“In the Name of Our Lord”

Abstract

This chapter suggests that there is no undivided point of origin for European law, but that, if there were such a point of origin, it might be one that modern Europeans tend to forget: European law might begin with the conviction of an innocent man, Jesus, who is now revered by roughly a third of humankind as divine. European law might begin, in a mysterious sense, with the court-ordered “death of God”. But if that is even vaguely or conjecturally the case, then Jesus’ judge, Pontius Pilate, might be a pivotal and recurring figure in the history of European politics and law. And that, ultimately, is the argument of this book.