This book considers the judicial development of the signature—its definition, purpose, and legal functions.

Since the thirteenth century, the signature has been used to demonstrate proof of intent. This book puts the concept of the signature into a broad legal context, setting out the purposes and functions of a signature. Drawing on cases from common law jurisdictions across the world, this book demonstrates that judges expanded the meaning of the signature as technologies developed and were used in unanticipated ways.

Following an overview of the historical methods used to demonstrate proof of intent and authentication, the book considers the judicial response to the variations in form that signatures have been subject to over the past two hundred years, from initials, partial signatures, and fingerprints to rubber stamps and typewriting. Past judicial decision-making not only demonstrates the flexibility of the form a signature can take but also confirms that judges had the flexibility of mind to accept the first forms of electronic signature (telex, facsimile transmission) without the aid of special legislation. In this way, the signature is a prime example of the inherent flexibility of the English common law.

Understanding Latin American identity, history, and politics through its infrastructure and architecture.

From roads, railways, statues, and bridges, infrastructure provides a unique lens through which to view our own national histories and societies. Serving as an important conduit between individuals and the state, infrastructure can help mediate citizenship, reshape social relations between people both within and across communities, and has the capacity to underpin—or indeed, undermine—nation-building.

Over the last century, infrastructure has transformed Latin America. Roads, railways, and airports have increased connectivity between spaces, peoples, and markets. Cables, switches, and tunnels have connected households to electricity grids, water systems, and digital technology. Public buildings, parks, and monuments have reshaped towns and cities and emerged as sites to construct and contest citizenship. Infrastructure has been welcomed and celebrated in Latin America, but it has also been resisted and destroyed.

Based on recent, original research, the essays in this collection cover a range of pressing infrastructural considerations, including sustainability, water conflict, extractive mining, and public housing in Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico to better understand how infrastructure has reshaped Latin America over the past century.

A comprehensive historical study into the birth of the law and legal courts in early modern Britain.
 
Star Chamber Matters details some of the fascinating, tragic, and startling cases brought before the Star Chamber, an English court that sat at the Royal Palace of Westminster from the late fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. Through close examination of the breadth and depth of cases brought before the court in its day, readers will experience the trials and tribulations of life, love, and death in Tudor Britain. These cases touch on changing gender roles, shifting religious views, and more. Star Chamber Matters witnesses the birth of English common and civil law as we know it today.