Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:24:31.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Development of Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

David Luscombe
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Jonathan Riley-Smith
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

the intellectual and economic background to the new direction in the development of law in the eleventh century

in comparison with what preceded and followed it, the eleventh century can be seen as a time of rupture and crisis in European history. An influential recent study of European legal history by the American scholar Harold Berman sees the foundations of the ‘western legal tradition’ in a papally inspired ‘revolution’ between 1075 and 1122, namely the transformation of legal systems inspired by Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). This development has traditionally been known as the ‘Gregorian reform’, but the term does not do justice to its revolutionary character. Although Berman’s interpretation of eleventh-century legal history may be somewhat overstated, it is scarcely possible to deny that a new direction, ‘un tournant dans l’histoire du droit’, was taken in the closing decades of the eleventh century, marking a clear historical transition in the development of law. This new direction can be linked thematically to the great ideological struggle between pope and emperor, the Investiture Contest. Formally, it could be seen as a definitive espousal of written forms of law and a renunciation of previous approaches which depended extensively on the continual adaptation of oral traditions. That earlier legal culture is hard to relate to concepts based on modern forms of law.

In order to account for the eleventh-century transformation, we must first glance back at the laws and legal systems of the early middle ages, although by our period these had already begun to give way to new forms of law. It is not at all easy to distil from the sources, which are mostly not legal documents as such, the exact nature of legal systems between the collapse of the Carolingian empire and c. 1050.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellomo, M. (1995), The Common Legal Past of Europe, 1000–1800, trans. Cochrane, L., Washington, DC
Berman, H. (1983), Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition, Cambridge, MA
Blumenthal, U.-R. (1988), The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century, trans. by the author (University of Pennsylvania Press Middle Ages Series), Philadelphia
Blumenthal, U.-R. (2001), Gregor VII. Papst zwischen Canossa und Kirchenreform, Darmstadt
Bras, G. and Rambaud, J. (1965), L’Age classique, 1140–1378: Sources et théorie du droit (Histoire du Droit et des Institutions de l’Eglise en Occident 7), Paris
Brundage, J. A. (1987), Law, Sex and Christian Society in Medieval Europe, Chicago
Brundage, J. A. (1995), Medieval Canon Law, London
Burckhardt, J. (1942) Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen, ed. Schwabe, B., Basel; ed. and trans. Nichols, J. H., as Force and Freedom: Reflections on History, New York (1943)
Caenegem, R. C. (1973), The Birth of the English Common Law, Cambridge
Caenegem, R. C. (1987), Judges, Legislators and Professors: Chapters in European Legal History, Cambridge
Calasso, F. (1954), Medio evo del diritto, I: Le fonti, Milan
Chodorow, S. (1972), Christian Political Theory and Church Politics in the Mid-Twelfth Century: The Ecclesiology of Gratian’s Decretum (Publications of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA 5), Berkeley
Coing, H. (1973), Handbuch der Quellen und Literatur der neueren europäischen Privatrechtsgeschichte, Munich
Cortese, E. (1992), Il rinascimento giuridico medievale, Rome
Cortese, E. (1995), II diritto nella storia medievale, 2 vols., Rome
Dilcher, G. (1967), Die Entstehung der lombardischen Stadtkommune (Untersuchungen zur deutschen Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, N. F. 7), Aalen
Diurni, G. (1967), L’Expositio ad Librum Papiensem e la scienza giuridica preirneriana (Biblioteca della Rivista di Storia del Diritto Italiano 231), Rome
Duggan, C. (1963), Twelfth-Century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History (University of London Historical Studies 12), London
Ehrle, F. (1932), I più antichi statuti della facoltà teologica dell’università di Bologna (Universitatis Bononiensis Monumenta 1), Bologna
Engelmann, W. (1938), Die Wiedergeburt der Rechtskultur in Italien durch die Wissenschaftliche Lehre: eine Darlegung der Entfaltung des gemeinen italienischen Rechts und seiner Justizkultur im Mittelalter, Leipzig
Fournier, P. (1917), ‘Un tournant de l’histoire du droit (1060–1140)’, Revue Historique de Droit Français et Etranger 41 Google Scholar
Fournier, P. and Le Bras, G. (1931–2), Histoire des collections canoniques en Occident depuis les Fausses dècrètales jusqu’au Décret de Gratien, 2 vols. (Bibliothèque de l’Histoire du Droit), Paris; repr. Aalen (1972)
Fowler-Magerl, L. (1984), Ordo iudiciorum vel ordo iudiciarius: Begriff und Literaturgattung (Ius commune. Sonderhefte 19), Frankfurt a. M.
Fransen, G. (1972), Décrétales et les collections de décrétales (Typologie des Sources du Moyen Age Occidental 2), Turnhout
Fried, J. (1974), Die Entstehung des Juristenstandes im 12. Jahrhundert: zur sozialen Stellung und politischen Bedeutung gelehrter Juristen in Bologna und Modena (Forschungen zur Neueren Privatrechtsgeschichte 21), Cologne
Fried, J. (ed.) (1997), Dialektik und Rhetorik in früheren und hohen Mittalalter (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien 27), Munich
Fuhrmann, H. (1972–4), Einfluss und Verbreitung der pseudoisidorischen Falschungen: von ihrem Auftauchen bis in die neuere Zeit, 3 vols. (MGH Schriften 24), Stuttgart
Fuhrmann, H. (1986), Germany in the High Middle Ages, c. 1020–1200, trans. Reuter, T. (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks) Cambridge
Galto, E. et al. (1982), El derecho historico de los pueblos de Espana, 3rd edn, Madrid
Gaudemet, J. (1987), Le Mariage en Occident: les mœurs et le droit (Histoire), Paris
Gilchrist, J. T. (1969), The Church and Economic Activity in the Middle Ages, New York
Gilmore, M. P. (1941), Argument from Roman Law in Political Thought, 1200–1600, Cambridge, MA
Godding, P. (1973), La Jurisprudence (Typologie des Sources du Moyen Age 6), Turnhout
Gouron, A. (1978), La Science juridique française aux XIe et XIIe siècles: diffusion du droit de Justinien et influences canoniques jusqu’à Gratien (Ius Romanum medii aevi, Pars I, 4d–e), Milan
Gouron, A. (1984), La Science du droit dans le midi de la France au moyen âge (Variorum Reprints), London
Gouron, A. (1987), Etudes sur la diffusion des doctrines juridiques mediévales (Variorum Collected Studies CS 264), London
Gouron, A. (1993), Droit et coutume en France aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Variorum Collected Studies CS 422), Aldershot
Helmholz, R. H. (1996), The Spirit of Classical Canon Law, Athens, GA; Ius Romanum medii aevi (1961–8), 5 vols., Milan
Jakobs, H. H. (1996), De similibus ad similia bei Bracton und Azo (Ius commune. Sonderhefte, Studien zur Europäischen Rechtsgeschichte 87), Frankfurt a. M.
Kantorowicz, H. U. (1910), Über die Entstehung der Digestenvulgata, Ergänzungen zu Mommsen, Weimar
Kantorowicz, H. U. and Buckland, W. W. (1938), Studies in the Glossators of the Roman Law, Cambridge (repr. 1969 with addenda and corrigenda by Weimar, P., Aalen)
Kleffens, E. N. (1968), Hispanic Law until the End of the Middle Ages, Edinburgh
Knowles, D. (1966), From Pachomius to Ignatius. A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders, Oxford
Koschaker, P. (1947), Europa und das römische Recht, Munich
Kuttner, S. (1937), Repertorium der Kanonistik (1140–1234) (Studi e Testi 71), Vatican City; repr. (1983)
Kuttner, S. (1960), Harmony from Dissonance: An Interpretation of Medieval Canon Law, Latrobe, CA (repr. with corrections in Kuttner, (1980a))
Kuttner, S. (1980a), The History of Ideas and Doctrines of Canon Law in the Middle Ages, London
Kuttner, S. (1980b), Medieval Councils, Decretals, and Collections of Canon Law, London
Kuttner, S. (1982), ‘The revival of jurisprudence’, in Benson, R. L. and Constable, G., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, Oxford Google Scholar
Kuttner, S. (1990), Studies in the History of Medieval Canon Law, London
Landau, P. (1997), Kanones und Dekretalen: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Quellen des kanonischen Rechts (Bibliotheca eruditorum 2), Goldbach
Landau, P. (1999), ‘Bologna. Die Anfänge der europäischen Rechtwissenschaft’ in Stätten des Geistes: grosse Universitäten Europas von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Demandt, A., Cologne (1999)Google Scholar
Lewis, A. D. E. and Ibbetson, D. J. (eds.) (1994), The Roman Law Tradition, Cambridge
Lopez, R. S. (1971), The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
M¨ller, W. P. (1990), ‘The recovery of Justinian’s Digest in the middle ages’, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, NS 20.Google Scholar
M¨ller, W. P. (1994), Huguccio: the Life, Works and Thought of a Twelfth-Century Jurist (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 3), Washington, D. C.
Matthew, D. (1992), The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks), Cambridge
Mirbt, C. (1994), die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII., Leipzig
Mitteis, H. (1975), The State in the Middle Ages: A Comparative Constitutional History of Feudal Europe, trans. Orton, H. F. (North Holland Medieval Translations 1), Amsterdam
Noonan, J. T. (1979), ‘Gratian slept here: the changing identity of the father of the systematic study of canon law’, Traditio 35 Google Scholar
Otte, G. (1997), ‘Logische Einteilungstechniken bei den Glossatoren des römischen Rechts’, in Fried, (1997)
Padoa-Schioppa, A. (1995), Il diritto nella storia d’Europa: il medievo, 1, Padua
Radding, C. (1988), The Origins of Medieval Jurisprudence: Pavia and Bologna 850–1150, New Haven
Robinson, O. F., Fergus, T. D. and Gordon, W. M. (1994), An Introduction to European Legal History, 2nd edn, London
Savigny, F. C. von (1834–51), Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, 7 vols., 2nd edn, Heidelberg; repr. Bad Homburg (1961)
Schulte, J. F. von (1875–89), Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts, 3 vols., Stuttgart; repr. Graz (1956)
Smith, J. A. C. (1975), Medieval Law Teachers and Writers: Civilist and Canonist, Ottawa
Somerville, R. and Brasington, B. C. (1998), Prefaces to Canon Law Books in Latin Christianity: Selected Translations 500–1295, New Haven
Somerville, R. and Brasington, B. C. Spagnesi, E. (1970), Wernerius Bononiensis iudex. La figura storica d’Irnerio (Accademia toscana di scienze e lettere, La Colombaria. Studi 16), Florence
Stein, P. (1976), ‘Vacarius and the civil law’, in Brooke, C. N. L., Luscombe, D. E., Martin, G. H. and Owen, D., (eds.), Church and Government in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Google Scholar
Stein, P. (1992), ‘The Vacarian School’, Journal of Legal History 13 Google Scholar
Stein, P. (1999), Roman Law in European History, Cambridge
Steleer, W. (1978), ‘Zum scholarenprivileg Friedrich Barbarossas (Authentica “Habita”)’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 1–(1937–) 34 Google Scholar
Tierney, B. (1959), Medieval Poor Law: A Sketch of Canonical Theory and its Application in England, Berkeley
Vinogradoff, P. (1929), Roman Law in Medieval Europe, 2nd edn, Oxford
Weigand, R. (1980), ‘Bemerkungen uber die Schriften und Lehren des Magister Honorius’, in Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Medieval Canon Law, ed. Kuttner, S. and Pennington, K., (Monumenta iuris canonici, Subsidia 6), Vatican City Google Scholar
Weigand, R. (1997), Glossatoren des Dekrets Grations (Bibliotheca Eruditorum 18), Goldbach
Weimar, P. (1967), ‘Argumenta Brocardica’, Studia Gratiana 14 (Collectanea S. Kuttner 4), Bologna Google Scholar
Weimar, P. (1969), ‘Die legistische Literatur und die Methode des Rechtsunterrichts der Glossatorenzeit’, Ius Commune 2 Google Scholar
Wieacker, F. (1995), A History of Private Law in Europe, trans. Weir, T., Oxford
Winroth, A. (2000), The Making of Gration’s ‘Decretum’, Cambridge

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×