Imperial Law Research Articles

La vacuna contra la viruela en el imperio alemán. La vacunación entre biopolítica y economía moral

Después de una epidemia de viruela en Alemania a principios de la década de 1870 a raíz de la guerra francoalemana, la vacuna antivariólica se hizo obligatoria por Ley Imperial en 1874. La ley se debatió acaloradamente en el parlamento y en pú­blico, y la resistencia ya existente contra la vacunación se convirtió en un movimiento político antivacunas. Por ello, el gobierno alemán adoptó una serie de medidas de seguridad. El artículo actual describe, en primer lugar, las prácticas, regulaciones y políti­cas de vacunación en los estados alemanes hasta la década de 1870, y los desarrollos biopolíticos que llevaron a la Ley Imperial sobre la vacunación antivariólica obligatoria en 1874. En segundo lugar, se esbozan el debate público y la crítica sobre la vacunación, preguntando por qué la vacunación obligatoria tuvo éxito en Alemania. Se describen las medidas aplicadas por el gobierno alemán para promover la vacunación obligatoria y la aceptación de la Ley Imperial: inicialmente, las vacunas contra la viruela se fabricaban por centros de producción estatales supervisados por las autoridades locales. Se recopilaban estadísticas de todo el imperio que documentaban el éxito de la vacunación, así como los efectos secundarios relacionados. Desde la perspectiva del gobierno, estas precauciones podrían interpretarse como una tecnología de confianza.

‘Cherchez la femme!’ Heresy and Law in Late Antiquity

In contrast with contemporary heresiological discourse, the Codex Theodosianus, a Roman imperial law code promulgated in 438, makes no systematic gendered references to heretics or heresy. According to late Roman legislative rhetoric, heretics are demented, polluted and infected with pestilence, but they are not seductive temptresses, vulgar ‘women’ or weak-minded whores. This article explores the gap between the precisely marked terrain of Christian heresiologists and (Christian) legislators. The first part gives a brief overview of early Christian heresiology. The second explores late Roman legislation and the construction of the heretic as a ‘legal subject’ in the Codex Theodosianus. The third turns to the celebrated account crafted by Pope Leo I of anti-Manichaean trials at Rome in 443/4, arguing that they should be understood as part of a much broader developing regime of ecclesial power, rather than as concrete applications of existing imperial anti-heresy laws.

The Black-Slate Edict of Punakha Dzong

This text provides an introduction to and a translation of an inscription engraved on black slates at Punakha rDzong chung. The inscription purports to contain a legal code of Zhabs-drung Ngag-dbang rnam-rgyal, the founder of the Bhutanese State. The main intention of the text is to equate the organization of the newly established ‘Brug-pa state to the organization of the Tibetan imperial state of Srong-btsan sgam-po, thereby legitimizing and sanctifying the Zhabs-drung´s rule in Bhutan. For this purpose, the inscription takes as its point of reference the Section on Law and State, a chapter on Tibetan imperial law and administration found in the mid 16th century text mKhas pa’i dga’ ston by dPa'-bo gTsug-lag phreng-ba (1504-1566).

Das Schicksal Priszillians und seiner Anhänger 380 in Saragossa, 384 in Bordeaux und 385 in Trier

Abstract Priscillian and some of his followers were victims of synodal and state process procedures in which bishops acted as prosecutors and supporters of the death penalty imposed at Trier. The accusation was that the Priscillians were heretics (Manichaeans) and practiced maleficium, i.e. sorcery, both prohibited by law. The source situation to this already in late antiquity often as scandalous condemned case – among others by the bishops of Tours, Milan and Rome –, is very insufficient for important details. In particular, there are very few texts which can be satisfactorily evaluated for the question of conciliar majorities and minorities and possibly controversial debates. Nevertheless, with the help of the writings of Priscillian and Sulpicius Severus, it is possible at least to reconstruct with some degree of reliability the interaction between ecclesiastical and state jurisdiction, as it was largely regulated by canons and imperial laws.

Is the Concept of Animal Welfare Incompatible with Chinese Culture?

Abstract In discussions about nonhuman animal protection in China in recent years, one consistent theme is many people in China believe that animal welfare and the legal protection of animals are ahead of their time, and that animal welfare is a Western concept and practice, incompatible with Chinese culture. I argue that animal welfare is compatible with Chinese culture as seen through elements in Chinese traditional philosophy, imperial laws, and some idiomatic expressions in the Chinese language that are sympathetic toward animals. It is acknowledged that the realities in Chinese society have been very harsh as far as animals are concerned and much needs to be done in Chinese society to live up to some of the ideals espoused in Chinese culture and tradition. The grassroots animal protection efforts in China for the past ten years or so have been contributing positively and gaining traction in the right direction.

Reflexiones sobre la paz en el libro XIX del 'De ciuitate Dei' de san Agustín

The article focuses on Book XIX of Saint Augustine’s De ciuitate Dei, and states that peace is not a simple moral call, but a primary tendency of human nature. It briefly reviews the influence of Varro’s anthropological doctrine in S. Augustine’s De ciuitate Dei, highlighting the prima naturae, particularly the appetitus actionis whose finis would be precisely the pax. It is also pointed out that a complete peace cannot be achieved in earthly life, linking the concept of peace with that of ordo. The polysemic character of peace is also highlighted. It also presents that despite of the conflict that exists between the ciuitas terrena and the ciuitas Dei in the time of history, there can be a dialogue and collaboration between them to seek the common interest of social peace. In a second part, it presents the relationship between the ciuitas Dei and the laws of the earthly states, distinguishing the religious and the earthly realms, illustrating this distinction with the position of Saint Augustine in the conflict with the Donatists and the Imperial Laws. Finally, a reflection on the positive law and the eternal law is presented.

Las dimensiones del 'Iudex' en el pensamiento y en la actividad episcopal de Agustín

The article addresses two specific areas on the topic of the iudex in Augustine, namely: his thought and his episcopal activity. First, the article deals with the roots of the concept of iudex in the Greek and Latin legal tradition. Later the idea of iudex is approached within the New Testament, particularly in the Pauline writings. Next, the theological and eschatological dimension of iudex in Saint Augustine is presented, highlighting the common use that the Bishop of Hippo makes of the term iudex, underlining words such as Iudicium, or legal situations such as the iudex qui litem suam fecit, or the decision of the iudex, considered from a theological and legal point of view. In this theological dimension, the aspect of God as universal and cosmological iudex is not excluded. Subsequently, the Donatist dispute is analyzed from a legal perspective, highlighting the ecclesiastical law of the state, discussing the epp. 133, 151 and 134, stressing in the latter the legal value of the word necessitas. The importance of the episcopal intercessio is also underlined, analyzing epp. 152 and 153, as well as the terms of reus, supplicium and supplicatio, within the framework of the Pelagian polemic. The article also considers the issue of compelle intrare, in epp. 93, 173, as well as in the s. 112. The correspondence of Saint Augustine with Boniface and Dulcitius (ep. 185, De correctione donatistarum), ep. 204 is analyzed in this same context, as well as some texts from c. Gaud. The dimension of the iudex in the Pelagian controversy is also addressed, discussing particularly texts from Gest. Pel. and c. Iul. imp., highlighting in this last work the legal vocabulary, particularly the words that refer to the iudex. The epìscopalis Audientia is also addressed, presenting the imperial laws that framed it, both those of Constantine, as well as those of Honorius and Arcadius, to later stress the actions that Saint Augustine performed as a judge. As an example of the performance of Saint Augustine as judge, ep. 7 * is discussed, highlighting the actions of the Bishop of Hippo as a judge in matters related to property, as well as Saint Augustine’s knowledge of the legal terms and procedures, presenting the example of ep. 8*, and his technical use of terms such as actio in rem, uindicatio, causa, among others. Finally, ep. 24* is discussed, where the knowledge that Saint Augustine had of the ius uetus and of the ius nouum is revealed.

Формирование системы общих судов Российской Империи: петербургский судебный округ в период формирования и реорганизации 1865-1878 гг.

The article considers the history of the formation of the system of General courts of the post-reform St. Petersburg judicial district on the territory of three provinces of the Russian Empire: St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Pskov. The system of formation of General district courts (judicial chamber, 6 district courts) and subsequent reorganization of the district structure was studied. In 1878 was disbanded on 2 County court (Ustyinsky bilozers'kyi) and simultaneously open the Cherepovets district court, were reallocated border jurisdiction within the County and transferred part of the territory in the jurisdiction of the Moscow judicial district. System interaction in the opening of "new ships" with the re-formation of the bodies of the Imperial law to the court (prosecutors and judicial investigators) or the judiciary (bailiffs, lawyers, notaries). Little-studied issues are pointed out: mergers and disbanding of pre-reform courts, unrealized plans to open judicial bodies: 1) selection of buildings for the district courts in St. Petersburg province in the cities Luga, Peterhof, Gdov, Yamburg and New Ladoga; 2) the comments of the Minister of justice against plans by the placing district courts in the province of Novgorod in the cities of Cherepovets and Somyn; 3) unrealized remarks by the interior Minister with a proposal to include the Tikhvin uyezd, Novgorod province to the jurisdiction of the St. Petersburg district court, and Gdov County of St. Petersburg province to the jurisdiction of the Pskov regional court. The legal framework regulating the system of formation of the post-reform St. Petersburg judicial district was studied. We used archival materials that were not introduced into scientific circulation in publications on this topic. The final conclusion is that the collected material makes it possible to develop a systematic understanding of the process of implementing the judicial reform of 1864.

"ПРАВА, ЗА ЯКИМИ СУДИТЬСЯ МАЛОРОСІЙСЬКИЙ НАРОД" 1743 р.: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПОБУДОВИ ТА КІЛЬКІСНІ ПОКАЗНИКИ

Ukraine is undergoing complex and ambiguous processes of legal system reforming within which a significant number of normative legal acts were adopted, which in many cases do not take into account the national peculiarities and traditions of the Ukrainian people. In such circumstances, it is necessary to refer to the experience gained during the existence of the Cossack-Hetman state, which was the codification of Ukrainian law resulted in the preparation of "Rights of the Little Russian people" in 1743. This monument of law was to regulate the legal system, to replace a significant number of sources of law and prevent the spread of imperial law. For the first time, the method of quantitative indicators was used to study the ancient monument of law, which included calculations of the number of characters in the whole document, chapters, articles and assessment of the uneven distribution of material. According to the calculations, the largest number of signs falls on Chapter 20 – 126175 or 11,9%, devoted to liability for serious crimes, in second place, Chapter 16, devoted to civil law, contains 83,839 characters, or 7,9%, in third place is Chapter 8, which deals with procedural issues related to litigation, has 83,360 marks, or 7,8% of the total material. These results prove that the authors of the law memo pay considerable attention to the issues of liability for criminal offenses. For the purpose of comparative analysis, similar information on the quantitative indicators of the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1588 was used, which showed that in this monument of law the largest number of signs is 29,7% of the total number of courts and judiciary. It is shown that both monuments of law have a significant uneven distribution of textual material, and their coefficients of variation are approximately the same. When systematizing the material by branches of law, it was proved that the greatest attention – 33,1% was paid to issues of civil law, the second place is occupied by issues of criminal law, which is 21,6%, the third place is occupied by rules related to procedural law – 17,8%. The obtained quantitative indicators reflect the process of property formation and the need to regulate property relations. The content of the monument also includes such areas as land, administrative, procedural, environmental law. The provisions of the monument affected the decisions made at the Congress in Hlukhov by Cossack officers in December 1763. The rights under which the people of Little Russia are being tried ”in 1743. In general, the value of this study is to quantify this monument of law, which allows moving from descriptive to digital analysis of regulations and identify areas of legal regulation, which the most attention has been paid to.

AN ATTEMPTS OF THE LEGAL CONSIDERATION OF RUSSIAN AUTHOCRACY’S INTERESTS DURING THE WORK ABOUT THE «RULES WICH MALOROSSIAN PEOPLE USING FOR COURT», 1743

The article is devoted to the historical and legal study of the attempts to secure the legal interests of the Russian autocracy in the course of codification work on the drafting of the project "Rights judged by the Little Russian people" in 1743. The text of the monument itself and other historical sources as well as scientific literature are analyzed. topics. It is emphasized that already in the first half of XVIII century. the imperial government set itself the goal of achieving a rapprochement, and in the future, of unifying the legal system of the Hetmanate and Russia. It was for this purpose that a codification commission was created in its first composition in 1728. Decrees of the Government of the Russian Empire in 1728 and 1734 pp. she was granted the status of a state body, and her work was the nature of official systematization of the current legislation in the Hetmanate in the form of codification. It was found that the imperial government, through its representatives in Ukraine, as well as through its higher bodies, the College of Foreign Affairs and the Senate, closely followed the work of the Commission and often issued decrees to hasten the drafting of the Codex. Attention is drawn to the vivid attempts to secure the legal interests of the Russian autocracy in the course of work on the rights under which the Little Russian people are being judged, which, in particular, were found in the chapter "On the highest honor and power of the monarchy." It was here that the prerogatives of the "high-monarchic estate" were enshrined, which apparently constituted a borrowing from the legislation of Peter I and some other sources of law. It was emphasized that during the course of the codification work, which had been carried out for fifteen years and ended in 1743, the Russian autocracy had not been able to fully realize its purpose and impose a code on Ukraine, the norms of which would fully copy the relevant rules of imperial law. Contrary to the task, it still largely reflected the legal norms that existed in the current jurisprudence or in the social consciousness of the overwhelming majority of the elite of the Ukrainian population. In "Rights ..." the most clearly defined are those privileges, to which the Cossack elders and nobles have so eagerly sought legal legitimacy for several decades. That is why the draft code was not officially approved and was buried in the imperial archives.

THE ROLE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST LALANGUE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CROATIAN PUBLIC HEALTH AND MIDWIFERY IN THE CONTEXT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IMPERIAL PUBLIC HEALTH LAW FROM 1770.

SUMMARYTo understand the development of public health in Croatia, there are newer insights into the life and work of John the Baptist Lalangue. John the Baptist Lalangue is most valued for implementation of the imperial law on public health and promotion of midwifery in Croatia during the second half of the 18th century. Lalangue is the author of the first printed medical textbook in Croatian, published in 1776, entitled Medicina ruralis iliti Vrachtva ladanyszka, za potrebochu musev, y sziromakov Horvatczkoga orszaga y okolu nyega, blisnesseh mest, Trattnern, Varaždin. In the same period, Lalangue published the first Croatian midwifery textbook entitled Brevis institute de reobstetritia iliti kratek navuk od mestrie pupkorezne za potrebochu muskeh y sziromaskeh ladanovskaya horvatskoga orszaga y okolo nyega blisnesseh sztrankih, Trattnern, Zagreb. In 1779, Lalangue published his balneological debut in Croatian, the book Tractatus de aquis medicati Regnorum Croatiae et Slavoniae Iliti Izpiszavanye vrachtvenih vod Horvatzkoga y Slavonskoga orszaga y od nachina nye vsivati za potrebochu lyudih, Trattnern, Zagreb. Lalangue’s works were used in systematic training and education of midwives and they, as well as Lalangue, have an inevitable place in the history of Croatian midwifery. During his life and work, John the Baptist Lalangue made immeasurable contribution to the development of Croatian public health.

Символ Порядка Или Знак Раздора? о Случаях Надругательства Над Изображениями императора И Членов Его Семьи (На Примере Северо-Западного Края)

The article examines sixty-four cases of defamation of images depicting members of the Romanov dynasty between 1884 to 1914, found in the files of the Vilna Circuit Court whose jurisdiction included Vilna, Kovna, Grodna, and Minsk provinces. Russian imperial law classified verbal or physical assault on the tsar's portrait as a political crime, along with other forms of "insult of the emperor." Although public disrespect of royal portraits accounted for a small fraction of all the registered acts of lèse-majesté, the studied cases offer a unique perspective on the semiotics of power in the Northwest Region of the empire and expose the attitude of its multicultural population to the supreme authority. These cases also suggest a fairly wide proliferation of the tsar's portraits in the region. A portrait of the monarch was a mandatory symbol of state authority in public places, but this was by no means the main usage of the royal portraits. Ordinary people – peasants, workers, and small traders – bought lithograph images of the emperor to decorate their private quarters. As the author elaborates based on her cases, their motives were not so much political and ideological as pragmatic. She concludes that, in the Northwest Region, at the turn of the twentieth century owning a tsar's image was an integral part of the popular legal culture and practice.

On the Question of Viacheslav Zaikin as a “Provocateur”

The article reexamines the question, previously raised in historical scholarship and journalism, of the possible role of Viacheslav Zaikin, a well-known historian and graduate of Kharkiv University, as a “provocateur” during World War I. In Ukrainian historiography, in contrast to Russian, the work of imperial law enforcement institutions with covert agents has been given little to no attention. The necessary sources are either lacking or unavailable. The purpose of this study was to try and compare the well-known accusations against Viacheslav Zaikin, made by his contemporaries, with gendarmerie documents, primarily agent reports, about the activities of Ukrainian youth organizations in which he may have been involved. This approach does not guarantee an accurate answer to the question. But at least it should enable one to take steps in that direction, namely: to determine whether or not Viacheslav Zaikin’s acting as a “provocateur” was possible at all (and thus to exclude the opposite); to ascertain the (im)possibility of his supplying intelligence to law enforcement by placing it into the context of the circumstances of his life and activities; to determine the correspondence of the contents of this intelligence to Viacheslav Zaikin’s status and connections in Ukrainian organizations, etc. The author’s research establishes that: a) the quality of information in the agent reports fits Viacheslav Zaikin’s capabilities and his place in the Ukrainian youth circles of Kharkiv; b) the fact that Viacheslav Zaikin himself does not figure in gendarmerie documents looks very suspicious; and c) no categorical conclusions can be made due to the insufficiency and inconsistency of the available evidence.

A házasság és a család mint keresztény és európai értékek

A tanulmány áttekinti a házasságra és a családra vonatkozó legfontosabb nemzetközi emberi jogi dokumentumokat. Ezek rendelkezéseit tárgyuk szerint csoportosítva kísérel meg következtetést levonni a két társadalmi jelenség nemzetközi jogi védelmének jellegére. Ezt követően áttekinti, hogy a házasság és a család mennyire tekinthető az európai kultúra lényeges összetevőjének. Az ószövetségi zsidó és a római birodalmi jog házasságfelfogásából kiindulva, az ezeket az értékeket továbbvivő Katolikus Egyház szabályainak áttekintése után bemutatja a kortárs egyetemes és hazai egyházi felfogást. Mindennek eredményeként vonja le azt a következtetést, hogy az európai kultúra a bemutatott házasság- és családfelfogásra épül. Ennek elvetése vagy lehetetlen, vagy egy másik kultúra létrehozását jelentené.

Organization of justice and trial in Moldavia (the second half of the 18th century)

In our study we are concerned with the issue of the judicial organization and trial procedure, as well as the relation between common law and written law in Moldavia during the second half of the 18th century especially during the last quarter.
 During this period the legal system continued to be renewed in terms of criminal preoccupations. Both the princes of Moldavia and of Walachia focused on the reformation of justice. The fact that the princes succeeded each other on the throne in the Phanariot 18th century meant, from this standpoint, a great advantage, as different measures regarding the judicial organization and the procedure were promoted, by means of acts with similar content in Iași and in Bucharest. In this context, the prince preserves the prerogative of supreme judge of the country, as well as his place in relation to the boyars-judges. The preservation of legal attributions by the prince in his capacity of supreme instance is underlined in the new form of judicial organisation by the issuing of the definitive sentence, after having read the report including the boyars-judges’ proposition to punish the perpetrators. The motivation of the penalty also invoked extenuating or aggravating circumstance, which diminished or, on the contrary, increased the content of the penalty.
 The legal documents in Moldavia, dating from the second half of the 18th century, prove the presence of the Byzantine pravila in the legal theory and practice of that time. The Pravila [Law] meant therefore, as we could see in the contemporaries’ testimonies, the Byzantine written law, law guides made according to the Vasilika or the “Imperial law”, those legal texts in 60 volumes made in the 9th century at the demand of Leo VI (also called the Wise, 886-912), which represented an adaptation in Greek of the Roman Law, codified under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527-565). The foreign travellers in late 18th century Moldavia remind of the use of the Law of Harmenopoulos in trying criminal issues. Constantine Harmenopoulos was a judge in Thessaloniki, and his work’s title was Hexabiblos, in accordance with the six books it consisted of. This was made in 1345, summarising the Byzantine legislation included in the Vasilika and in the normative acts that had modified them by then, under the form of a guide. It was estimated that this work, and another legal guide, a nomocanon translated in Slavonic and used in the Romanian area starting with the 14th century, i.e. the Syntagma of Matthew Blastares of 1335, were created to replace the Vasilika, as they were “more concise and briefer for the needs of the trying courts”. It was considered that the Byzantine legal literature was very present in the judicial practice during the Phanariot rules, including in the form of those Vasilika (Fabrotus edition of 1647), as well as in other significant laws. But other such collections of nomocanons circulated in Moldavia as well. Particularly far-spread was Vaktiria ton Archiereôn (Bishop’s Staff), a work written by the monk Jacob of Ioannina, at the request of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Parthenius, and printed in 1645.
 It is also worth mentioning that – in the documentary sources preserved and researched thus far – the impact of sources where the Byzantine law texts constituted the legal grounds concerns mainly civil cases and, to a lesser extent, criminal cases. Border-related litigations – due to violating the protimisis right or to conflicts regarding the inheritance of lands or wealth in general – were solved in courts by consulting the Byzantine juridical standards. Most of the times, it is generically called the “holy code of law”. Hence, trial by “law code” became a reality from the second half of the 18th century, as proven by the documentary sources made available thus far.

Banished from the Company of the Good. Christians and Aliens in Fifth-Century Rome

ABSTRACT This article studies Latin civic discourse in relation to the political and legal concepts of the citizen and citizenship, and concentrates on the influence of Christianity on the development of this discourse in late-imperial Rome. While the concepts of civis and civitas gradually lost their political and legal value, the ancient Latin vocabulary in which these concepts are expressed did not disappear but acquired new contextual meaning and situational application. We will present this development in fourth- and fifth-century Rome by discussing two different yet closely related corpora of source texts, comparing the pastoral-theological sermons of the Roman bishop Leo I (440–461) with the imperial laws collected in the Theodosian Code. The juxtaposition of these corpora shows a striking similarity in the Christian appropriation of civic discourse, serving to develop and express new, religiously founded forms of belonging to as well as exclusion from the civic community in city and empire.

Mandarins and Heretics: The Construction of "Heresy" in Chinese State Discourse by Junqing Wu

Reviewed by: Mandarins and Heretics: The Construction of "Heresy" in Chinese State Discourse by Junqing Wu Kaiqi Hua Junqing Wu, Mandarins and Heretics: The Construction of "Heresy" in Chinese State Discourse. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016. x, 180 pp. US $114, €99 (hb). ISBN 9789004331396 Mandarins and Heretics is a history of government perception and labeling of "heresy" in China from late imperial to modern times. The state's discourse of "heresy" led to the application of pragmatic policies to manage unorthodox spiritual movements that were thought to pose a threat to state power. The book discusses how "heretics" were targeted, with the enthusiastic support of scholar-officials, on the basis of three phenomena: black magic, messianic messages, and political subversion. Wu however, focuses primarily on the government perception of heretics rather than on the religious groups themselves. She draws her source material from both private and government sources, such as literati anecdotes (biji 筆記) and government memos. The book has nine relatively short chapters. After briefly explaining the book's key terms, topics, sources and structure in chapter 1, Wu turns to terminology in chapter 2. Wu claims that the religious polemics of anti-heresy discourse in imperial China is its own genre. The Chinese state authority's changing support of different religious traditions caused an ideological denunciation of non-institutional religious communities. Wu deliberately avoids the Eurocentric "church and state" paradigm by taking into account the fact that "lay religions" existed outside of this concept (p. 13), and abandons the usage of Western terminology like "sect" and "cult." She instead adopts the neutral term "religious movements" to describe new religious groups outside government approval. In chapter 3, Wu overviews the history of heresy in China. Wu examines rituals related to black magic and messianism, and their different fates under pre-Ming dynasties. Throughout Chinese history, black magic such as "insect-poisoning" and "spirit [End Page 244] enslaving" caused fear in both lay society and official organs. The Fang La 方臘 rebellion of 1121–1122, originally a local revolt, she argues, later became a prototype for "religious rebellions" due to anecdotal writings that associated the rebellion with black magic (pp. 24–25, 60). Subsequent writings by literati included polemics against "heretical" phenomena such as black magic and messianism in the Ming Dynasty. Whereas the Tang dynasty banned the spread of apocalyptic prophecy or "demonic speech," messianism was not automatically tied to heretics in the Tang-Song era (p. 34). Wu shows that official polemics against heresy began in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Chapters 4 to 7 focus on religious life in the Qing dynasty. Here Wu introduces peaceful religious groups and their mistreatment by the government. The Qing dynasty labeled lay religious movements "heresies" in literati writing, legal texts, and official historiography (p. 57). Wu notes that in China boundaries between "authorized" and "non-authorized religions" were mainly based on bureaucratic institutionalization rather than belief and practice, and the label of "heresy" could fall on any religious group (pp. 40–41). However, she does not discuss further the influence of Neo-Confucians on shaping official and private perceptions of vernacular religions. She instead simply notes that scholar-official elites increasingly distanced themselves from popular religious beliefs and practices in the Ming-Qing period (p. 57). In chapter 5, Wu focuses on black magic as "heresy" in literature in the Qing dynasty. She first examines four popular forms of black magic in the Ming-Qing era: "mirror magic," "paper-cutting magic," "life-force plucking magic," and "female warrior magic." Wu states that the popular image of black magic was largely created by government literati. Wu also investigates "official texts" on heresy including legal documents and state compilations of popular "religious rebellions." She argues that while black magic could be associated with heresies in literati writings, imperial law did not associate black magic with heretical discourse and therefore it was not a major political concern of the Qing state (p. 92). Rather, Wu claims in chapter 6 that messianic teachings were the leading identifier of "heresy" in the Ming and Qing official discourse (p. 94). She points out that the imperial government used laws against both "demonic speech" and the...

Economic Policy in the Field of Forest Exploitation in the Baltic States of the First Half of the XVIII Century

The research featured the economic policy in the sphere of forest exploitation led by St. Petersburg government in the Baltic region. The paper describes the policy and reveals the mechanisms of its elaboration and change. The study is based on the fundamental principles of historical research, such as historicism and consistency. The basic ideas involve multifactority of historical process, problematic and chronological principals of the narrative, as well as the instrumental and technological approach to the theory of modernization. When Peter the Great’s set up the Russian Navy, it stimulated the development of trade and mobilized all kinds of recourses, including timber logging. The dilemma "trade development vs. rational recourse usage" from the very beginning became an acute problem of state policy and remained urgent for many decades to follow. Forest exploitation in the Baltic region in the XVIII century was the zone of various conflicts: private interests vs. those of the state, local businessmen vs. Russians, traditional technologies vs. modernization, Admiralty vs. Commerce-College, local administration vs. central power, etc. The research focuses on the dynamics of economic policy and social communication with the power. The study is based on a number of published and archival sources. The mainstreams of the process were: complains about overuse of forests; revisions that followed the complains; limitations and bans of export, as well as confiscations; merchants’ complains about personal bankrupts and general trade-fall. Throughout the whole century, these activities determined the general situation in the Baltic region, thus keeping the problem of resource saving in the focus of the attention of the central government, which had to edit new local and imperial laws. This stability was especially remarkable in the circumstances of constant palace coups that were often followed by policy-course changes. The research increases the historiography experience of economic policy studies. The Baltic region, which had strong contacts with the western culture, was one of the leading ones in Russia. There the processes of modernization were faster and easier adapted, if compared with other regions; they sometimes even stimulated the central government for further improvements. The main factors that determine the development of the policy included: active communication between the central power and the local society, which was bound with strong corporative relations; modernization processes, displayed in the consolidation of central power and state hierarchy, regulatory activity, bureaucratization, development of goods / money relations, and the development of modern technologies.

Aspecte privind evoluția și aplicabilitatea bunei-credințe în dreptul roman

In Rome, the area of the human relationship with the deity was the framework in which appeared and developed the concept of mutual obligation, fides. On the one hand, this meant carefully observing the ancestral religion and fulfilling the promises made to the deity; on the other hand, fides was also a moral trait of the person in question. To be of good faith means to show loyalty, sincerity, honesty; to obey your word, to keep your promise. Subsequently, the term in question was transformed into a legal concept, becoming bona fides. Initially used in the Republican era, we find the concept of good faith in the oldest sources of classical civil law, such as the Perpetual Edict and the Institutions of Gaius and we find it applied even in imperial law, proof being Corpus iuris. It will be studied in the faculties of the medieval era and will receive a place of honour in Western civil law. Probability, diligence, lawlessness and abstention from the harm of another (alterum non laedere), as component elements of bona fides, have translated, in the legal plane, that honest and direct life taken from the Stoics and has been perpetuated in contemporaneity as an indispensable principle of law.

Waves Across the Pond: Exiling Clerics in Late Antiquity

Exiling a Christian cleric in Late Antiquity—something that happened hundreds of times between the fourth and the sixth centuries—was like throwing a stone in a pond. It often generated a spectacular splash that served to make a statement about the rightfulness and agency of the exiler through an act of deterrence, humiliation, but also mercy. It separated the cleric from his previous surroundings, immersing him in an unfamiliar and at times unpleasant environment. Yet, exiling a cleric also often created an enormous ripple effect that was felt by people and in places far removed from the initial rupture and a long time after it had subsided. Over the last decades our understanding of the first two aspects of clerical exile in Late Antiquity has made significant advancements. We now know exile was the main method emperors and bishops employed to suppress religious dissidence during Late Antiquity, fostering unprecedented collaboration between, but also struggle over, imperial and ecclesiastical legal spheres. Those who suffered exile—either as banishment proper or as flight from arrest—connected their experience to specific Christian understandings of cosmopolitanism, asceticism, and imagined wandering, and attempted to reinsert their stories into a Christian trajectory of persecution, martyrdom, and salvation. The study of clerical exile therefore has opened a window into the institutionalization of the Christian Church, the changing relationship between ecclesiastical and imperial law, the construction of sanctity, and the quest for Christian orthodoxy amidst religious conflict. The third aspect—the “waves across the pond” that clerical exile generated—has so far remained relatively unexplored. Scholarly efforts to illuminate the legal dimensions of late antique clerical exile, its usefulness as a form of conflict management, and its generation of a type of holiness and Christian leadership mean that the emphasis has mostly been on those who exiled and those who were exiled. This …