
The volume brings together an eclectic mix of papers delivered to the Society between 2011 and 2021, reflecting the breadth and diversity of research in Irish legal history during that period.
Contributions come from leading historians, legal historians and practising lawyers, each examining aspects of Irish legal development from the early modern era through to the twentieth century.
Drawing on court records, archival collections, personal papers, reported cases, parliamentary materials and newspapers, the essays explore themes such as the role of litigants, public perceptions of law, women and the law, and the influence of social and constitutional change on legal institutions.
Law shaped by context
The collection emphasises how law is shaped by the context in which it operates, and how historical understanding can illuminate contemporary legal debates.
Dame Siobhán Keegan praised the editors and contributors for advancing the study of legal history and for demonstrating its relevance to the modern legal landscape.
The volume highlights “the enduring dialogue between legal rules and the society they serve,” she said.
Co-editors are Niamh Howlin (associate professor at UCD Sutherland School of Law) and Felix M Larkin (historian and retired public servant).
Published in hardback by Four Courts Press, the 320-page illustrated volume is priced at €55.