De ryussher on The Merchant on Stage. Grand Narratives in the History of Commercial Law

Dave De ryusscher, Tilburg University, Department of Public Law, Jurisprudence & Legal History, has published The Merchant on Stage. Grand Narratives in the History of Commercial Law. Here is the abstract.

This article zooms in on generalizing schemes that for a long time underpinned the historiography on the development of commercial law in Western Europe. Over the past decades the theme of commercial law has witnessed a renewed attention from legal historians; one even can argue that it is now slowly becoming a subfield of legal-historical studies. Since the 1980s the topic is fashionable again, after it had been much earlier, foremost in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century. Even though our understanding of the rules and laws concerning trade in the Middle Ages and early modern period has greatly advanced since the 1800s, there remain underlying ideas and assumptions that are – to some extent – still persistent. These – often unchallenged – views are in need of (further) critical enquiry. One way to advance in this regard is to examine the layers of interpretation that have been added over the years. Therefore, one needs to investigate where certain perspectives came from, and how they have been handed down through time.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.