‘Weak’ Legal Pluralism and the Eighteenth-Century English Ecclesiastical Courts

Abstract

ABSTRACT The work of the eighteenth-century English ecclesiastical courts has received very little scholarly attention when compared with their seventeenth- or nineteenth century counterparts or the eighteenth-century temporal courts. And yet there was significant overlap between the two systems, particularly between the ‘disciplinary’ work of the ecclesiastical courts and the ‘criminal’ work of the temporal courts. Using a heuristic of ‘weak’ legal pluralism, this article examines the work of the ecclesiastical courts and shows that neither system can be understood adequately without reference to the other.