How the Law Evolved
Laws we take for granted are often recent. Each chart here follows one subject through the main laws and court decisions of several countries, on one timeline, so you can see when each country moved and who went first. More subjects will be added.
Part of the comparative law toolkit.
Marriage and divorce
England and Wales · United States · France · 35 turning points
Three centuries of marriage law in England and Wales, the United States and France: who may marry and how, how a marriage can end, and what a husband and wife may own and do on their own.
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The right to vote
United Kingdom · United States · France · 23 turning points
Two centuries of the franchise in the United Kingdom, the United States and France: how the vote spread from property owners to all men, to women, to people of every race and to eighteen-year-olds.
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The end of slavery
United Kingdom · France · United States · Brazil · 17 turning points
How the law ended the slave trade and then slavery itself in the United Kingdom, France, the United States and Brazil, across eighty years in the nineteenth century.
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The death penalty
United Kingdom · France · United States · 21 turning points
Two centuries of the death penalty in the United Kingdom, the United States and France: how the list of capital crimes shrank, how executions changed and when each country abolished it or restored it.
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Women's legal capacity and work
United Kingdom · United States · France · 32 turning points
A century and a half of the law on women's education, professions, pay and legal standing in the United Kingdom, the United States and France: when universities, the bar and the workplace opened, and when equal treatment became law.
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Decriminalising homosexuality
United Kingdom · United States · France · Germany · 32 turning points
How the law first punished and then decriminalised sex between men, and later protected and recognised same-sex couples, in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany.
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Citizenship and nationality
United Kingdom · United States · France · Germany · 35 turning points
How the law decided who is a citizen at birth, who may become one later, how a woman's marriage affected her nationality, and when citizenship could be lost, in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany.
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Inheritance taxes
Europe · Asia and Oceania · Americas · 29 turning points
Inheritance and estate taxes were introduced in the late 1800s and early 1900s and abolished by many countries from the 1970s on. This chart shows when, across Europe, Asia and Oceania and the Americas.
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The Nuremberg Principles
Trials and tribunals · Charters and principles · Treaties and conventions · Courts that came later · 20 turning points
The Nuremberg Principles explained: the seven principles of international law drawn from the Nuremberg trial, what the tribunal decided about the 22 defendants, and a timeline of the law of war crimes from the Hague Conventions to the International Criminal Court.
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Britain and the EU
Making law and ruling on it · Trade · People and movement · Northern Ireland · 25 turning points
UK law in three eras: before joining the European Communities, during membership from 1973 to 2020, and after Brexit. A timeline of the main laws and decisions, and a side-by-side table of what changed for lawmaking, courts, trade, people and Northern Ireland.
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Read this first
These charts show the main turning points in the law of several countries, from our own knowledge. Each entry is one law or decision, dated by when it was passed or decided; the date it took effect is sometimes later. A chart is a map of turning points, not a complete history, and it records the law on paper, not how it was applied. Check the statutes and decisions named for the exact wording. It is general information, not legal advice.
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TheLawToKnow Tools. How the Law Evolved. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-evolution.
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