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Glossae. European Journal of Legal History 15 (2018): Comparative Legal History Preface:Beyond particular traditions:Comparative Legal HistoryThe papers published under this general title are the proceedings of the conference held on 12 May 2017 at the Collège de France. They were included in the programme of the College’sEuropean Chair 2016-2017. The contributors represent a range of legal scholars andhistorians who have all written on issues of comparative legal history. They come fromdifferent European legal traditions and have all extensive personal experience in researchinglegal systems different from that of their own legal education. Several have left their nativecountry and teach permanently in a different European country. Their research thereforereflects, for periods from the Middle Ages until Modern Times, how a legal culture canincorporate and transcend the particular interests which have affected legal developments inEurope.The contributors had been asked to address the question at the heart of the European Chair’scentral theme: How to apprehend a European legal culture? Legal history presents models ofcommon laws which assume particular legal traditions. Comparative law requires, in order tobe able to proceed to any comparison, an interface between distinct legal systems.Comparative legal history endeavours to trace back how the interaction between differentsocial groups, in different polities which may partly overlap, has contributed to legaldevelopments, to some extent through the construction of so-called authoritative ‘sources’ ofthe law. At all levels of political governance, the legal instruments produced and used by thatgovernance always have their own particular features. However intricate that publicgovernance may be, its particular character is always exposed to actors from differentsystems of governance, whether within its own domestic jurisdiction or in the course of itsforeign relations. Comparative legal history makes it possible to recognise, in a long-termhistorical perspective, shared foundations of normativity which prove necessary in order toensure that the interactions may be worked out in peaceful order.Several contributions published in this issue were presented in a different language at the2017 conference. Those by Emanuele Conte, Yves Mausen, Mia Korpiola, Luisa Brunori,Luigi Lacché, and John Bell were originally delivered in French; those by Anja AmendTraut, Wolfgang Ernst, and Aniceto Masferrer in English. The proceedings follow the sameorder in which they were presented at the conference, by and large based on theirchronological references.The co-editor who held the European Chair wishes to thank all the contributors for theirvaluable cooperation, and in particular his two colleagues who assisted him in preparing thepublications of the conference’s proceedings (not without going through the peer reviewprocess). The editorial work which resulted in the publication of these proceedings was acollaborative venture undertaken by the three co-editors and co-authors of the presentforeword – a foreword inviting the readers of Glossae to find in these proceedings someencouragement and food for thought for their own research in the field of comparative legalhistory.Luisa Brunori Aniceto Masferrer Alain Wijffelshttp://www.glossae.eu/glossae-15-2018-2/?lang=en