2 Law, Revolution, and Representation

Abstract

Law in history exists in both abstract and concrete forms and both forms related law, revolution, and representation to one another. It raises questions that serve as springboards for discussing law, revolution, and representation in late medieval Bohemia. As in most medieval communities, more than one type of law had jurisdiction in the kingdom of Bohemia in the late Middle Ages. A brief overview of these types of law makes clear that inhabitants of the Empire and Bohemia lived in a web of jurisdictions. The Hussite Revolution threw into sharp relief that the sovereign, the king, was not the only lawmaker and upholder of the law, but that there were other sources of law. The Hussite Revolution disrupted the administration of law throughout the Bohemian lands. The wars destroyed libraries, such as the one in the Opatovsky monastery, and caused Prague's law university and some law courts to be suspended.Keywords: Hussite Revolution; late medieval Bohemia; law; law courts; Middle Ages; Opatovsky monastery; Prague's law university