This anthology of articles by a number of European legal historians addresses current international debates on methodological issues within the field of legal history. The book has two underlying themes. The first is the critique of making the applicative legal purpose an important factor in defining legal history as a discipline. The second theme is the manifold ways that ought to be explored in the readings past legal texts as part of legal historical research. This also leads authors to reflect upon the totality of past legal communications meaning not only texts, but past oral and visual communications on law as well.