Treason in Roman and Germanic Law

Treason in Roman and Germanic Law PDF Author: Floyd Seyward Lear
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029275910X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"Treason" is a word with many connotations, a word applied to a host of varied offenses throughout the history of humanity. These essays by Floyd Seyward Lear analyze the development of the political theory of treason from its beginning in Roman Law to its transformation in the Germanic custom of the early Middle Ages. The author has presented treason as a political idea, possessing historical continuity, though varying from age to age as it follows the evolution of political authority itself. These studies trace the shifting emphasis in crimes against the state from acts directed against a central absolutist authority to acts involving the personal relationship of a pledged troth and individual fealty. This is a shift from the concept of majesty in Roman law to the concept of fidelity in Germanic law with the corollary shift from allegiance as an act of deference to allegiance as a token of mutual fidelity. These ideas are examined chronologically across an interval extending from archaic Roman law to incipiently feudal forms, from which modern theories of treason, allegiance, and sovereignty derive. Contemporary concepts in these political areas can hardly be understood apart from their historical origins. Broadly considered, this work is intended as a contribution to intellectual history. Further, this collection represents the synthesis of material widely scattered in the primary sources and relevant secondary works. The two concluding bibliographical essays are intended as a general survey of the literature relevant to these studies in Roman and Germanic public law. Descriptive and interpretive works which deal with treason and its allied aspects of political and legal theory are not numerous in the English language.

Treason in Roman and Germanic Law

Treason in Roman and Germanic Law PDF Author: Floyd Seyward Lear
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029275910X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Treason" is a word with many connotations, a word applied to a host of varied offenses throughout the history of humanity. These essays by Floyd Seyward Lear analyze the development of the political theory of treason from its beginning in Roman Law to its transformation in the Germanic custom of the early Middle Ages. The author has presented treason as a political idea, possessing historical continuity, though varying from age to age as it follows the evolution of political authority itself. These studies trace the shifting emphasis in crimes against the state from acts directed against a central absolutist authority to acts involving the personal relationship of a pledged troth and individual fealty. This is a shift from the concept of majesty in Roman law to the concept of fidelity in Germanic law with the corollary shift from allegiance as an act of deference to allegiance as a token of mutual fidelity. These ideas are examined chronologically across an interval extending from archaic Roman law to incipiently feudal forms, from which modern theories of treason, allegiance, and sovereignty derive. Contemporary concepts in these political areas can hardly be understood apart from their historical origins. Broadly considered, this work is intended as a contribution to intellectual history. Further, this collection represents the synthesis of material widely scattered in the primary sources and relevant secondary works. The two concluding bibliographical essays are intended as a general survey of the literature relevant to these studies in Roman and Germanic public law. Descriptive and interpretive works which deal with treason and its allied aspects of political and legal theory are not numerous in the English language.

A Companion to Western Legal Traditions

A Companion to Western Legal Traditions PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004687254
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
This volume offers an extensive introduction to Western legal traditions from antiquity to the twentieth century. Drawing from a variety of scholarly writings, both in English and in translation, thirteen leading scholars present the current state of western legal history research and pave the way for new debates and future study. This is the ideal sourcebook for graduate students, as it enables them to approach the key questions of the field in an accessible way. Contributors are: Aniceto Masferrer, C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, Seán P. Donlan, Stephan Dusil, Gerald Schwedler, Jean-Louis Halpérin, Jan Hallebeek, Agustín Parise, Heikki Pihlajamäki, Dirk Heirbaut, Bernd Kannowski, Adolfo Giuliani, Olivier Moréteau, and Jacques Vanderlinden.

Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages

Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages PDF Author: Wendy Davies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521522250
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
A collection of original essays on the relationship between property and power in early medieval Europe.

The Laws of the Salian Franks

The Laws of the Salian Franks PDF Author:
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812200500
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire, the Franks established in northern Gaul one of the most enduring of the Germanic barbarian kingdoms. They produced a legal code (which they called the Salic law) at approximately the same time that the Visigoths and Burgundians produced theirs, but the Frankish code is the least Romanized and most Germanic of the three. Unlike Roman law, this code does not emphasize marriage and the family, inheritance, gifts, and contracts; rather, Lex Salica is largely devoted to establishing fixed monetary or other penalties for a wide variety of damaging acts such as "killing women and children," "striking a man on the head so that the brain shows," or "skinning a dead horse without the consent of its owner." An important resource for students and scholars of medieval and legal history, made available once again in Katherine Fischer Drew's expert translation, the code contains much information on Frankish judicial procedure. Drew has here rendered into readable English the Pactus Legis Salicae, generally believed to have been issued by the Frankish King Clovis in the early sixth century and modified by his sons and grandson, Childbert I, Chlotar I, and Chilperic I. In addition, she provides a translation of the Lex Salica Karolina, the code as corrected and reissued some three centuries later by Charlemagne.

A Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law

A Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law PDF Author: H. F. Jolowicz
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521082532
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 626

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Book Description
Traces the development of Roman Law historically from the earliest times until the age of Justinian.

Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians

Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians PDF Author: Theodore John Rivers
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512805955
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The survival of Germanic law codes affords us invaluable insight into pre­feudal society. The inviolability of custom and the spontaneity of punishment so characteristic of primitive law served to perpetuate a rigid class structure in which the principal crimes were settled by a monetary recompense based on the victim 's social status. The codes reflect the principles of this culture. For example, the murderer of a freeman was required to pay one hundred and sixty solidi to the victim's family, but a slave's life required a payment of only twenty solidi to his owner. In the Introduction to the first English translation of these early medieval codes of law, the Lex Alamannorum and the Lex Baiuvariorum. Rivers provides a history of the Alamans and Bavarians from their migration into the provinces of the Roman Empire and their settlement in southern Germany to their final assimilation into the Carolingian Empire. He discusses the influence of economic conditions, the Church, and the judicial traditions of the Franks and other tribes upon them. His sensible rendering of texts that are nearly twelve centuries old remains as close as possible to the Latin, allowing the laws to speak for themselves. In addition to an introduction Rivers' translation is accompanied by extensive notes that supply historical and editorial information: a glossary of Germanic and Latin terms; a bibliography to the scholarship on the laws and to the literature on Germanic kingdoms in general, and an ample index.

The Merovingians

The Merovingians PDF Author: Alexander Callander Murray
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000530698
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
The studies collected here cover a period of about 33 years, from 1986 to 2019, and represent a sustained effort to understand the institutions of the Merovingian kingdom and its history. There has long been a predisposition to cast the Merovingian period in the dark colours of barbarism or to treat it with reference to personal relationships and archaic institutions. The present volume, instead, recognizes the Merovingian world not as an archaic, primitive intrusion on the Mediterranean civilization of the Roman Empire but simply as a participant in the wider commonwealth that existed before and remained after the dissolution of the western imperial system; in so doing, it serves to refute the scholarly tendency to primitivize Merovingian governance, its underlying institutions, and the broader culture upon which these rested. The collection is divided into four parts. Part I considers the question of whether Merovingian kingship should be viewed as a species of archaic, ‘sacral’ kingship. Part II, on institutions, has chapters that deal with various offices (the grafio and centenarius), public institutions (especially immunity and public security), and the broader makeup of the Merovingian state system. Part III, on charters, procedure, and law, has chapters on the profile of the charter evidence as now presented in the new MGH edition of the Merovingian diplomas and one on particular procedures before the royal tribunal, mistakenly referred to in scholarship as ‘fictitious’ trials; a final chapter provides a reflection on, and basic guide to, the law in general of the successor kingdoms, with an eye to the evidence of Merovingian Gaul. Part IV, a slight change of pace, deals with historiography, both the modern variety (Reinhard Wenskus) and the Merovingian (Gregory of Tours). All chapters deal extensively with the historiography of their subjects. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in Early Medieval European history, Merovingian history, Early Medieval law and society, Early Medieval historiography, and the influence of Merovingian law and governance on later centuries. (CS 1104).

Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great

Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great PDF Author: Sean D. W. Lafferty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067561
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
This book explores the evolution of Roman law and society in Italy from 493, with the proclamation of the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great as king, until about 554, when the eastern Emperor Justinian was able to re-establish imperial authority in the region. Drawing upon evidence from a variety of legal and historical sources, it investigates how Theoderic and his successors attempted to govern the peninsula in the wake of foreign invasions, the collapse of civic administration, the break-up of the Mediterranean economy, and the emergence of new forms of religious and secular authority. It challenges long-held assumptions as to just how peaceful, prosperous and Roman-like Theoderic's Italy really was. Its primary focus is the Edictum Theoderici, a significant but largely overlooked document that offers valuable historical insights into the complex and sometimes contested social, political and religious changes that marked Italy's passage from Antiquity into the Middle Ages.

The Nature of Kingship c. 800-1300

The Nature of Kingship c. 800-1300 PDF Author: Nils Hybel
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004358358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
In The Nature of Kingship c. 800-1300. The Danish Incident Nils Hybel presents the first comprehensive history of the changeable nature of monarchial power in Danish territories from the Viking Age to the Central Middle Ages. The work offers a pioneering methodological approach entirely based on medieval conceptions on sovereign power. This innovative approach involves contemporary ideas, not modern notions of power and kingship, being used to undertake the analysis. The Danish “Incident” is therefore integrated within the European context. Kingship experienced a profound transformation during the half millennium investigated. A royal genealogy and strong bonds with Christian institutions were established in the late eleventh century. In the middle of the twelfth century the Danish realm was united, followed by the final liberation from German hegemony and the expansion of the realm with German and Slavic fiefs in the late twelfth century. At the same time, with the first signs of taxation, legislation, law enforcement and the notion of a national, military force, kings began the transition from warlords to medieval kingship. With stirrings of constitutionalism from 1241 onwards, this development of a national, medieval, kingdom intensified, though by c. 1300 the kingdom had not yet reached the point of total sovereign power.

The Crossroads of Justice

The Crossroads of Justice PDF Author: Esther Cohen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004095694
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
An analysis of the cultural and social functions of law, legal processes and legal rituals in late medieval northern France. It interprets the various influences upon the shaping of law as a cultural manifestation and its application as an actual system of justice.