Law professor elected Fellow of British Academy

By Lori Atherton
U-M Law

John G.H. Hudson?, a William W. Cook Global Law Professor at Michigan Law, has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy. One of 42 UK-based scholars to be named a Fellow of the Academy this year, Hudson was elected in both the sections of medieval studies and law.

Founded in 1902, the British Academy recognizes scholars who have achieved distinction in the humanities and social sciences, and has a fellowship of about 1,300 academics. Each year, the Academy elects a small cadre of UK-based scholars to its fellowship, along with Corresponding Fellows who are selected from overseas. Previous Michigan Law FBAs include another legal historian, the late Professor A.W. Brian Simpson.

“I am delighted and honored to be elected to the British Academy,” Hudson said. “I am particularly pleased to be elected in the fields both of medieval studies and of law. I owe more than can be said to my colleagues over the years. Working at Michigan Law has been extremely invigorating for me, providing me with stimulating ideas from a wide range of approaches to legal scholarship, which contribute greatly to my own work in legal history.”

Hudson, who has taught at Michigan Law since 2010, is professor of legal history and the director of the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is an expert on ninth- to 13th-century England, particularly the fields of law and historical writing. His research also investigates the late 19th-century study of medieval England. He currently is working on the comparative history of legal development in England and Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries.

In addition to his Fellowship of the British Academy, Hudson is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is also the general editor of the series Medieval Law and its Practice, and is best known as author of volume II of the Oxford History of the Laws of England.