Vernacular Law

ISBN-13: 9781009217897 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 429 str.

Ada Maria (University of Pennsylvania) Kuskowski

Opis

A new understanding of the transformative effect of vernacular writing on customary law in medieval France.

Recenzje

'This study is a revelation. Early French customary law emerges from it as the dynamic creation of sophisticated juridical thinkers, who worked not to record local traditions, but to shape and teach a distinct form of legal practice and thinking for secular courts across thirteenth-century France. By studying the first coutumiers as a coherent whole, with a focus on language and manuscripts and an eye toward recent scholarship in legal history generally, Kuskowski defines a subject every bit as complex, interesting, and influential as the medieval Roman and canon laws that overshadow it in the historiography.' Adam Kosto, Columbia University

Spis treści

Introduction: vernacular writing and the transformation of customary law in Medieval France; Part I. Written Custom and the Formation of Vernacular Law: 1. What is custom? Concept and literary practice; 2. Composing customary law as a vernacular law; 3. Writing a 'ius non scriptum': writtenness, memory and change; Part II. Political and Intellectual Tensions: 4. Uneasy jurisdictions: lay and ecclesiastical law; 5. Roman law, authority and creative citation; Part III. Implications: 6. Custom in lawbooks and records of legal practice; 7. Dynamic text: dialectic, manuscript culture and customary law; 8. Implications of circulating text: crafting a French common law; Conclusion: lasting model and professional community; Bibliography; Index.