We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
'Just Judgment' in Western France (C.1000– C.1150): Judicial Practice and the Sacred.
- Authors
Mchaffie, M W
- Abstract
This article examines the phrase 'just judgment' ( justum judicium, or rectum judicium), sometimes found in western French ecclesiastical charters when describing legal proceedings over the period c.1000–c.1150. It explores the origins of the phrase and the routes by which it entered the language of eleventh- and twelfth-century legal practice. ‘Just judgment’, this article suggests, represented a conscious evocation on the part of courtholders— especially lay court-holders—of ideas of God’s Last Judgment, thereby serving to buttress the authority of legal decision-making. This article thus opens a window onto the political ideas of the much-maligned lay courts of so-called feudal society during the central Middle Ages. Finally, the article suggests, more broadly, ways in which problematic ecclesiastical charters might be used to reconstruct the mental horizons of lay, aristocratic justice.
- Subjects
JUDGES; DECISION making in law; LEGAL language; COURTS; LEGAL judgments
- Publication
French History, 2019, Vol 33, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0269-1191
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/fh/crz045