The Crossroads of Justice: Law and Culture in Late Medieval France (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History)

The book is an analysis of the cultural and social functions of law, legal processes and legal rituals in late medieval Northern France. It is centered around a time and a place in which European law underwent some major transformations, from a plethora of local oral customs to a fairly coherent system of national, written customary law. In this process, law and legal procedures came to reflect a great variety of cultural traditions, ranging from popular perceptions of animals and the human body to learned ideas of Roman jurisprudence. Drawing upon wide-ranging sources: judicial, legal, literary and historical, Cohen analyzes the various influences upon the shaping of law as a cultural manifestation and its application as an actual system of justice. Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction PART I: LAW I. Functions and Forms of Law II. The Reality of Medieval Law and Its Myths The Multiplicity of Legal Systems: Mutual Influences and Conflicts Posited Law: Reality and the Myth of the Good Old Law Vox Populi : The Popular Components of Customary Law III. The Reality of Late Medieval French Law and Its Myths The Writing of Customary Law The Myth of Customary Law Figures and Myths of Justice Northern French Law in the European Context PART II: RITUALS THE JUDICIAL CONTEXT IV. Courthouse Rituals in Transition THE CULTURAL CONTEXT V. Folklore and Symbolic Functions in Medieval Legal Rituals Popular Elements and Legal Rituals Legal Rituals and Their Functions Liminalization Integration VI. The Rituals of Exclusion: Women and Jews Analogies of Liminality Jews: The Human 'Animals' Women: The Human Other VII. The Rituals of Inclusion: Animals The Animals The Trials The Secular Trials The Ecclesiastical Trials The Justice of the Animals VIII. The Rituals of the Excluded: The Dead THE CONTEXT OF AUTHORITY IX. The Interactive Vocabulary of Justice X. Power and Disgrace: Rituals of Infamy Defamation by Marking Defamation by Inversion Nudity Dehumanization: Spatial Inversion and Animalization XI. Power and Death: Public Executions Secular Power and Death Ecclesiastical Power and Death Conclusion Bibliography Index