Medieval Legislation Research Articles

The Reception of Marital Consent in the Medieval Legislation of Spain and Norway

The Reception of Marital Consent in the Medieval Legislation of Spain and Norway

The victim as a part of the crime concept in the medieval criminal legislation of Russia

The author examined the place of the victim in the crime notion according to medieval Russian legislation. The author notes that the medieval period is an important stage in the development of criminal law. The analysis of the Russian medieval criminal law allowed to establish the origins of of modern criminal law, to identify the causes and regulation of the modern understanding of the victim within the framework of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In the study, the author limits himself to the analysis of the Russian Pravda in three editions (Short, Long and Abridged), the Pskov Judgment Charter and the Code of Laws, since they are the main written monuments of law in legal history of Russia. The article reveals significant number of scientific works related to the doctrine of the victim. This allows to talk about the sustainable development of a conceptual apparatus, as well as the development of a system of scientific views that can be incorporated into a scientific school. Based on the results of the study, the author draws a number of conclusions. In particular, it is indicated that the understanding of the legal status of the victim in medieval legislation largely comes down to criminal procedure. At the same time, there are provisions indicating that the victim is secured in the substantive and legal aspect. Victims within the framework of medieval legislation can be differentiated according to two characteristics - social and physical. The latter, includes in particular social characteristics such as marital status, profession, nationality, social status, and physical characteristics – helplessness, gender. A comparative analysis of the modern legal regulation of the traits of a victim within the framework of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation compared to the provisions of medieval legislation demonstrates their undoubted continuity. This is observed, in particular, when regulating specially qualified and privileged crimes.

«ПОДЛѢ ТВОИ СТРЕМЕНЬ»: A LITTLE-RESEARCHED CHIVALRY EPISODE FROM THE LIFE OF HALICIAN DUKE YAROSLAV VOLODYMYROVYCH

The article examines the symbolic meaning of the horse’s stirrup as a sign of taking a vassal oath. The analysis of the problem was carried out based on the study of the broader context of the rituals of European chivalry. In particular, it is shown the distinction between the rank of Officium stratoris and Officium stratoris et strapae. Based on the use of Hungarian medieval monuments, as well as Kyiv and Volhynia chronicles (Ipatian chronicle collection), it was proved that the representatives of the military elite of the Halychyna and Volhynia lands were familiar with the difference in these rites – from showing respect to the rider (when holding the bridle) to indicating a direct dependent position (when holding the stirrup). These customs appeared in England, but were also extremely popular on the territory of continental Europe, primarily in the Holy Roman Empire. Perhaps this tradition came to Rus’ from the German lands, where already from the XIV century similar chivalric rituals began to be recorded in the city laws. So, such traditions passed into the sphere of medieval legislation. In the research, the main emphasis is placed on the case of 1153, when after the death of his father, the prince of Halychyna Yaroslav Volodymyrovych (Osmomysl) offered to negotiate peace with the Kyiv duke Izyaslav Mstislavovych. Through intermediaries, the prince offered the formula «подлѣ твои стремень», which, according to medieval etiquette, meant recognition of his subordinate position. Note that half a century later, the boyars of Halychyna did not forget the significance of this ritual and tried to unite other service people around them. This is demonstrated by the example of the boyar Dobroslav, who in 1241 gathered around his stirrup, according to the chronicler, many other warriors. Dukes Danylo and Vasylko then correctly understood the demonstration of the proud boyar and deprived him of the lands he had seized. It is possible that some of the new servants of the boyar Dobroslav were expelled from the Halychyna land by Romanovids earlier. Thus, the Rus’ military elite understood the rituals of medieval chivalry. It proved the existence of strong connections between the nobility of these princely lands and the European culture of that time.

Summoning to Court: Ordines Iudiciarii and Swedish Medieval Legislation

ABSTRACT The development of the law of summons demonstrates how the latest international innovations in procedural law, which the twelfth- and thirteenth-century canonists had developed, were adopted first in the Swedish provincial laws and then in the laws of the realm. The canon law of summons, adopted in the Swedish medieval laws, was part of two broader developments. First, the rules on summons were probably part of the canon law idea of ordo iudiciarius, which was also adopted in Sweden. In Sweden, the rules on summons were always accompanied by a separate procedural chapter, which regulated the whole procedure chronologically from beginning to end – although some laws were more elaborate on some details than others were. The article suggests that the procedural chapters were in fact the Swedish equivalent of ordines, although the Swedish ‘ordines’ were of course legislation, not scholarly literature. Second, the Swedish ‘ordines iudiciarii’ with their rules on summons reflect inquisitorial principle and canon law influence making its way into the Swedish procedure. The Swedish rulers, just as their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, were making a conscious effort to organize court procedures into more uniform and efficient form.

The Bible and the Medieval Tradition of Law

This article deals with the influence of the Latin version of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, on the Western European medieval tradition of law. Despite the enormous multi-language literature on the history of the Bible in the Middle Ages, this question is surprisingly poorly studied. The author concentrates on five forms of the Vulgate's influence: 1) adoption of particular biblical, usually Old Testament, legal norms into medieval legislation; 2) creation of legal norms under the general influence of the biblical narrative; 3) deliberate and unconcious use of expressions borrowed from the Vulgate in the formulation of new legal norms and in the description of legal customs; 4) adoption of certain juridical terms, dominium and possessio serving as examples; 5) influence of the new concept of law (directum) forged by Jerome in the process of translating the Bible and fundamentally different from the Roman concept of ius. In the author's opinion, this form of influence proved to be the most important and demanded in the Middle Ages, directly affecting the emegence of the Modern European notion of law.

"On the life and continence of judges": the production and transmission of imperial legislation in late Ottonian Italy

This article focuses on a decree prohibiting imperial or royal judges from marrying that was copied around the year 1000 into a ninth-century manuscript of canon law now in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence (Edili 82). The article sets the decree in the context of Ottonian legislation in Italy, and of early medieval legislation more generally, and provides a detailed investigation of the manuscript’s contents and likely provenance. It argues that the decree should be read as new evidence for the aspiration of the late Ottonian court’s clerical elites to integrate increasingly autonomous Italian legal professionals into the imperial reforming programme. A critical edition of the decree is provided as an appendix.

Actor Networks, Social Selves, and Expressive Possession

Late medieval legislation to try to control what clothes were purchased and worn according to social group is at the tantalising heart of a puzzling web of self, society, and stuff: things, inflect...

The Internal Relationship of a Late Medieval Trading Company and the Expansion of Internal Conflicts – Hans Arzt and Company, Anton Paumgartner and the Imperial City Nuremberg (1447–1471)

The study deals with late medieval legislation on commercial company law as an introduction to the topic and focuses then on internal conflicts within a family company, using the example of the mid-fifteenth century Nuremberg-Augsburg Arzt Company. The violent internal disputes and their extensions to the outside are exceptionally well documented in terms of archival sources. The conflicts arose in 1447 out of a dispute over belied profit expectations and fraud allegations amongst the partners and attained a scale and characteristic making an internal private-order solution impossible. In connection with the authoritatively imposed conflict resolution dating from 1453, the Nuremberg merchant Anton Paumgartner was made liable by the City Council for claims resulting from the company’s liquidation, in fact on the grounds of his wife Clara (née Arzt) being a partner and shareholder. When Paumgartner went bankrupt in 1465 he sued the Council before the Imperial Chamber Court for refund of the sums he had to pay. Political powers involved in this case were: the Nuremberg City Council as the immediate political authority (as well as an civil and criminal law court); the Augsburg City Council; the Swabian League of Cities; the two Dukes of Bavaria; the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, as well as the Emperor, Frederick III.

RELIGIOUS RITUALS AT SPRINGS IN THE LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL WORLD

The extent to which spring veneration survived the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and that of its early medieval successor states has been the subject of much academic controversy. Scholars have mainly focused on information provided by ecclesiastical writers and medieval legislation. This study explores what contribution a systematic analysis of the archaeological evidence can make, notably coins. It takes into account a series of important discoveries, never discussed in this context before. At least up to the late 4th c., there is ample proof for widespread spring veneration within the Empire and beyond. However, changes to associated rituals, probably at least in part a result of the increasing scarcity of base metal coins and other popular non-organic offerings, make it more difficult to prove or disprove continuity of cult into the period after A.D. 400.

What's on the Case-List? Legal Texts and Felonies Rediscovered

In this article light will be thrown upon so-called case-lists, a medieval source material based upon abstracts of the Norwegian Christian Laws. I have chosen to focus on one aspect in particular: the case-lists also present medieval legislation otherwise lost for posterity, and we therefore catch a glimpse of unknown felonies centred on taboos concerning food, sex and heathen practice; for instance, in a "kinky" combination so far unheard of: men having sex with women who ate horsemeat were liable to a fine of 40 marks. Following an outline of the case-lists, and remarks on methodological problems posed by these sources, the felonies will be presented and placed in a historical context. Finally, I will address the question of provenance of the case-lists.

The impact of demographic and socio-economic change on the living arrangements of the elderly in Sundsval, Sweden, during the nineteenth century

The essay examines the impact of socio-economic and demographic change on the living arrangements of different groups of elderly in Sundsvall, an industrial town in nineteenth-century Sweden. The proportion of old parents having children living nearby was stable throughout the century, although the proportion living in the same households as their children decreased over time, probably because the children had the economic resources to form households of their own earlier. The proportion of elderly not having relatives at hand increased, however, due to a higher proportion of unmarried old persons, many of whom had in-migrated to Sundsvall late in life. Introduction Children's responsibility for their old parents was deeply rooted in preindustrial Sweden. In medieval legislation, it was already stressed that the main responsibility for caring for the elderly lay with the family. The fountainhead of this obligation can be found in the Fourth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.”

Mythical Origins of the Hungarian Medieval Legislation

SUMMARY In this article Laszlo Veszpremy notes how the earliest Latin chronicler in Hungary, writing about the year 1200, offered a mythical account of how the Hungarian kingdom was established. This emphasized that before the magnates elected the first king, they drew up a binding code of laws. The point of the myth was to assert that the laws and constitution of the kingdom existed prior to the election of a ruler. The author then notes how very similar mythical accounts of the foundation of kingdoms can be found in medieval Spain, yet there can have been no direct connection between the Hungarian and Spanish sources. The article suggests that the similarities arose because the chroniclers were using the same corpus of texts drawn from Roman law as the basis of their current constitutions, and then projecting these back in time to assert the antiquity of their legal and constitutional systems.

SAGIS: a proposal for a Sardinian Geographical Information System and an assessment of alternative implementation strategies

The author has been preparing machine readable data on Sardinia collected from a wide variety of sources for over eight years. The data, scattered between over 300 ASCII data files, cover topics including medieval legislation, demographic statis tics, bibliographic references and environmental indicators. This paper examines the problem of integrating data where the required structures push the system designer towards using a range of software packages. As the bulk of the database is static a front end solution is proposed which accesses the packages using a single inverted file approach.

Medieval Legislation

Medieval Legislation