Contents -- Notes on Editors and Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part One Legal Authority and Imperial Frameworks -- Law, Authority and Legitimacy in the Athenian Empire -- Roman Law from City State to World Empire -- Laws, Bureaucrats, and Imperial Women in China's Early Empire -- The Ruler and Law Making in the Ottoman Empire -- The Early Modern Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (1495-1806): A Multi-Layered Legal System -- Part Two Institutionalising Empire: Practices of Lawmaking and Adjudication -- The Contribution of Early Islamic Rulers to Adjudication and Legislation: The Case of the Mazalim Tribunals -- Charlemagne and the Government of the Frankish Countryside -- The Law Factor in Ottoman-Crimean Tatar Relations in the Early Modern Period -- Qing Imperial Justice? The Case of Li Shiyao -- Part Three Legal Pluralism in Empires: Encounters and Responses -- Thinking through Legal Pluralism: 'Forum shopping' in the Later Roman Empire -- Leges Nationum and Ethnic Personality of Law in Charlemagne's Empire -- Non-Muslims and Ottoman Justice(s?) -- Royal Grace, Royal Punishment: Ceremonial Entries and the Pardoning of Criminals in France, c. 1440-1560 -- Divine Violence to Uphold Moral Values: The Casebook of an Emperor Guan Temple in Hunan Province in 1851-1852 -- Index.