The unexpected benefit of hindsight: Reassessing the legal importance of the black death from the vantage point of the Covid pandemic

Sandberg, Russell ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4310-9677 2022. The unexpected benefit of hindsight: Reassessing the legal importance of the black death from the vantage point of the Covid pandemic. Law & Justice 188 , pp. 38-50.

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Abstract

Historians are usually critical of hindsight but this article suggests that sometimes it can have an unexpected benefit. Sharing a similar experience faced in the past can afford a greater appreciation of that experience, especially if subsequent historians did not have that experience. This article suggests that our experiences of the Covid pandemic can enrich our appreciation of the legal significance of the Black Death in the fourteenth century. It revisits work on the main legal effects of the Black Death – and the thesis put forward by Robert Palmer that stresses it transformational impact upon law and governance – in light of the experiences of the Covid pandemic (so far). It asks what can be learnt from this comparison in terms of understanding legal change in both the fourteenth and twenty-first centuries.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Law
Subjects:	K Law > KD England and Wales
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 April 2022
Date of Acceptance:	31 March 2022
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2023 08:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/149019

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