Asymmetrical Dependency: A view from Global Legal History

Legal historians have been researching different forms of asymmetric dependency since at least the 19th century. In most continental European research communities, they have concentrated on legal institutions and regulatory traditions. Since jurists have always been particularly interested in problematic cases, legal historical research has been able to describe a huge variety of forms of asymmetric dependencies beyond the binary vision of freedom and slavery. The focus of most legal historians’ interest in the continental European tradition, however, has been in what could be called "jurists’ law" (Juristenrecht).