French and Dutch Statutory Theory

Abstract

Many post-glossators and successors of Bartolus were of French origin or were active on the territory of present-day Southern France. However, the economic and political situation in Northern Italy and France differed. In contrast to the city-states of Northern Italy, where feudalism had been liquidated for all practical purposes, the economic situation in France was dominated by the continued existence of feudal relations which were relatively stronger in the north of the country than in the south. The period of the activity of the followers of the post-glossators in France was at the same time the period when the individual French provinces, ruled by feudal lords, were being integrated into a politically united state, the subsequent absolute monarchy. The urban commercial elements, concentrated primarily in Paris, were interested both in the creation of a single, national market and in the unification of the country.’ The emerging and growing bourgeoisie thus became the natural ally of royal authority in the latter’s struggle for the subjection of the powerful feudal magnates and the curtailment of their privileges. As for French law, Roman law — in contrast to Northern Italy — did not enjoy the authority of the law in force and at the most merely influenced the creation of the consuetudinary law (called coutumes) existing in the southern provinces of France.