Legal History from a European Perspective: Recent Episodes
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This podcast course is meant as a tool to help to improve the quality of the teaching and learning legal history. Recorded by Emanuele Conte, it has been enriched thanks to the research group of legal historians based at the University of St Andrews and led by John Hudson. The collection is meant to be open to external collaboration, as a work in permanent progress. Teachers and students wanting to suggest more podcasts, topics to deal with, issues to be clarified, and discussions of specific points to be added to the collection can write to emanueleconte@gmail.com. Music by Piero Conte ©2021
On the differences between the two streams of the German Historical School: the Pandectists and the Germanists. The example of possession: the Roman concept and Albrecht's German alternative to it, the Gewere.
The other stream of the Historical School: the Germanists and their focus on ancient German law. The parallel between the search for original legal ideas and the one for German literature: the task of the brothers Grimm. The importance of community in German tradition.
A presentation of the nineteenth-century German model: the impossibility to adopt a generally shared codification, Savigny’s claim for the supremacy of the “Volksgeist”, the adoption of Roman institutes of private law by the Germans and the new stream of “Pandectists”.
The situation in the United States of America analysed by Alexis de Tocqueville, the influence of France model in Europe and the new-born “Historical School” in Germany.
This podcast analyses how France has been a model for the whole Europe. Spain, Portugal, Italy, later Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland: all adopted the model of a similar codification.
Napoleon’s reform of legal studies: the study of the Civil Code in schools. The birth of the École de l’Exégèse and the triumph and the defeat of the Code: the abrogation of other concurrent sources but the need for a doctrinal interpretation. Other Codes issued by Napoleon in the first years of 19th century.
This episode explains how the French Civil Code had the ambition to reduce the role of the judge to a passive force, a "mere mouth of the law", and how this attempt was doomed to fail.
The Code Napoleon: was it clear, rational and straightforward as it was meant to be? What differentiates it from other codes? What significant innovations did it accomplish?
This episode analyses the connection between absolutism and codification, presenting the Tuscan Criminal Code and the Prussian Civil Code as examples of a power strong enough to impose a new codification to the nation without a revolution.
This podcast deals with the wars in Europe during the 19th century. It is mainly focused on French military history during the Napoleonic wars and the strength of Napoleon’s army.
In this podcast Kim Thao Le deals with the the so-called "intermediary law", developed in France between the 1789 Revolution and Napoleon's Civil
Code of 1804 and based on revolutionary ideas.
Kim Thao Le explains how the Enlightenment influenced the French Revolution. She offers an analysis of the Ancién Regime and how the events of this period led to the Revolution.
Kim Tao Le introduces the Enlightenment, analysing its most important ideas and presenting the figures of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.
Emanuele Conte and Andrew Cecchinato discuss about revolutions, comparing the American and French ones and analysing some of their peculiar aspects, like the influence of Enlightenment and their ideas of economy.
The American Constitution represented a model for later claims of independence, and was followed by many other countries, including Italy.
The American Constitution issued in 1787, based on Enlightenment ideals, introduced the separation of powers and the idea of the superiority of the written Constitution over any other law, but showed the contradiction between principle of equality and the reality of slavery.
In this episode, Andrew Cecchinato examines some of the ideas behind the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. In particular, he focuses on Jefferson's thoughts on tyranny and how these were influenced by the medieval European tradition.
The Declaration of Independence of 1776 draft by Thomas Jefferson and its key principles. The episode argues that, contrary to European countries, American identity was not based on a common historical tradition, but on a shared set of values and beliefs.
This podcast examines the role of the Enlightenment and of the British Common law on American revolutionary ideals, focusing respectively on the idea of individual rights and on the influcence of English Parliamentarism.
This episode introduces America as a great laboratory where European ideas were tested in an exterior space, framing the situation in North America at the dawn of the revolution, with a focus on slavery and the figure of Thomas Paine.
This episode analyses early-modern Common law as a system of customary laws, the role of English local courts and the beginning of English constitutionalism.
This episodes puts into connection the rise of national states in the early Modern era and the national codifications of customary law.
This podcast goes through the history of legal customs, from the Middle Ages to the early modern era, focusing especially on the relationship between customary law and royal legislation, and the role of customs in the Protestant mentality.
This podcast introduces the figure of François Hotman, a French legal humanist and calvinist, presenting his main works: the "Antitribonian", a strong criticism of Justinian's codification, and "Franco-Gallia", where he introduced a new idea of the relationship between the people, the king and the national legislation.
This episode examines the Protestant reformation, its main points and the subsequent crisis of traditional legal norms. It also mentions Max Weber's theory on the role of the reformation for the birth of capitalism.
In this podcast, Piotr Gorecki introduces the Reichskammergericht, the new central court created in 1495 by emperor Maximilian I, and the so-called “reception of Roman law” in the Holy Roman Empire.
Much more open to innovations brought by humanists, the sixteenth-century French legal culture played an essential role in shaping law. After introducing its historical context, this podcast examines the new French method and its consequences.
This podcast introduces Humanism, an intellectual movement focused on the reconstruction of classical literature, and presents its most relevant figures of this age, such as Lorenzo Valla, Angelo Poliziano and Andrea Alciato. Subsequently, it explains how legal humanists turned Roman law into a model.
An introduction to the Modern Age: a period started in the 15th century, in which intellectuals felt enlightened. This podcast also provides a list of topics that contributed to shaping European civilisation.
This podcast deals with the transformation of the political reality in the highest institutions during the Middle Ages and the early modern era; it depicts the changing mutual relations of the Church, the Empire and the national kingdoms.
This podcast focuses on the Holy Roman Empire and its laws. It provides an overview of the sources of law and presents four phenomena that can be attributed to the law in this area. It also distinguishes the position of the king and the emperor from the other contemporary European kingdoms.
In this podcast, Piotr Gorecki explains that law in medieval Eastern and Central Europe was mainly customary. He analyses the origin of the word “custom”, how it was used at the time, and the concept of “Ius Teutonicum”.
This podcasts delves more into the similarities between Common law and Civil law in the high Middle Ages, by challenging the conventional narratives according to which the English system was strongly tied to institutions, while the Continental one to intellectual development.
This podcasts questions whether Common law was really that different from the law of Continental Europe in the High Middle Ages. It analyses some seemingly diverging points, such as the usage of writs and trials by jury, and depicts the overlooked similarities. It argues that the differences between the two systems originated rather in their subsequent development.
In this episode, Will Eves examines the birth of statutes in England, giving a chronology of the legislative practices from Anglo-Saxon times to the 15th century.
This podcast tries to challenge the conventional narrative of Common law as a purely jurisprudential system, highlighting the influence of royal legislation and introducing the role of the Parliament in the legislative process.
In this podcast, William Eves introduces equity as a body of law developing alongside Common law. He explains the origin of equity, its development until the modern times, and the reasoning behind it, introducing the Court of Chancery and providing examples of new legal institutes that can be attributed to equitable decision-making.
John Hudson presents the Magna Carta, the most famous of English constitutional documents, issued after the rebellion of the English aristocracy against King John. He explains the dichotomic approach of this charter to royal justice and its ideological importance.
This podcast deals with the strong opposition that English kings had to face during their reign because of their attempt to secure a strong royal jurisdiction: Henry II's struggles and his fight with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, because of the Constitutions of Clarendon.
This podcast describes the fundamental role of procedure in English Common law and the birth of judiciary abstraction, with a comparison between British and Continental European historiographical theories on the topic.
This podcast deals with the birth of writs and the growth of English royal jurisdiction, with the possibility for litigants to submit their disputes to either a local or a royal judge.
John Hudson investigates the essence of the Angevin reforms: what was Henry II's main concern? What new procedures did this reformation bring? What influence did this reform have on legal education? This podcast will adequately answer these questions, explaining how these changes created a more sophisticated form of law.
In this podcast, John Hudson talks about the restoration of a royal authority by Henry II and his will of providing peace and justice, the Assizes of Clarendon, the routinization of justice with the Assize of Northampton, and the methods of royal justice.
John Hudson explains the efforts to limit violence made by the Anglo-Saxon kings during the 10th century. By doing so, he presents two different types of courts that emerged in that period, and discusses the tradition of written legislation.
A description of Europe's situation and Kingdoms in 1110: the Empire, the Church, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Sicily.
Attilio Stella describes the situation of legal pluralism in Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. He talks about the twofold relationship between the Ius commune and local statues and explains how Northern Italy was an example of pluralism.
This podcast presents Francesco Calasso's idea of the ius commune as a framework for many coexisting legal orders, introducing the concept of legal pluralism and the distinction between ius commune and ius proprium.
By making examples, like the theories on legal personality, this podcast introduces the prolific age of the “ius commune”, based on Roman law, canon law and feudal law.
This episode deals with the emergence of an intellectual environment to study and teach: the birth of the universities during the 12th century, and the study of Roman law as a bridge trough which laymen could become intellectuals, a position reserved to clerics until then.
A discussion over the fief, its introduction, changes and how it has been possible that a local custom was adopted as a general rule amongst all Europe.
The Libri feudorum as the first collection feudal law, which regulates the fiefs and the relationships between lords and vassals; Pilius de Medicina as a witness of the rising attention to feudalism and his theory that divided Roman property into dominium directum and dominium utile.
A conversation on how law changed from 1050 to 1150. The discussants focus on the the development of a standardised procedure in the ecclesiastical courts, the impact of the adoption of the dialectical method, and how scholarly theory influenced legal practice.
Sara White presents and illustrates two of the most influential books of Canon law of the 12th and 13th century: Gratian's Decretum and the Liber Extra.
An introduction to some of the most important Canon Law collections that will eventually form the Corpus Iuris Canonici.
David De Concilio describes the major impact that the dialectical method had on the legal culture. He also analyses the main tools of this method, quaestiones and brocardica, how they are applied, and their purposes.
The aim of this podcast is to describe the medieval approach to Roman law institutes based on dialectical reasoning, as opposed to the modern systematic approach used from the 19th century onwards.
This episode introduces scholasticism and its main ideas. The scholastic method dealt with the contradictions in the Corpus Iuris Civilis and the ways of solving them, as well as with extracting general legal rules from ancient fragments, also using Aristotelian categories.
This episode deals with the recovery and reconstruction of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The process is placed in the context of the Gregorian Reform and the changing approach to interpreting legal literature.
Through the illustration of a mosaic in the church of San Savino, Piacenza, Italy, this podcast explains the relationship between rationality and law, but it also unfolds how the passage from the 11th to the 12th century represents a turning point in legal mentality.
This podcast analyses the dispute about the legitimacy of Gregory VII's excommunication of Henry IV. The case studi is used to explain the change of approach to legal texts in the 11th century: as a reflection of the Gregorian Reform, a new attitude that interpreted the legal norms in their full textual context took place.
In this podcast, Dan Armstrong analyses the Collectio Lanfranci, which became a predominant canonical collection in England, as an example of the tendency to see canon law as a body of norms adaptable to fulfil specific purposes.
A detailed introduction to the content and historical context of the Dictatus Papae, a historical source containing the framework of the changing image of the Church in the 11th century. It further deals with the balance and struggle between the imperial and papal power.
This podcast introduces to pope Gregory VII and some of his policies: the division between secular and ecclesiastical life, disciplining the priests, securing Church properties against the clergy and introducing the right of appeal to a superior court.
This podcast deals with the changes of the Catholic Church in the 11th century, defined by H.J. Berman as "the papal revolution", and with the introduction of a new rational procedure. The episode sets those changes into a wider socio-historical context and it describes the crucial differences between the political and theological reasons behind the East-West Schism of 1054.
Matthew Mchaffie explains the concept of evil customs in the later 11th and 12th centuries and how they help us to understand the society and the religious feeling of the time, as well as to think about the foundation of the legal renaissance.
This episode explains how the crisis of the Carolingian Empire and Europe’s fragmentation led to a network of fidelities and the establishment of many little local powers. At the same time, the Church suffered a period of decadence, but that held the seeds of a renewal.
Feudalism: what makes it so hard to describe it? How is it related to the concept of love? This episode tries to answers these questions, gives a historical background of fiefs and information about the three main elements that characterise them.
This episode tells the story of the Carolingian empire, analysing its chronology, characteristics and relationship with the Church, but also some phenomena that arose in that period, such as the increase of aristocracy's power that led to the birth of forgeries.
A short historical excursus about the reasons that led to fragmentation in Europe between the 6th and 8th centuries and their consequences: from vernacular languages to the spread of Islam.
This podcast reconsiders some traditional historiographical explanations regarding the idea of law, legislation and legal ownership, comparing the different points of view of nineteenth-century experts of Roman law and German law.
This podcast deals with property and possession: differences and changes between classical Roman Law and the new legal concepts that emerged during the Middle Ages.
This podcast focuses on one of the main features of many barbarian legislations: the composition of crimes by paying a fine, how close to us some medieval ideas of justice are.
What were the most common forms of ordeal in England and for what kind of offence were they used? Professor Robert Bartlett answers these questions during an interview with John Hudson.
Between oaths and ordeals: an examination of the idea of divine intervention in the medieval legal procedure and how this concept changed with the theological transformations of the Gregorian Reform.
What exactly was a law in the early medieval kingdoms, and what gave rise to legal forgeries?
This episode deals with the new barbarian kingdoms established in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire and the legislation issued by their rulers.
The most important political form of power during the first centuries of the Middle Ages was the kingdom. This episode provides an analysis of kingship, addressing its ethnical and religious elements.
Emanuele Conte and Caroline Humfress delve into notions and points of view regarding the law in Late Antiquity, addressing the issues of continuity and discontinuity in this period.
A historical and structural analysis of the Corpus Iuris Civilis and its four parts: the Codex, the Digest, the Institutes and the Novellae.
This episode talks about the history of emperor Justinian, his ambition to restore the Roman Empire and the results of his policies. His major achievement, the Corpus Iuris Civilis, had an extraordinary effect on the development of law.
This episode analyses how Christianity shaped Roman society, introducing its values and new ways, focusing on some important features like marriage, monasticism, holy houses, rights and powers.
Was the Christian Church already romanized or did Constantine's conversion permanently capsize the Roman mentality? This podcast is meant to present these two historiographical theses, explaining how the Empire and Christianity influenced each other.
A historical excursus on Constantine’s politics: from the Battle of Ponte Milvio, when he fought under the banner of Christ, to the Edict of Milan, which established religious freedom in the Empire, and concluding with the provisions of the Council of Nicaea.
This episode analyses how the Roman legal system changed with the introduction of Christianity in the Empire, seen from a critical and historical point of view, with a reference of the role played by the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.) as the source of the powers of the Emperor and the Pope.
This podcast focuses on the importance of codifications to preserve legal knowledge, and how they Code of Theodose was a turning point in legal history, influencing the adaptation of Roman law in the barbarian kingdoms.
This episode describes the sources of Roman law; it provides basic information about how the ideas of ancient lawyers were preserved throughout history and up to modern day. It also gives an insight into the complexity of Justinian's Corpus Iuris Civilis and presents some examples of its contradictions.
An introduction to Roman law throughout history as an ever-changing phenomenon, defined by Goethe as a “diving duck that sinks but always resurfaces”. The main feature of Roman law was its ability to transform and frame reality into legal abstraction and institutions.
This episode introduces the ideas of a law professor at the University of Yale, James Q. Whitman, who stresses the importance of legal history to understand legal history’s influence on shaping European and western societies. Whitman provides a critical analysis of the approach of legal historians and specialists in other fields of study to the grand questions of legal history.
This episode analyses the history of legal history and the traditional interpretation keys behind it that do not correspond to contemporary beliefs, such as nationalism, evolutionism, the idea of progress and the resistance to the idea that law changes.
An explanation of the historical reason of the contemporary study of legal history. This podcast introduces the views of Friedrich Carl von Savigny and the nineteenth-century German Historical School regarding the relationship of Roman and German law, and the consequences that these ideas had on Western law.
A discussion between Emanuele Conte and John Hudson on the importance of studying legal history: we need more history for lawyers but also more law for the historians. The study of continuity and discontinuity of law and legal institutes helps to understand the relationship between law and society and raises the awareness of lack of permanence in law.