The Prince and the Law, 1200-1600 : Sovereignty and Rights in the Western Legal Tradition

The power of the prince versus the rights of his subjects is one of the basic struggles in the history of law and government. In this masterful history of monarchy, conceptions of law, and due process, Kenneth Pennington addresses that struggle and opens an entirely new vista in the study of Western legal tradition. Pennington investigates legal interpretations of the monarch's power from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. Then, tracing the evolution of defendants' rights, he demonstrates that the origins of due process are not rooted in English common law as is generally assumed. It was not a sturdy Anglo-Saxon, but, most probably, a French jurist of the late thirteenth century who wrote, "A man is innocent until proven guilty." This is the first book to examine in detail the origins of our concept of due process. It also reveals a fascinating paradox: while a theory of individual rights was evolving, so, too, was the concept of the prince's "absolute power." Pennington illuminates this paradox with a clarity that will greatly interest students of political theory as well as legal historians. "Power and rights: the power of the prince and the rights of his subjects. In the legal thought of the medieval and early modern periods, these two terms are in almost constant conflict. Now thanks to Kenneth Pennington's masterful account of the four-century struggle, we can watch as the outlines of Western jurisprudence take shape." "Pennington uses the writings of many jurists, from Bulgarus and Martinus in the twelfth century to Jean Bodin in the sixteenth, to bring into focus this basic tension underlying the entire history of law and government. His exploration of the ius commune, the common law of Europe with roots in Roman and canon law, permits us to follow the evolving ideas of monarchy and power as these became more and more "absolute." At the same time, we see that a formidable succession of legal theories and arguments advanced the rights of subjects or citizens, assuring that "absolute power" could never exist in fact. Pennington illuminates this paradox with elegance and erudition as he follows the changing conceptions of law." "The fact that the same legal minds that created the doctrine of absolute power of the prince also, and in the same period of time, fashioned the first doctrine of inalienable rights in the West is no more surprising than another of Pennington's conclusions. He finds that the concept of due process, so central to Western legal thought, did not have its origins in England as is generally believed. The first jurist to write "a man is innocent until proven guilty" was not a sturdy Anglo-Saxon but most probably a French jurist of the late thirteenth century." "This ground-breaking discussion of the concurrent development of two crucial themes in the Western legal tradition and their place in the foundations of contemporary thought will greatly interest students of political theory as well as legal historians."--BOOK JACKET. The power of the prince versus the rights of his subjects is one of the basic struggles in the history of law and government. In this masterful history of monarchy, conceptions of law, and due process, Kenneth Pennington addresses that struggle and opens an entirely new vista in the study of Western legal tradition.Pennington investigates legal interpretations of the monarch's power from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. Then, tracing the evolution of defendants'rights, he demonstrates that the origins of due process are not rooted in English common law as is generally assumed. It was not a sturdy Anglo-Saxon, but, most probably, a French jurist of the late thirteenth century who wrote,'A man is innocent until proven guilty.'This is the first book to examine in detail the origins of our concept of due process. It also reveals a fascinating paradox: while a theory of individual rights was evolving, so, too, was the concept of the prince's'absolute power.'Pennington illuminates this paradox with a clarity that will greatly interest students of political theory as well as legal historians.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1993.The power of the prince versus the rights of his subjects is one of the basic struggles in the history of law and government. In this masterful history of monarchy, conceptions of law, and due process, Kenneth Pennington addresses that struggle and opens