Stefan B. Kirmse
Law and Empire in Late Tsarist Russia – Imperial Courts in Crimea and Kazan, 1864-1905
Stefan B. Kirmse works at the intersection of history and social anthropology. He recently edited the volume One Law for All? Western Models and Local Practices in (Post-Imperial Contexts (Frankfurt and New York, 2012), in which legal reforms and practices are discussed in a comparative global perspective. Exploring cases from Russia, Latin America, Africa and East Asia, the volume tracks the ways in which lawmakers and ordinary people talk about and actively use the law, thereby telling a story of contested European hegemony, local assertions, and multiple legal borrowings.
Law and Empire in Late Tsarist Russia – Imperial Courts in Crimea and Kazan, 1864-1905
Kirmse's current, post-doctoral research project combines an investigation of legal reform in late imperial Russia with an analysis of rule over a heterogeneous Empire. It not only discusses the making of a “modern” court system but also explores ordinary people’s use of the new courts. By focusing on multiethnic regions of the Empire, it examines the ways in which new legislation created a plural legal order in which state courts existed alongside village, religious, and “native” legal forums. Thus, the book discusses both law-making and legal practice in terms of interacting legal cultures.
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