A more explicitly 'historical' method appears in his published work from this time with its insistence upon the careful historicisation - the placing in time and place - not only of legal doctrine but also of the notions of legal obligation and the exercise of public authority at play in that setting.
In a series of papers from 1995, McHugh began considering the historiographical properties of legal thought and method and legal process, with Andrew Sharp initiating a debate in New Zealand and Australia that has been continued by other academics and writers such as John Pocock (reproduced in his collection of essays "The discovery of islands" in 2005), W. H. Oliver, Bain Attwood and Giselle Byrnes.