Bruce O’Brien, professor of history at the University of Mary Washington, is leading historical research into the origins of English law with the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) of the University of London and the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London.
The ten-year project, titled “Early English Laws,” will edit and translate over 150 legal codes and treatises composed in England from the earliest code (A.D. 600) to the issuing of the Magna Carta in 1215, the formative period of the Common Law. Funded for its first three years by a major research grant (£639,000 /$958,000) from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the United Kingdom, the project will make the laws available online and printed volumes. Dr. O’Brien and Jane Winters, director of publications at IHR, have been directing the effort since January 1.
Dr. O’Brien chairs the Literary Board that has overall direction of the editions, including recruitment of editorial teams to do individual editions. The Board includes Dr. Paul Brand (All Souls College Oxford), John Hudson (University of St. Andrews), Simon Keynes (Trinity College Cambridge), Lisi Oliver (Louisiana State University), Jürg-Rainer Schwyter (University of Lausanne), Richard Sharpe (Wadham College Oxford) and Ian Short (Birkbeck College London).
Dr. O’Brien has taught at Mary Washington since 1990 and is an expert in early medieval English history. He studied at St. Olaf College and Oxford University for his B.A., and earned both masters’ degrees and a doctoral degree from Yale University. He has been a Visiting Fellow of Harvard Law School and affiliate faculty at Georgetown University and the recipient of grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society.
The Institute of Historical Research is a member of the School of Advanced Study with the University of London and one of the key institutions supporting graduate work and faculty research in all fields of history. The Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London is one of the foremost institutions in the world in creating and shaping digital projects.