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Anthony
Musson, ed.
Boundaries
of the Law: Geography, Gender and Jurisdiction in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe.
Ashgate,
2005.
234 x
156 mm.
206pp.
Publisher's
recommended price
Hardback
ISBN 0754650901, $89.95/£45.00
Exploring the boundaries of
the law as they existed in medieval and early modern times and as they
have been perceived by historians, this volume offers a wide ranging
insight into a key aspect of European society. Alongside, and
inexorably linked with, the ecclesiastical establishment, the law was
one of the main social bonds that shaped and directed the interactions
of day-to-day life.
Posing
fascinating conceptual and methodological questions that challenge
existing perceptions of the parameters of the law, the essays in this
book look especially at the gender divide and conflicts of jurisdiction
within an historical context. In addition to seeking to understand the
discrete categories into which types of law and legal rules are
sometimes placed, consideration is given to the traversing of
boundaries, to the overlaps between jurisdictions, and between
custom(s) and law(s). In so doing it shows how law has been
artificially compartmentalised by historians and lawyers alike, and how
existing perceptions have been conditioned by particular approaches to
the sources. It also reveals in certain case studies how the sources
themselves (and attitudes towards them) have determined the limitations
of historical enterprise.
Adopting
an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, the contributors
demonstrate the fruitfulness of examining the interfaces of apparently
diverse disciplines. Making fresh connections across subject areas,
they examine, for example, the role of geography in determining
litigation strategies, how the law interacted with social and
theological issues and how fact and fiction could intertwine to promote
notions of justice and public order.
The main
focus of the volume is upon England, but includes useful comparative
papers concerning France, Flanders and Sweden. The contributors are a
mixture of young and established scholars from Europe and North America
offering a new and revisionist perspective on the operation of law in
the medieval and early modern periods.
Contents:
Introduction, Anthony Musson;
Law in the landscape: criminality,
outlawry and regional identity in late medieval England, W.M. Ormrod;
The geographical and practical legal impact of the Peace of God in 11th
century Aquitaine, Thomas Gergen;
Sanctuary and penitential rebirth in
the central Middle Ages, Trisha Olson;
Between theology and popular
practice: medieval canonists on magic and impotence, Catherine Rider;
Maintenance agreements and male responsibility in late medieval
England, Sara M. Butler;
Crossing boundaries: attitudes to rape in late
medieval England, Anthony Musson;
Rethinking incest and heinous sexual
crime: changing boundaries of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction
in late medieval Sweden, Mia Korpiola;
Rules for solving conflicts of
law in the Middle Ages: part of the solution, part of the problem, Dirk
Heirbaut;
The geographical, jurisdictional and jurisprudential
boundaries of English litigation in the early 17th century, Louis A.
Knafla;
Jurisdictional competition and the evolution of the common law:
an hypothesis, Daniel Klerman;
English legal history and
interdisciplinary legal studies, Jonathan Rose;
Index.
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