The English Difference: The Application of Bureaucratic Norms within a Legal System

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Brand
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Professional Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Legal Procedures

Susan Reynolds has written a typically wide-ranging, and thought-provoking, article about the process of transition from what she calls “the diffused, undifferentiated, customary law” that was characteristic of Western Europe in the early medieval period to the various different forms of “professional law” that were characteristic of the higher courts of Western Europe in the later middle ages. This is a process that she characterizes, surely correctly, as an “important stage of legal history,” for it was only as an end result of this process of transformation that there emerged law courts and legal procedures and substantial bodies of legal rules that are recognizably the distant ancestors of their modern European and American counterparts. It was also this process of transformation that changed for ever the relationship between law and the society that this law regulated and in which it was embedded in Western European societies. Her article makes no claim to be a definitive study of this process. It is more a pointer to the work that still needs to be done to enable full transnational comparisons to be made between the different ways the process happened within different legal systems and between the different systems that were created through these changes. She does, nonetheless, state some tentative conclusions and point to what she sees as some of the prime factors in bringing about the transformation.

The Emergence of Professional Law in the Long Twelfth Century

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
Professional Law ◽  
Anglo American

The object of this article is to draw attention to an area of European legal history that I think deserves more investigation. It is the change in legal practice caused by the transition from the diffused, undifferentiated, customary law of the earlier middle ages to the various forms of expert, esoteric, professional law that dominated the higher courts of the later middle ages. The suggestion that this has not been much studied may seem odd but, though much has been written on the new study of Roman law, those who work on it have tended to concentrate on the intellectual achievements of the glossators and post-glossators, rather than on practice. Practice in canon law has received more attention, notably from legal historians trained in the Anglo-American tradition, but this has not focused closely on twelfth-century origins. The beginnings of English common law have also been much studied and, since it started off as largely a matter of procedures, that has indeed meant looking at practice. The traditional teleology of legal history has, however, prevented much cross-fertilization with the history of other legal systems. One example of the consequent detachment of English legal history is the assumption of some English legal historians that Roman law procedures were followed in what they often characterize simply as “the Continent” more generally and earlier than seems to have been the case in most areas north of the Alps. Both in England and elsewhere many legal historians concentrate on the period from the thirteenth century on, when sources become more plentiful. Meanwhile, social historians of early medieval western Europe, including England, have argued—to my mind successfully, though I am hardly unprejudiced—that early medieval law was not just a weak, ritualized, and irrational response to feuds and violence, but their investigations tend to stop before the professionals took over. The result is that, apart from recent pioneering work on twelfth-century Tuscany by Chris Wickham, the transition in court practice outside England has been neglected.

Public Powers, Private Powers, and the Exploitation of Metals for Coinage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Italian Journal ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

In 1994, an article appeared in the Italian journal Archeologia Medievale, written by Chris Wickham and Riccardo Francovich, entitled ‘Uno scavo archeologico ed il problema dello sviluppo della signoria territoriale: Rocca San Silvestro e i rapporti di produzione minerari’. It marked a breakthrough in the study of the exploitation of mineral resources (especially silver) in relation to forms of power, and the associated economic structure, and control of production between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On the basis of the data available to archeological research at the time, the article ended with a series of open questions, especially relating to the early medieval period. The new campaign of field research, focused on the mining landscape of the Colline Metallifere in southern Tuscany, has made it possible to gather more information. While the data that has now been gathered are not yet sufficient to give definite and complete answers to those questions, they nevertheless allow us to now formulate some hypotheses which may serve as the foundations for broader considerations as regards the relationship between the exploitation of a fundamental resource for the economy of the time, and the main players and agents in that system of exploitation, within a landscape that was undergoing transformation in the period between the early medieval period and the middle centuries of the Middle Ages.

The Enduring Interim

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the basic economic life in the Middle Ages, noting the absence of trade or a market during the period. It first considers the legacy of the Romans with respect to economic and political life, including their commitment to the sanctity of private property and Christianity. In particular, it describes Christian attitudes toward wealth and the link between morality and the market. It also examines the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Nicole Oresme before turning to the role of markets in the Middle Ages, along with their special characteristics. Finally, it looks at other aspects of economic life during the medieval period, such as the intrusion of ethics on economics—the fairness or justice of the relationship between master and slave, lord and serf, landlord and sharecropper.

Religious Culture and Customary Legal Tradition: Historical Foundations of European Market Development

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard P. Liggio
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Commercial World ◽  
The World

AbstractThis paper traces back the sources of our present legal system and of market economy to Medieval Europe which itself benefited from Hellenistic and Roman legal culture and commercial practices. Roman provinces placed Rome in the wider Greek cultural and commercial world. If Aristotle was already transcending the narrow polis-based conceptions of his predecessors, after him Hellenistic Civilization saw the emergence of a new school of philosophy: Stoicism. The legal thought in the Latin West will hence be characterized by Cicero’s writings and its Stoic sources. The Roman legal system was similar to the later northern European customary law and the English common law; Roman law was evolutionary and customary. The rise of Western individualism, whether it dates back to St. Augustine in the fifth century, or to the two Papal Revolutions of Gregory I (establishing the nuclear family as the core of individualism) and of Gregory VII, also played a crucial role in shaping the western legal tradition. The paper describes the main forces that led to this second (Gregorian) revolution. Monasticism is one of them. Benedictine monasticism plaid a leading role in the Peace of God Movement. Hence collective oath-taking by groups in the name of peace was essential in the founding of cities and in the formation of guilds. Europe’s economic resurgence in the Eleventh Century was on the basis of the creation of the rule of law by the Peace of God movement. This movement also allowed for Europe’s agricultural economy to progress. Indeed, the European Middle Ages is one of the major periods of technological innovation in the history of the world. The Gregorian Revolution itself was supported and financed by the Commercial Revolution: Italian bankers sustained Papal reformers against the Emperors. The independence of the Italian cities and provinces reveals one of the most important consequences of the Gregorian Revolution: the polycentricism of Western Europe. This Revolution also witnessed the first large number of political pamphlets in European history; the Gregorian clergy emphasizing a compact theory of government. Soon after, the order of Cistercians was founded (1098) and underwent spectacular growth during the next two centuries. The Cistercians accepted no rents or labor services from feudal donors but would take only full possession of land to do with it as they wished.These monasteries were the most economically effective units that had ever existed in Europe, and perhaps in the world, before that time. Finally, the Magna Carta (1215) that will be so influential on modern political thought can be seen as a direct consequence of the Gregorian Revolution.

scholarly journals STUDIES FOR THE CONSERVATION AND VALORISATION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ROCK HERITAGE OF CALASCIBETTA IN SICILY, ITALY

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽  
pp. 311-318
Author(s):  
A. Versaci ◽  
A. Lo Cascio ◽  
L. R. Fauzìa ◽  
A. Cardaci
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Progressive Loss ◽  
3D Documentation ◽  
Archaeological Areas ◽  
The Town

Abstract. The rock settlement of Vallone Canalotto, which stands in the valleys surrounding the town of Calascibetta – about three kilometres north from Enna, Sicily, Italy – testify to a widespread population of the area from prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages, probably linked to the agricultural and pastoral exploitation of its fertile land. This valuable heritage, dug into very soft limestone banks, is now threatened by significant erosion and disruption phenomena, which, in the absence of adequate safeguarding and maintenance actions, will lead to a progressive loss of material and the consequent collapse of some portions, making the documentable traces more and more paltry. The archaeological complex demonstrates the continuity of the funerary use from the remotest ages to the early Christian era, as testified by the excavation of rupestrian columbaria. In the early medieval period, small rural communities used the hypogeal structures for residential and religious purposes. In the present work, integrated procedures have been put in place for the 3D documentation of these artefacts, whose effectiveness has already been tested by the same team in other Sicilian rock sites. The research aims at the knowledge and cataloguing of places, which are important for the Island’s history but to date only marginally explored. It intends to stimulate and plan adequate conservation and enhancement activities. To improve the attendance of the sites, design proposals have been developed to guarantee greater accessibility to the archaeological areas and their understanding by visitors.

scholarly journals Formation And Development Of Military Architecture In Fergana (Antiquity, Early Middle Ages)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-109
Author(s):  
Dedakhanov Bakhodir
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Military Architecture ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article reveals the problem of the development of military architecture in the territory of ancient Fergana, based on the long-term research of archaeologists of Uzbekistan. It identifies the main factors that have contributed to the improvement of this architecture. In each separately taken historical period, starting from the Bronze Age, the author defines the characteristic features of the fortification architecture of Fergana cities based on specific examples. At the same time, a comparative analysis with neighboring historical and cultural regions (Sogd and Khorezm) is performed, and the issues of the continuity of traditions and evolutionary development in this type of structure are revealed using the examples of military architecture of the early medieval period.

The Mission to Constantinople in 968 and Liudprand of Cremona

Traditio ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 55-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon N. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Detailed Record ◽  
East West

Of the documents that concern the relationship between Byzantium and Western Europe in the early Middle Ages, none is more famous or more frequently read than Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana, Liudprand of Cremona's description of his mission to Constantinople in 968 for Otto I. Much has been learned from his vivid if acid narrative about the Byzantine court of Nicephorus II Phocas and about East-West relations in the tenth century. Over the last forty years research has reached beneath the vivid prose in search of the true significance of that mission. But since Liudprand's is the only first-hand, detailed record of an embassy to Constantinople of that era, some scholars have given it more contemporary importance than it actually had, and, by extension, they have turned Liudprand's thoughts into subtle expressions of official Western policy. The danger in these inquiries has been to divorce the mind and moods of the creator from his creation and bestow on Relatio undeserved exaltation. The problem is to keep the document in its perspective while draining every sentence of its implications.

Manor Court Procedures, Debt Litigation Levels, and Rural Credit Provision in England, c.1290—c.1380

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Rural Credit ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Methodological Debate

In the last two decades or so, questions of law have moved back to the top of the research agenda in work on medieval English manor courts. This marks a shift away from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, when the historians on both sides of the Atlantic who established the court roll as the pre-eminent source for everyday life in the countryside sought inspiration from the social sciences rather than legal history. The court roll studies published in that period generated much methodological debate about use of these records to study peasants and their communities. Nonetheless, in most of those studies, consideration of the manor court as a legal forum first and foremost, or of the implications of reliance on a legal source to study social and economic history, was secondary to analysis of the data in the rolls. More recently, though, scholars have started once again to look at the court roll from the perspective adopted by Maitland in hisSelect Pleas in Manorial and Other Seigniorial Courts. These historians are concerned with defining and characterizing “customary law”: that is, with the nature and principles of the law applied in manor courts; the extent to which those principles were malleable or unchanging; the relationship between the rulings pronounced in the manor courts and those recorded in other areas of the legal system, most importantly the common law courts; and the machinery of manor courts with respect to procedures, personnel, and record keeping.

scholarly journals Uz jedno kronološko pitanje starohrvatske arheologije (postavljeno od Ljube Karamana)

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mate Zekan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Archaeological Science ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
The Middle Ages

Referring to the hypothesis about the appearance of three-beaded earrings in Croatia only in the late period of the Middle Ages, which Stjepan Gunjača based on the hoard find of three-beaded earrings and coins of the Angevin king Louis I (1342-1382) in a closed grave unit found during excavations of the cemetery surrounding the ruined church of St. Michael at Brnaze near Sinj, Ljubo Karaman in his article "Two chronological questions of Early Croatian archaeology" in the first section on "The period of appearance three beaded earrings of the socalled Kiev type in Dalmatian Croatia" first questioned and then rejected Gunjača’s claim. As the main argument for confirmation of his opinion about the appearance of the three beaded earrings in the early medieval period, he presented a photograph from the archives of the Museum of Croatian Antiquities, where the grave unit included spurs of the Carolingian type that he dated to the 9th century, along with a three-beaded earring decorated with filigree. Faced with Karaman’s argument, for which he had no proper answer, Gunjača did not further enter into discussions about the chronology of these earrings. Although more than fifty years have passed since then, in which the science of archaeology has greatly evolved through new findings, the fact remains that numerous art historians and archaeologists involved in the typology and chronology of the Middle Ages of Croatia ignore this opinion of Karaman. In fact, they avoid mentioning this article by Karaman and the arguments set forth in it as if it had never even been written. However, until the dilemma presented by Karaman is not solved, all conjectures about the chronology of this type of jewelry are scientifically defective and inconsistent. The author of this contribution, dedicated to the meritorious archaeologist and professor J. Belošević, solves the problem of Karaman’s hypothesis, by discovering that the three-beaded earring should be removed from the grave unit on the archival photograph, as it was placed there by chance. In this manner a serious problem in archaeological science has been removed and a more justified dating of medieval three-beaded earrings is made possible.

scholarly journals Long Middle Ages or appropriations of the medieval?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (33) ◽  
pp. 97-130
Author(s):  
Maria Eugênia Bertarelli ◽  
Clinio Oliveira Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

We present an overview of the studies on the Middle Ages that exceeds the traditional chronological milestones of the period. Initially, we present the historiography on the Long Middle Ages, a construct that postulates the idea of a medieval world found in the present and thus, beyond the 15th century and the European continent. In contrast, we seek to present the theory of Medievalism which emphasizes the relationship between the contemporary world and the discursive appropriations of the medieval period. This theory is not quite familiar in the Brazilian academic context, but it offers great possibilities to approach the Middle Ages from a more autonomous perspective, rather than the European historiography, on which, historically, medieval studies have been grounded.

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