Books by Alan Watson

This book describes the history of a humble family that migrated from England to Ireland in the mid 17th c and put down roots at Kilconnor, County Carlow. By the end of the century many members of the family had joined the Society of Friends and were part of the landed gentry. During the late 17th c and 18th c family members established themselves elsewhere in Ireland and later in Australia, England and New Zealand where they rose to prominence in a wide variety of roles, eventually abandoning Friends for the established church. Today the family is still held in high regard for its past and ongoing contributions to equestrian sports including horse racing, fox-hunting, polo and in this era, three day eventing.In Ireland, Solomon Watson established a well-known but doomed bank in Clonmel, County Tipperary. John Henry Watson of Ballydarton, County Carlow, master of the Carlow and Island hunt, started the Watsons' association with hunting in which they became preeminent from the end of the 18th c. After serving in India, a later John Henry Watson helped develop the game of polo, and his Freebooters team won the first international polo match against the Americans. Corona Deane Lecky Watson is remembered with great affection for her exquisite cultivated gardens at Altamont, County Carlow, which she bequeathed to the Republic of Ireland. In recent times John Wilfred Watson represented Ireland in the Olympics, won silver in the world eventing championship and team gold in the Europeans. His son Samuel James Watson won a team silver in the same event in 2018.In England, John Boles Watson established theatres in the South-West, the Midlands and Wales, including the Theatre-Royal in Cheltenham, and in the 20th c John Arthur Fergus Watson became a reforming magistrate, prison visitor, campaigner on juvenile justice, author and president of the Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors. Alister George Douglas Watson was secretary of The Cambridge Apostles and friend of Keynes and Wittgenstein. During WWII he helped design millimetre radar and later became head of anti-submarine warfare research. Peter Wright, the author of 'Spycatcher' accused him of being 'the fifth man' although later evidence showed otherwise.In Australia, George John Watson, 'the prince of starters', developed the hunt in Victoria, ran a coaching business, bred horses, raced and helped found the Victorian Racing Club. His children were well-known sportsmen, adventurers and pioneers in Queensland and the Northern Territory. His cousin William Currie Watson, a popular sportsman, was a pioneer in Gippsland, Victoria, where he cleared 300-ft trees and dense scrub to create a dairy farm and help establish a thriving dairy industry. John Watson, another relative, shipped to New Zealand in 1843 where he was appointed magistrate for the wild frontier district of Akaroa on the South Island.Again, from the 19th c onwards, many family members served with distinction in the military, in India, South Africa, Europe and the middle east.The stories related in this book derive from meticulous research conducted by the authors who have utilied information provided by Watson descendants and from collections of diaries, photographs letters and other documents. The book is printed in colour with well referenced text, hundreds of illustrations, 30 tables and a comprehensive index. It includes genealogical charts for the various families, a colour code for each branch and an ID number for each individual.

A comparative and historical examination of the way legal rules and structures relate to society. The book includes a revised and enlarged version of the author's ""The Law of the Ancient Romans"" with a discussion of the role of comparative law in uncovering the causes of legal development.

In Legal Transplants, one of the world's foremost authorities on legal history and comparative law puts forth a clear and concise statement of his controversial thesis on the way that law has developed throughout history. Alan Watson's argument challenges the long-prevailing notion that a close connection exists between the law and the society in which it operates.

This work discloses inconsistencies in the interpretation of laws from ancient Roman edicts to the present-day crisis in legal education. It illustrates that only by understanding comparative legal history and paying attention to changes in society can we hope to devise fair and respected laws.

Alan Watson argues that a close examination of the Gospels in their historic and religious context reveals St. Mark's text as the most plausible account of how Jesus saw himself and how he was perceived by his contemporaries. In the gospel of Mark, Watson says that we see a Jesus who was basically apolitical, hostile to dogma, and deliberately incomprehensible to his followers and enemies.

Studies the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death by a mob outside of Jerusalem around AD36 during his trial by the supreme rabbinic court for blasphemy against the Jewish faith. Alan Watson focuses on Stephen's enthralling defense speech, as found solely in the Acts of Apostles, which is both the pivotal and, until now, least understood part of the fatal proceedings.

Measures the success of Jesus's ministry by explaining his attitude toward, and knowledge of, certain laws and legal customs. Alan Watson argues that Jesus engendered harsh responses from his fellow Jews by his apparently contemptuous or insensitive behaviour that stemmed from a lack of knowledge or concern about legal and rabbinic strictures.

Argues that by virtue of Jesus's conviction and crucifixion at the hands of the Romans he failed to fulfil the prophecy of his messiahship in the manner he had intended. Jesus's destiny, as he saw it, was to be condemned by the Jewish authorities to death by stoning. This is just one of the provoking insights in Alan Watson's fresh interpretation of the arrest, trial, and conviction of Jesus.

In Jesus and the Jews, Alan Watson reveals and substantiates a central yet previously unrecognized source for the composition of the Gospel of John. Strikingly antithetical to John's basic message, this source originated from an anti-Christian tradition promulgated by the Pharisees, the powerful and dogmatic teachers of Jewish law. The aims of this Pharisaic tradition, argues Watson, included discrediting Jesus as the Messiah, minimizing his historical importance, and justifying the Jewish authorities' role in his death. Jesus and the Jews joins three other works by Watson--The Trial of Jesus, Jesus and the Law, and Jesus: A Profile--to examine the early dynamism of western religion through refocused attention on biblical texts and other historical sources.

Examines the decisions of Supreme Court justice and Harvard law professor Joseph Story (1779-1845). Demonstrating the odd twists and turns that legal development sometimes takes, the book is also a fascinating case study that reveals much about the relationship of law to society.

Analyzes the interaction of law and religion in ancient Rome, offering a new perspective on the nature and development of Roman law in the early republic and empire before Christianity was recognized and encouraged by Constantine.

In this book, Alan Watson argues that the slave laws of North and South America-the written codes defining the relationship of masters to slaves-reflect not so much the culture and society of the various colonies but the legal traditions of England, Europe, and ancient Rome.

By examining law's influence from Homeric Greece to present-day Armenia, this text concludes that ancient law is both relevant and important for the understanding of history, theology, sociology and literature.

Discusses about the values and approaches, explicit and implicit, of those who made the Roman law. This book presents the issues and problems that faced the Roman legal intelligentsia.

Argues that law fails to keep step with social change, even when that change is massive. To illustrate the ways in which law is dysfunctional, this work draws on the two most innovative western systems, of Rome and England, to show that harmful rules continue for centuries.