Fernanda peary is a professor of the anthropology of law at the university of oxford. She has conducted field work in the mountains of ladoc and the grass lands of eastern tibet. In her new book, she explores why we need laws to order the world. i asked her about stateless laws, pirate laws, slavery and crimes against humanity. And what form of government should we have set up on mars?
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.