Chapter “1500-1650' in Western Legal Traditions, eds. R. Van Rhee, A. Masferrer and S. Donlan (series Ius Commune Casebooks, Oxford, Hart)
Posted: 8 Jun 2021
Date Written: June 7, 2021
Abstract
The period 1500-1650 saw some events that fundamentally changed the spiritual and material life of individuals (the fall of Constantinople, the rise of printing, America, the Reformation). At the same time even the most superficial look at the texts and arguments used in legal practice shows a continuity of medieval patterns of thinking that lasted until mid-seventeenth century. To explain this contradiction is the purpose of this chapter.
Methodologically, this is a first and modest attempt to offer an account of legal history based on an overview of the legal process focused on its three basic components: the law's creation, its actors and its application.
Keywords: legal history, legal process, scholasticism
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