Over the last 40 years, David Ibbetson has paved the way in a remarkably broad range of fields. In ancient law, his scholarship has spanned both the detailed doctrine of the Roman law of obligations and the cross-pollination of legal influences around the ancient Mediterranean. His work on English legal history has ranged from the earliest days of the common law through to the turn of the 20th century, combining forensic archival research with a sensitivity to how lawyers thought about their subject. In European legal history, he has shown the porousness of the civil law and the extent to which it has been shaped by other areas of intellectual life, from theology to rationalist philosophy. The contributions to this volume in his honour mirror both the breadth and the depth of Ibbetson’s scholarship. The book combines chapters from leading legal historians, close colleagues and over a dozen of Ibbetson’s students. Some chapters build upon or respond to Ibbetson’s ideas, others his areas of interest. The contributions are introduced by Ibbetson’s valedictory lecture on the importance of legal history to modern practice and scholarship, and the work yet to be done.
