| Introduction Stefan B. Kirmse To avoid potential misunderstandings: 'one law for all?' is not used as a political slogan in this book. Admittedly, along with related concepts in other languages, such as idem ius omnibus or gleiches Recht für alle, the phrase has been used to further a wide range of political agendas. Feminist, civil liberties and gay rights groups have utilized the slogan to call for greater equality; racist groups in North America have exploited it as a means to denounce the allegedly preferential treatment of minorities; and most recently, a secularist movement in the United Kingdom has adopted it as the title for its campaign against shari'a law, which it views as gaining influence among British Muslims. In this book, the phrase is neither employed to advocate a political cause nor used to refer solely to legal equality (or the lack of it). Offering a point of entry into the study of legal debate and practice in imperial and post-imperial contexts, it served as a guiding research question for a conference hosted by the Department of East European History (which explains the strong representation of historians of Russia in this volume) at Humboldt University in the fall of 2010. It struck the organizers of the conference, on which this volume is based, as a useful to |
