Chapter 2 traces the development of legal education and legal theory in Mandatory Palestine. The chapter discusses the history of the three institutions that provided legal education in Mandatory Palestine: the British Jerusalem Law Classes, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics. Each reflected a distinct ideological approach, with the Tel Aviv School inspired by Continental academic traditions and cultural nationalism to advocate for a revival of Jewish law. The chapter also examines theoretical works on the nature of law published by British and Jewish scholars in Palestine. While focusing on Jewish scholars in Mandatory Palestine, the chapter also examines some works written by Palestinian-Arab lawyers. Overall, the chapter argues that, like colonial India, Mandatory Palestine was a site of legal innovation, where local scholars critically engaged with imported legal ideas, applying them to the study of local religious law.

Chapter 6 explores early 20th-century scholarship on ancient Jewish public law written in the Jewish Diaspora and Mandatory Palestine. The chapter shows how rabbis and legal scholars, many of whom were associated in some way with the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics, argued that Jewish law contained democratic, egalitarian, and international legal principles compatible with modern values. They claimed that Jewish law could be seen as an innovative legal system capable of being used to create the constitutional law of a modern state. In Jewish law, they argued, one could find notions such as the rule of law, separation of powers, equality, norms governing international relations, and principles urging the humane treatment of foreigners, women, and slaves. The chapter discusses critiques of this literature from secular liberals, right-wing nationalists, and ultra-Orthodox thinkers. It also briefly mentions analogous discussions of Islamic public law found in works published by Palestinian-Arab authors, and the impact of this literature on Jewish constitutional discourse in the period immediately before and after Israeli independence in 1948.

Chapter 4 discusses the life and thought of Samuel Eisenstadt, one of the founders of the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics. Eisenstadt was a Russian-born Jewish legal scholar. His career spanned pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union, Mandatory Palestine, and Israel. His legal scholarship drew on the German Historical School, which viewed law as a historical and cultural phenomenon, and on Marxist legal theory, which described law as an instrument of class struggle. Eisenstadt sought to show the superiority of Jewish law, for example, by arguing that traditional institutions of Jewish legal education were better than Western ones because of their non-elitist and non-materialist nature, or by arguing for a genealogy of labor and international law which located its origins in the Bible. Eisenstadt was also engaged in apologetic efforts to defend the more problematic aspects of Jewish law, such as its treatment of slaves and women. Eisenstadt’s legal thought provides an example of the intersection of legal nationalism and socialism, and the attempt to reconcile Jewish traditions with progressive ideology.

The introduction sets the stage for the story told in this book about the comparative history of legal education and legal theory in colonial India and Mandatory Palestine during the early twentieth century. The book challenges the assumption that non-Western legal scholars were merely passive recipients of Western ideas. Instead, it argues that Hindu and Jewish legal thinkers, shaped by nationalist ideologies and responding to the crisis of liberal individualism, actively engaged with contemporary Western legal theories to contest Western portrayals of their religious legal traditions, as part of a broader non-Western jurisprudential wave, which also appeared in places such as Egypt and China. The introduction discusses the contribution of the book to the global history of jurisprudence and legal theory, the history of comparative law, and the study of the relationship of religious law and politics. It also provides an overview of the structure of the book.

The 1930s saw both the rise of militantly racist regimes in Europe and a dramatic increase in Jewish immigration in Mandatory Palestine, which provoked a radicalisation of Arab opposition to the Zionist settlements. Meanwhile, Ireland experienced a further polarisation and a hardening of partition. The chapter looks first at the various manifestations of the sectarian mindset of the times. Then it examines the outbreak of sectarian violence of the summer 1935, which spread rapidly from Northern Ireland to the Twenty-Six Counties. The chapter then discusses the minorities’ responses to the 1937 Constitution and the election of the first President of Éire, the Protestant Douglas Hyde. By comparison with most of the rest of Europe, Ireland was a safe haven. In any case, the two minorities had very limited options, which, as usual, boiled down to a choice between emigration and submission. Many continued to emigrate, and for Jews Zionism represented the prospect of equality and liberty in the promised land. Mandatory Palestine also attracted the attention of Irish Protestants, some inspired by religious considerations, others by their imperial mindset.

This chapter continues the discussion of the centrality of the Holy Land in both the imaginary and the actual politics of the Irish religious minorities. In 1926 the Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State, Isaac Herzog, moved to Jerusalem and to a much more prestigious Chief Rabbinate. The chapter follows the development of his philosophy, his interaction with various Zionists groups, and the parallel development of an Irish Protestant Zionism (Irish Protestants held positions of power and influence in the administration of the Mandate). If the Mandate was part of the new liberal empire, it was also a military frontier, a new Ulster. The Hebron riots of 1928 generated a strong reaction among both Irish minorities, with the development of a vocal Christian Zionism in Éire and among southern Irish Protestants serving in Palestine. From the early 1930s a renewal of anti-Semitism in Continental Europe added to the significance and urgency of Zionism. The chapter then follows the response of the authorities to the question of Jewish refugees, with three case studies: Palestine itself, the Irish Free State (which became Éire in 1937), and Northern Ireland.

The chapter delves into Dayan’s early life, tracing his family history from his birth in the first Israeli Kibbutz Degania to his upbringing at Moshav Nahalal. It explores Dayan’s education and the formative events that shaped his character, including his complex relations with his Arab neighbors. Despite admiring the nomadic Bedouin tribes and forming close friendships with some of them, Dayan also engaged in local skirmishes over land disputes. His early exposure to handling weapons and combat, under the guidance of exceptional mentors such as Orde Wingate and Yitzhak Sadeh, honed his skills in guerrilla tactics and leadership. Joining the Haganah early on, Dayan and fellow members were imprisoned by the British, only to be released to aid in the defense of Palestine as the Germans approached. During a British raid against Vichy-controlled Lebanon in 1942, Dayan suffered a debilitating eye injury, which, while halting his operational advancements, ultimately steered him towards a career in politics and a close relationship with David Ben Gurion, Israel’s foremost leader.