Why did 'equality' become prominent in European societies based on hierarchy during the Enlightenment? What does 'equality' imply for societies, politics, or legal systems? The contributors to this volume draw on various historical case studies, from visionary practices in revolutionary France and the collection of data on the poor in 19th-century Germany, to claims raised under the minority regime of the League of Nations and the anti-discrimination politics of the UN and India. The dynamics of universalizing equality are contrasted with a concept asserting that equality must be limited to and by order. The contributions thus explore concepts of equality from the perspectives of history and law and show that practices of comparing were essential when it came to imagining others as equal, fighting discrimination, or scandalizing social inequalities.

Ulrike Davy, born in 1955, is a law professor at the Faculty of Law at Universität Bielefeld and member of the university council. Her fields of expertise include human rights law, anti-discrimination law, migration and refugee law, global and European social policy, German social security law, and welfare state theory. Antje Flüchter, born in 1969, is a professor of early modern history at the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology at Universität Bielefeld. Her fields of expertise are early modern global history, history of religion and piety, cultural history of the political, gender and history of knowledge and theory.