Liberties and Litigation

The guilds were essential allies in the operation of the regulatory system, which can be considered an early-modern example of a public/private partnership. Not only were the guilds the chief ‘customers’ of the court, providing much of the funding for public officials, they also had the authority to enforce market rules in their own sector. The price paid for their cooperation was the confirmation of their privileges and the division of the economy into separate sectors. This chapter emphasizes the functional role of guild litigation as opposed to the rhetoric that has surrounded it. From the point of view of a ‘command economy’, guild litigation served no useful purpose. The government considered it to be a waste of money, ‘petty disputes’ of no real significance.

Conclusion

This study has revealed an alternative picture of Venetian justice as mild and forgiving, where the full rigour of the law was rarely enforced. Only token punishments were applied to those who submitted to court authority and expressed due contrition, and sentencing was usually adjusted in response to extenuating circumstances, such as the poverty of defendants. It could be justified in legal terms by appealing to the ideals of equity. The permeation of the justice system by private interests is particularly clear in the case of the guilds. Comparing the Giustizia Vecchia with other Venetian courts underlines the importance of distinguishing between two different levels of penal justice: a higher level of ‘serious’ crime; and a lower level of ‘petty’ crime, the practices of everyday life.

Relational Transactions

Having examined the structure of small-claims litigation, this chapter seeks to situate the legal process more solidly in its immediate social context. The equitable character of justice at the lesser courts was in part related to the amateur status of the judges, yet it also reflected the highly informal nature of most everyday transactions. In the absence of written contracts, there was little scope for a sophisticated law of contract. The court's adoption of an equity approach was functionally related to the type of business that it considered. Courts of conscience provided an equivalent structure for small-claims litigation in England, allowing plaintiffs to seek justice even if they did not have the formal proofs required by the common law. This chapter shows that the behaviour of litigants can only be properly understood when this context of informal economic relations is taken into account.

Small Claims

While criminal justice emphasizes the role of law as an instrument of control, the study of civil justice presents an alternative view of the law as a resource. The criminal branch of the Giustizia Vecchia enforced market rules in partnership with the guilds, but parallel to this was a civil branch that considered private disputes. This chapter examines how far this civil justice was accessible to ordinary people. In particular, it asks whether the Giustizia Vecchia can be defined as a court of equity or as a court of law, and analyses the practical consequences of this for ordinary people. The vast majority of lawsuits fall into the category of small claims, defined in Venice as those worth up to 50 ducats. It was to keep legal costs down as far as possible, even if this meant accepting lower standards of justice.

Market Crime

The weakness and unreliability of the public administration forced the government to work closely with private interests, leaving responsibility for policing and taxation to private corporations. Without the guilds, which provided a kind of self-interested policing system, it would have been extremely difficult for the government to tax and regulate the economy. This chapter examines the consequences of this in terms of how market justice was experienced in practice on the streets of Venice. It presents a detailed study of law enforcement in practice, using one of the few surviving registers of criminal denunciations at the Giustizia Vecchia. To understand the real meaning of market justice for ordinary people, the discussion focuses on the mundane and the everyday, the sort of ordinary crime that constituted the background to economic life.

Public Office and Private Property

Removal of the judges' right to discretion, to exercise their arbitrium, meant that they were less likely to convict criminals, instead choosing to let trials lapse altogether. This chapter discusses such findings in terms of the lesser court staff and the concrete practice of justice at the court. It tries to demonstrate the existence of a gulf between the rhetoric and practice of justice, between the high concerns of the political elite, and the actual implementation of power at the bottom level. The early modern state was an agglomeration of public and private interests, and its freedom of action was correspondingly limited. While the government struggled to impose central control over the courts, at the same time it allowed key elements of its institutional structure to fall into private hands. Corruption was a structural problem that would not be eliminated by rare and toothless government investigations.

The Justice of Venice

The Giustizia, or ‘Justice’, of Venice was one of the oldest magistracies of the city. Founded in 1173, it played a central role in the administration of the urban economy throughout the medieval and early-modern periods. On the other hand, the three Provveditori sopra la Giustizia Vecchia were elected by the Senate from its own number for a term of 12 months The senators who served as Provveditori generally did so as a preliminary step in an ambitious political career that might take them to the highest positions of the state, such as the Council of Ten. The hierarchical relationship between the two magistracies was therefore underlined by a social division between the types of nobles who served in them. The discussion considers the Provveditori di Comun, the reform of 1565, the Cinque Savi sopra le Mariegole, and discretion and mitigation.

Introduction

This book examines what market justice really meant for ordinary Venetians, both in the courtroom and out on the street. How was the law enforced in terms of policing and court procedures and how did this alter the nature of justice? How did individuals and families adjust their strategies to fit into the institutional framework of public authorities and private interests? The book begins with the public authority at the heart of the Rialto markets, the Giustizia Vecchia. A central institution in the life of Venetian people of all ranks, its original name of Giustizia – justice – suggests that it may have represented what most Venetians understood by that word. In a literal sense, it was the Justice of Venice. The chapter also introduces the concepts of shadow economy, market justice, urban economy, and political order.