Legal History from a European Perspective episodes:

• January 17, 2021LH0260: The 11th Century. A Turning Point

  The Church IS the society. For the Middle Ages (and all ages before the 18th century) the sources concerning the Church give information on the whole of the society.

  H. Berman, Law and Revolution (1983). The “Papal Revolution”.

  The Gregorian Reform changed the idea of law.

  A new aggressive attitude.

  Fracture of Christianity: West vs. East. The schism (1054).

  Theological reasons: more interesting than you might think…

  The disagreement was on the role and on the hierarchical order of the clergy

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• January 17, 2021LH0250: Feudal Anarchy

  The Empire is too weak.

  Lack of a system of appeal.

  The local lords plunder villages and monaseries.

  Popes, bishops and abbots controlled by aristocracy.

  Corruption in the Church.

  Renaissance of the cities. Birth of a civic citizenship

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• January 17, 2021LH0240: The Fief

  800 - 1000: a “feudal society”.

  Why it is so difficult to describe the fief in legal terms?

  Charismatic power (LH012) and love.

  The feudal relationships are multiform. But the fief has been defined at law: in the documents until the 11th century and by legal writings since the 12th century onwards

  Three elements: 1) personal relationship: lord, vassal. The act of homage; 2) material grant: beneficium. The act of “investitura”; 3) delegation of public powers (only for the major fiefs).

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• January 17, 2021LH0230: The Carolingian Empire

  774: Charlemagne takes over the Lombard Kingdom.

  Christmas 800: He is crowned Emperor in Rome.

  The Empire is more Holy than Roman: a Christian society.

  Unification of culture, writings and mesures, BUT:

  Persistent fragmentation of kingdoms.

  After Charlemagne: division of the Empire. Increasing power of the aristocracy.

  Isidorian forgeries: broad diffusion and statement of the principle of unlawful dispossession.

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• January 17, 2021LH0220: An age of disgregation and danger

  Fragmentation of the western worlds. Development of vernacular languages.

  Only the Roman Church preserves a central government, but also in the Church there are many tendencies toward regionalism.

  BUT: Rome does not serve as the Church’s supreme court. The appeal to the Pope against the bishop’s decision is not foreseen.

  Spread of Islam: 622-750: watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14x4-q_Gj4

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• January 17, 2021LH0210: Composition and Effective Use of the Corpus Iuris CIvilis

  Codex: it collects Imperial constitutions (laws) issued by Justinian himself and his predecessors.

  Digest: it collects fragments of the writings of classical jurists. Is is the biggest part of the compilation.

  Institutions: it is an introduction to the law for first year students, written on the example of Gaius’ Institutiones.

  Novellae: it is a collection of the constitutions issued by Justinian after the second publication of the Codex in 534. Almost all in Greek.

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• January 17, 2021LH0200: Justinian

  This trasfirmation of the law in the West had already began when Justinian ascended the throne (527).

  He wanted to restore the majesty of the Roman Empire, through the war and the law.

  Both projects failed from a political point of view: - His huge compilation of law was too big to be diffused and used; - He could take Italy over after a tremendous war, but the Bizantines could not hold it for long.

  But his great legal codification was haphazardly preserved and it has played a major role for global legal history.

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• January 17, 2021LH0190: Reconsidering the Traditional Historiography

  Herzog 58: we must reconsider old explanations of history, because every generation proposed a different interpretation of the past.

  Two examples: Legislation (and custom) and Property law.

  Legislation: 19th and 20th century historians on legislation: it was only the mirror of ancient customs. But today we think that legislation was the word oth King: new written laws impose new rules to the people.

  Property law: German legal historians of the 19th c. proposed the myth of Gewere as an original German legal concept. Ernst Levy showed that it was part of the vulgar law since the late Empire.

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• January 17, 2021LH0180: The Transformation of Property and Possession

  A classical book: Ernst Levy, West Roman Vulgar Law. The Law of Property, 1951.

  Classic Roman possession: Possession was the material control of things protected by the praetor – In order to: 1) acquire property through lapse of time (usucapio); 2) protect a factual ownership without the need of proving the property.

  Roman possession is not a right, like property, and therefore it cannot produce an “action”.

  The fact of being a possessor is qualified by law.

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• January 17, 2021LH0170: Composition of crimes

  All the early medieval lawbooks contain lists of prices to pay to satisfy a victim of a crime and avoid his vengeance.

  If you hurt someone, you have to pay him a price established by law.

  This displays the power of the King. The King guarantees that every free man pays the same price for the same offense.

  Graduation of crimes and oaths taken by jurors are still part of the criminal law and procedure.

  Also the isea of a God « who sees everything » seems to come back when we use video or audio recordings as criminal proofs.

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