This third volume by André Gouron brings together a widely scattered set of articles on Roman law in medieval France and its influence. The first group of papers is concerned with the medieval history of Roman law itself, while the two following sections look at how it contributed to the (perfectionnement) of canon law, on the one hand, and to the emergence of customary law on the other. As the author would see it, there are the three aspects of the inexorable advance, if not of a science, at least of a clear effort towards logical clarification, which revolutionised law in the 12th and 13th centuries, first in southern Europe, but soon in the west and north too. At the same time, these studies help reveal some of the complex network of intellectual links that underlay these developments.

The Perpendiculum (or Summula de presumptionibus), produced in Northern France c.1170, is one of the earliest collections of brocards: a literary genre intended to provide legal arguments for disputation in the medieval schools of law. Its innovative use of dialectical techniques and its theorization of canon law presumptions have attracted the attention of legal historians, raising questions on its origin and milieu. This book offers the first comprehensive study of this work, with a Latin edition and an English translation of its text, shedding new light on the significance of this collection for twelfth-century legal teaching and learning.

In a series of essays based on surviving documents of actual court practices from Perugia and Bologna, as well as laws, statutes, and theoretical works from the 12th and 13th centuries, Massimo Vallerani offers important historical insights into the establishment of a trial-based public justice system.

Considering a wide array of sources, this book reveals the tenacity with which Alfonso II (1162-1196) and his son Peter II (1196-1213) of the Crown of Aragon forged a tighter Mediterranean regional network and augmented their regional success.

This fully revised and updated second edition of The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law provides a wide-ranging and diverse critical survey of comparative law at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It summarizes and evaluates a discipline that is time-honoured but not easily understood in all its dimensions. In the current era of globalization, this discipline is more relevant than ever, both on the academic and on the practical level. The Handbook is divided into three main sections. Section I surveys how comparative law has developed and where it stands today in various parts of the world. This includes not only traditional model jurisdictions, such as France, Germany, and the United States, but also other regions like Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Latin America. Section II then discusses the major approaches to comparative law - its methods, goals, and its relationship with other fields, such as legal history, economics, and linguistics. Finally, section III deals with the status of comparative studies in over a dozen subject matter areas, including the major categories of private, economic, public, and criminal law. The Handbook contains forty-eight chapters written by experts from around the world. The aim of each chapter is to provide an accessible, original, and critical account of the current state of comparative law in its respective area which will help to shape the agenda in the years to come. Each chapter also includes a short bibliography referencing the definitive works in the field.

The pontificate of Innocent II (1130-1143) has long been recognized as a watershed in the history of the papacy, marking the transition from the age of reform to the so-called papal monarchy, when an earlier generation of idealistic reformers gave way to hard-headed pragmatists intent on securing worldly power for the Church. Whilst such a conception may be a cliché its effect has been to concentrate scholarship more on the schism of 1130 and its effects than on Innocent II himself. This volume puts Innocent at the centre, bringing together the authorities in the field to give an overarching view of his pontificate, which was very important in terms of the internationalization of the papacy, the internal development of the Roman Curia, the integrity of the papal state and the governance of the local church, as well as vital to the development of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Empire.

Canon Law, Religion, and Politics extends and honors the work of the distinguished historian Robert Somerville, a preeminent expert on medieval church councils, law, and papal history.

The subject of this volume is that of the establishment and embedding in the Tuscan countryside, and especially round Florence, of the new forms of piety propagated above all by the Mendicant orders. The volume brings together Professor de La Roncière's major articles on this topic, both detailed research studies and syntheses. Against the background of existing religious attitudes, he aims to describe the many new forms of pastoral activity and structures that were instituted, and to provide a picture of what the religious side of their life really meant to these communities. The final articles extend this analysis to include the city of Florence itself, examining the role of the confraternities there and the religious views of its merchants, its socio-economic elite. Ce volume a pour sujet l’établissement et l’enracinement de nouvelles formes de piété propagées surtout par les ordres mendiants en pays toscan et, plus particulièrement, aux alentours de Florence. Le volume rassemble les articles les plus importants du professeur de La Roncière sur ce sujet; à la fois études de recherches détaillées et de synthèse. C’est sur cet arrière-plan d’attitudes religieuses en existence, qu’il tente de décrire les nombreuses formes nouvelles d’activités et de structures pastorales qui furent instaurées dans ces communautés et ce que signifiait pour elles le côté religieux de leurs vies. Les derniers articles étendent cette analyse à la ville de Florence elle-même, en y examinant le rôle des confréries et le point de vue religieux de l’élite socio-économique qu’étaient ses marchands.

French legal culture, from the Middle Ages to the present day, has had an impressive influence on legal norms and institutions that have emerged in Europe and the Americas, as well as in Asian and African countries. This volume examines the lives of twenty-seven key legal thinkers in French history, with a focus on how their Christian faith and ideals were a factor in framing the evolution of French jurisprudence. Professors Olivier Descamps and Rafael Domingo bring together this diverse group of distinguished legal scholars and historians to provide a unique comparative study of law and religion that will be of value to scholars, lawyers, and students. The collaboration among French and non-French scholars, and the diversity of international and methodological perspectives, gives this volume its own unique character and value to add to this fascinating series.

Several different approaches to medieval legal history are evident in these articles. The first group uses law to investigate the principles that governed society, whether clearly articulated or not, and to ask how the intellectual structures of the ius commune affected the institutions of government and the presuppositions of the people. The second group of articles illustrates the importance of returning to the manuscript sources of later medieval texts, rather than relying on the early printed editions. In both parts Professor Pennington also focuses on the lives of individual jurists, contending that these provide a key to the understanding of their thought, their position in society, and the connections between the two. One of these articles is published for the first time here, while a number of others have been revised and up-dated for publication. Plusieures approches différentes à l’histoire légale du Moyen Age sont reflétées au travers de ces articles. Le premier groupe se sert de la loi pour explorer les principes qui gouvernaient la société - que ceux-ci soient clairement exprimés ou non - et afin de demander comment les structures intellectuelles de l’ius commune affectaient les institutions gouvernementales et les présuppositions du peuple. Le second groupe illustre l’importance du retour aux sources manuscrites des textes médiévaux tardifs, plutôt que de se fier à des impressions anciennes. Au travers des deux parties du volume, le professeur Pennington se concentre aussi sur la vie de certains juristes, avançant qu’il s’agit là d’une des clefs permettant de comprendre leur pensée, leur place dans la société et le rapport entre ces deux facteurs. Un des articles est publié ici pour la première fois, alors qu’un certain nombre d’autres ont été révisés et mis à jour pour leur réimpression.