Early Medieval Law in India and Europe: A Plea for Comparisons

Abstract

The records of the customary law that seems to have been practised in early medieval India differ from those that survive from Western Europe, but the law that was followed in the two subcontinents seems rather similar. In both cases it offers insights to the structures and norms of the societies that produced it. It is harder to compare the evidence for the existence and the beginning of professional law since some aspects of the way that it began in Europe seem likely to be peculiar to that subcontinent. Consideration of possible reasons for the origin of European legal professions suggests, however, that it may be worth questioning any assumption there was no professional law in early medieval India.