The Authority of communis opinio doctorum in the Medieval and Early Modern Ius commune (13th-16th centuries)

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-133
Author(s):  
Tymoteusz Mikolajczak
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Heikki Pihlajamäki

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the connection of Scandinavian to continental law increased. The reception of learned ius commune had advanced to Germany during the fifteenth century, and it was only logical that the learned legal scholarship now reached Scandinavia. Influences spread to Scandinavia through two principal channels. The centralized royal power in Denmark and Sweden needed learned legal experts to deal with their European counterparts. The Scandinavian royal chanceries therefore hired German, or sometimes Dutch, legal professionals to represent them in diplomatic negotiations and to counsel them in legal questions. The number of Swedes and Danes studying in foreign universities rose, and domestic universities were founded as well. The establishment of the high courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries caused, if not an influx of ius commune into the legal practice, at least an increasing influence of common European legal scholarship.


2021 ◽  
pp. 14-26
Author(s):  
Karl Härter

Karl Härter explores the 18th and 19th century ‘breeding ground’ of many of the transnational criminal procedures dealt with later in this volume. His focus is on early modern Europe and the ius commune, where, as he illustrates, acceptance of jurisdictional claims to enforce domestic law over conduct that occurred extra-territorially was driven by a shared interest in acting against certain kinds of criminals with loose connections to particular states.


Grotiana ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-58
Author(s):  
Giovanni Chiodi

The idea that a simple unilateral promise, until it is accepted, is not binding according to natural law is defended by Grotius in his major work with an argumentation drawn directly from Lessius, an important source of inspiration for the Dutch jurist, who in turn solves the dispute rooted in the tradition of ius commune. This article aims to reconstruct, in its essential stages, an itinerary through the main positions of medieval and early modern civil and canon lawyers about this controversial issue. These sources constitute the background of early modern scholastics and Grotius as well. The paper analyses some of the principal texts of both bodies of law, highlighting arguments and adding new findings. Notably it is shown that Lessius’s and Grotius’s statements represent a turning point, as far as they react against the resumption of the theory of the binding force of simple unilateral promises in the sixteenth century. With Lessius and Grotius, on the other hand, acceptance became a necessary requirement for every transfer of rights and duties to be enforceable.


Author(s):  
Laurent Waelkens

AbstractIn Roman law, D. 44,4,2,3 is the reference-text for stipulation without cause. Causality is a characteristic feature of early-modern legal thinking, but it may seem alien to a text from the 3rd century A.D. Would it therefore be possible to understand that text without reading into it the stipulation without cause? If one looks for a single meaning of causa in all the passages of the Digest where the phrase appears, the term seems to have a complex significance, including both a law-suit, litigation, a legal act and a legal fact. In that light, D. 44,4,2,3 takes on another dimension, as the text explains a particular feature of the exceptio doli. This study may thus offer a caveat for differentiating, when reading a text of Roman law, between its original ancient use and its reception during the ius commune era.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 181-196
Author(s):  
Ilya A. Kotlyar

The article points out at the discrepancy between the different Mss. of the Roman Justinianic text: Littera Pisana and Littera Bononiensis. The discrepancy entailed that the doctrine of medieval Ius Commune offered stronger protection of the collective rights of the creditors, in comparison with the Classical Roman law. The Roman Dutch “Elegant School”, despite its general reliance on the original Roman sources, already in the writings of Grotius demonstrated allegiance to the medieval doctrine on the issue of bankruptcy. The authors of the “Elegant School” continued to prefer the medieval interpretation of the creditors’ rights and bankruptcy, although Dutch practice was, in many respects, drastically different from the Ius Commune doctrine. This ensured a strong protection of creditors in bankruptcy in Dutch law.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Laura Beck Varela

Resumen: Los Modos de pasar en Derechos consistían en una especie de guías de lectura, con consejos detallados sobre la disciplina, los libros, las autoridades, las materias, el orden y el tiempo que deberían emplearse en la preparación de la licentia docendi en Leyes y Cánones. De origen salmantino y proyección ibérica, constituyen una fuente de gran interés para la historia de la educación de los juristas en los siglos modernos. Funcionaron, además, como vehículos de legitimación de una determinada imagen pública de excelencia y distinción de la élite académica de catedráticos, licenciados y doctores, en un contexto de conflictos y transformaciones institucionales. Tomando como ejemplo el Modo de pasar del catedrático de la Facultad de Leyes Diego Enríquez, que contenía una sugerente Memoria de los libros que son necesarios para pasar, en estas páginas se esboza una propuesta de identificación de estas pequeñas guías de estudio como un corpus específico en el conjunto de la literatura jurídico-pedagógica del Antiguo régimen. En el apéndice se incluye la transcripción del Modo de pasar del doctor Diego Enrríquez (1587) que alberga la Biblioteca Histórica Marqués de Valdecilla, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Mss. 206, fols. 259v-262r).Palabras clave: Enseñanza del derecho (edad moderna), Literatura jurídico-pedagógica, Historia Cultural de las Universidades, Universidad de Salamanca, Ius commune, Historia de los saberes jurídicos.Abstract: The Modos de pasar en Derechos (ways of ‘passing’ laws) consisted of a type of study guide, which contained moral prescriptions and practical advice about the books, the authorities, the subjects, the order, and the time required to prepare for academic examinations. These study guides were especially designed to instruct candidates in obtaining the licentiate degree in Salamanca, the so-called licentia docendi in both civil and canon law. They also offer a rich source for the history of legal education in the early modern Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the Modos de pasar functioned as tools for the selfrepresentation to the public of an image of academic excellence and distinction, which was of immense importance for the process of elite formation. The social group formed by tenured professors (catedráticos), licentiates, and doctors in law struggled to enhance their privileges in a period of conflict and institutional change in the old University of Salamanca. In this article, I propose to analyze these study guides as a specific legal-pedagogical genre within the broader spectrum of early modern juridical literature. The features of this corpus of texts can be clearly displayed in the Modo de pasar del doctor Diego Enrríquez (1587), one of the most remarkable examples of this genre, since it includes a comprehensive list of suggested readings for law students (Memoria de los libros que son necesarios para pasar). An edition of this manuscript (Modo de pasar del doctor Diego Enrríquez, 1587, Biblioteca Histórica Marqués de Valdecilla, Universidad Complutense de Madrid: Mss. 206, fols. 259v-262r) is added as an appendix.Keywords: Early Modern Legal Education, Pedagogical Literature (Law), Cultural History of Universities, University of Salamanca, Ius commune, History of legal knowledge. 


Author(s):  
Wim Decock

AbstractThis paper describes and explains the central role of the principle of contractual liberty with the Jesuits of the early modern period. Designed as a diptych, it intends to clarify how the legal and the moral philosophical tradition mutually enriched each other at the threshold of modernity. The 'ius commune' helped the Jesuits in formulating the idea of negative freedom, only for that 'ius commune' to undergo a transformation itself under the influence of the scientific account of contract law that the Jesuits were to develop on its basis. First it will be shown how the Jesuits arrived at a moral problem-solving method capable of freeing man from unduely burdensome obligations before the court of conscience through the application of the law of property and procedure. Secondly, this paper will highlight the turn towards positive freedom through the Jesuits' elaboration of a general doctrine of contract as a mutually accepted promise centered around the notions of liberty, consensualism, and the image of the will as a private legislator.


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