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b'In\\xa0An Empire of Laws: Legal Pluralism in British Colonial Policy\\xa0(Yale University Press, 2023), Dr. Christian R. Burset presents a compelling reexamination of how Britain used law to shape its empire.\\nFor many years, Britain tried to impose its own laws on the peoples it conquered, and English common law usually followed the Union Jack. But the common law became less common after Britain emerged from the Seven Years\\u2019 War (1754\\u201363) as the world\\u2019s most powerful empire. At that point, imperial policymakers adopted a strategy of legal pluralism: some colonies remained under English law, while others, including parts of India and former French territories in North America, retained much of their previous legal regimes.\\nAs legal historian Dr. Burset argues, determining how much English law a colony received depended on what kind of colony Britain wanted to create. Policymakers thought English law could turn any territory into an anglicized, commercial colony; legal pluralism, in contrast, would ensure a colony\\u2019s economic and political subordination. Britain\\u2019s turn to legal pluralism thus reflected the victory of a new vision of empire\\u2014authoritarian, extractive, and tolerant\\u2014over more assimilationist and egalitarian alternatives. Among other implications, this helps explain American colonists\\u2019 reverence for the common law: it expressed and preserved their equal status in the empire. This book, the first empire-wide overview of law as an instrument of policy in the eighteenth-century British Empire, offers an imaginative rethinking of the relationship between tolerance and empire.\\n\\nThis interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose\\xa0forthcoming book\\xa0focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law'