Juristes et droits savants: Bologne et la France Médiéval


Book Description

This fourth collection by Professor André Gouron presents a set of twenty studies on jurisprudence, jurists and legal practice in the 12th and 13th centuries. The focus is on the schools and traditions of Bologna and in France, but the coverage includes canon, Roman and customary law. The first part deals with theories diffused by the jurists of Bologna and France and the literary genres in which they expressed these theories, particularly on questions of presumptions, proof, and illicit conditions. In the second section the author looks at some of the persons involved in the juridical renaissance of this period, and at some of the effects of the legal doctrines being taught on royal legislation, procedure, the fiscal system, and urban autonomy. Ce volume - le quatrième de l’auteur dans cette collection - réunit vingt articles du professeur Gouron. Onze de ces articles forment une première partie, consacrée aux théories diffusées par les juristes de Bologne ou de France et aux genres littéraires à travers lesquels s’expriment ces théories, notamment en matière de présomptions, de preuve par témoins ou de conditions illicites. La seconde partie du volume rassemble neuf articles qui traitent de divers acteurs, célèbres ou obscurs, de la renaissance juridique, ainsi que des effets des doctrines enseignées par les romanistes et les canonistes sur la législation royale, la procédure, le système fiscal et l’autonomie urbaine.




The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession


Book Description

In the aftermath of sixth-century barbarian invasions, the legal profession that had grown and flourished during the Roman Empire vanished. Nonetheless, professional lawyers suddenly reappeared in Western Europe seven hundred years later during the 1230s when church councils and public authorities began to impose a body of ethical obligations on those who practiced law. James Brundage’s The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession traces the history of legal practice from its genesis in ancient Rome to its rebirth in the early Middle Ages and eventual resurgence in the courts of the medieval church. By the end of the eleventh century, Brundage argues, renewed interest in Roman law combined with the rise of canon law of the Western church to trigger a series of consolidations in the profession. New legal procedures emerged, and formal training for proctors and advocates became necessary in order to practice law in the reorganized church courts. Brundage demonstrates that many features that characterize legal advocacy today were already in place by 1250, as lawyers trained in Roman and canon law became professionals in every sense of the term. A sweeping examination of the centuries-long power struggle between local courts and the Christian church, secular rule and religious edict, The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession will be a resource for the professional and the student alike.







Histoire du droit savant (13e–18e siècle)


Book Description

This third selection of articles by Robert Feenstra complements the two previously published, continuing his studies of doctrines of private law and of texts related to university teaching from the 13th century into the early modern period. In the section on private law, some pieces deal with the Middle Ages, while others focus on Hugo Grotius. Property is again an important topic, but this time joined by legal personality (foundations) and negligence (vicarious liability included). The studies on the history of texts are mainly concerned with works dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. One is devoted to a little-known civil law teacher at the University of Orléans and his commentary on a part of the Digest. The four others deal with treatises belonging to the so-called 'vulgarisation' of the 'droit savant' (medieval Roman and Canon law); most of these include important contributions to the history of early printing (incunabula and post-incunabula). Cette troisième sélection d'articles de Robert Feenstra complète les deux précédentes; elle constitue la suite de ses études sur les doctrines de droit privé et sur des textes se rapportant à l'enseignement universitaire du XIIIe jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle. Dans la section consacrée au droit privé, quelques articles s'occupent en premier lieu du moyen âge, d'autres focalisent sur Hugo Grotius. La propriété est de nouveau un sujet important, mais elle se trouve en compagnie de la personnalité juridique (notamment par rapport aux fondations) et de la responsabilité civile (y compris la responsabilité du fait d'autrui). Les études sur l'histoire des textes concernent surtout quelques ouvrages du XIVe et du XVe siècle. La première est consacrée à un professeur de droit civil peu connu de l'université d'Orléans et à son commentaire sur l'une des trois parties du Digeste. Les quatre autres s'occupent de traités appartenant à la "vulgarisation" du droit savant (droit romain et droit canonique au moye




Order in the Court: Medieval Procedural Treatises in Translation


Book Description

In Order in the Court, Brasington translates and comments upon the earliest medieval treatises on ecclesiastical legal procedure. Beginning with the eleventh-century “Marturi Case,” the first citation of the Digest in court since late antiquity and the jurist Bulgarus’ letter to Haimeric, the papal chancellor, we witness the evolution of Roman-law procedure in Italy. The study then focusses on Anglo-Norman works, all from the second half of the twelfth century. The De edendo, the Practica legum of Bishop William of Longchamp, and the Ordo Bambergensis blend Roman and canon law to guide the judge, advocate, and litigant in court. These reveal the study and practice of the learned law during the turbulent “Age of Becket” and its aftermath.




The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law


Book Description

By the end of the thirteenth century, court procedure in continental Europe in secular and ecclesiastical courts shared many characteristics. As the academic jurists of the Ius commune began to excavate the norms of procedure from Justinian's great codification of law and then to expound them in the classroom and in their writings, they shaped the structure of ecclesiastical courts and secular courts as well. These essays also illuminate striking differences in the sources that we find in different parts of Europe. In northern Europe the archives are rich but do not always provide the details we need to understand a particular case. In Italy and Southern France the documentation is more detailed than in other parts of Europe but here too the historical records do not answer every question we might pose to them. In Spain, detailed documentation is strangely lacking, if not altogether absent. Iberian conciliar canons and tracts on procedure tell us much about practice in Spanish courts. As these essays demonstrate, scholars who want to peer into the medieval courtroom, must also read letters, papal decretals, chronicles, conciliar canons, and consilia to provide a nuanced and complete picture of what happened in medieval trials. This volume will give sophisticated guidance to all readers with an interest in European law and courts.




Pionniers du droit occidental au Moyen Age


Book Description

'Pioneers' seems fitting to Professor Gouron to describe the jurists (civilists) of the 12th-century Latin West, that were the bearers of a new science, born in Bologna about 1100. Away from Bologna these pioneers were isolated, scattered from Scotland to Styria or Catalonia, and no more than one hundred can now be identified. These people, and their manuscripts and the relationships between them, are the subject of this collection, the fifth in the Variorum series by André Gouron, himself to be regarded as a pioneer in this field of research. This volume brings together twenty-two studies which have appeared since 1997 in widely scattered publications, often hard to access, along with additional notes and indexes.




A History of Law in Europe


Book Description

The first English translation of a comprehensive legal history of Europe from the early middle ages to the twentieth century, encompassing both the common aspects and the original developments of different countries. As well as legal scholars and professionals, it will appeal to those interested in the general history of European civilisation.




The Oxford Handbook of European Legal History


Book Description

European law, including both civil law and common law, has gone through several major phases of expansion in the world. European legal history thus also is a history of legal transplants and cultural borrowings, which national legal histories as products of nineteenth-century historicism have until recently largely left unconsidered. The Handbook of European Legal History supplies its readers with an overview of the different phases of European legal history in the light of today's state-of-the-art research, by offering cutting-edge views on research questions currently emerging in international discussions. The Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter both nationally and systemically. Unlike traditional European legal histories, which tend to concentrate on "heartlands" of Europe (notably Italy and Germany), the Europe of the Handbook is more versatile and nuanced, taking into consideration the legal developments in Europe's geographical "fringes" such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The Handbook covers all major time periods, from the ancient Greek law to the twenty-first century. Contributors include acknowledged leaders in the field as well as rising talents, representing a wide range of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise and research agendas.




Conflicts, Confessions, and Contracts


Book Description

Diocesan Justice in Late Fifteenth-Century Carpentras uses notarial records from the 1480s to reconstruct the procedures, caseload, and sanctions of the bishop’s court of Carpentras and compare them to other secular and ecclesiastical courts. The court provided a robust forum for debt litigation utilized by a wide variety of people. Its criminal proceedings focused on recidivist clerics who engaged in fights, disobedience, anti-Jewish activities, and sexual transgressions. Its justice varied depending on whether cases involved violence, sex, or contracts. The judge applied sanctions gingerly and protected litigants’ rights carefully, in ways we might not expect: his role was to intervene in, explore, and document conflicts, and to elicit confessions and mediate disputes. Participants exploited this narrative and archival space well.