Author Description

Throughout The Medieval Period Law Was Seen As The Product Of Social Groups And Associations That Formed Legal Orders, As Max Weber Elaborates, Either Constituted In Its Membership By Such Objective Characteristics Of Birth, Political, Ethnic, Or Religious Denomination, Mode Of Life Or Occupation, Or Arose Through The Process Of Explicit Fraternization. During The Second Half Of The Middle Ages, Roughly The Tenth Through Fifteenth Centuries, There Were Several Distinct Types Of Law, Sometimes Competing, Occasionally Overlapping, Invariably Invoking Different Traditions, Jurisdictions And Modes Of Operation. Types Of Law Included Imperial And Royal Edicts And Statutes, Canon Law, Unwritten Customary Law Of Tribes And Localities, Written Germanic Law, Residual Roman Law, Municipal Statutes, The Law Of Merchants And Of Guilds, And In England The Common Law, On The Continent The Roman Law Of Jurists After The Twelfth Century Revival Of The Justinian Code. The Types Of Courts Included Various Imperial And Royal Courts, Ecclesiastical Courts, Manorial Or Seigniorial Courts, Village Courts, Municipal Courts In Cities, Merchant Courts, And Guild Courts. Serving As Judges In These Courts, Respectively, Were Kings Or Their Appointees, Bishops And Abbots, Barons Or Lords Of The Manor Or Their Appointees, Local Lay Leaders, Leading Burghers, Merchants, And Members Of The Guild. These Various Positions Were Not Wholly Separate-many High Government Officials Were In Religious Orders, While Churches Held Landed Estates That Came With Local Judicial Responsibilities. Bishops, Abbots And Prioresses, As Lords Of Temporal Possessions, Controlled Manorial Or Honorial Courts At Which They Sometimes, Though Not Generally, Presided In Person, Exercising Responsibility For Criminal And Customary Law. The Result Was The Existence Of Numerous Law Communities, Weber Wrote, The Autonomous Jurisdictions Of Which Overlapped, The Compulsory, Political Association Being Only One Such Autonomous Ju