gerin's defence was, well, we lost but if we'd won, would hav all been legal. And so it's not really fair you have this trial because there was no international law. So it's like, in the law of nations, we were doing what we do. That's none of your business. Thisis, you know, i forget what that was callediit after world war won. There was like, self self determination. Nations should have the right to determine what they do,. and it's nobody else's business what they do in their boarders.
Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. The variety of the world’s laws has long been almost as great as the variety of its societies.
In this conversation, Shermer speaks with Oxford professor of the anthropology of law, Fernanda Pirie, who traces the rise and fall of the sophisticated legal systems underpinning ancient empires and religious traditions, showing how common people — tribal assemblies, merchants, farmers — called on laws to define their communities, regulate trade, and build civilizations. What truly unites human beings, Pirie argues, is our very faith that laws can produce justice, combat oppression, and create order from chaos.