Small states and distinctive micro-jurisdictions are inevitably the product of singular histories. The result of complex pasts and imperial, colonial, and economic pressures, their endurance, often over considerable periods of time, runs counter to the dominant political and legal developments of the past two centuries. Their existence is typically a nuanced story of political survival and legal innovation, of intricate internal developments and significant external events and borrowings. Both within Europe and beyond, these jurisdictions are seldom, in fact, insular. Instead, they are best seen as places of translation, in the sense of both movement and meaning, the nexus of transnational developments.

While the project will illustrate the specific history and significant, unique events of each jurisdiction, participants will be asked to focus on three broad streams, to draw out wider comparative lessons, if any. These include

·     the creation or sources of the laws and norms of the legal tradition over time (ie, its ideas and institutions, its binding and persuasive sources of law, etc),

·     the various actors of the tradition over time (ie, jurists, judges, legislators, lawyers, and laymen, officially and unofficially) and

·     the application of the tradition’s law and norms over time (ie, its legal and political institutions, eg, parliaments, courts, etc).