LBST 544 - Law and Justice in Europe and Its Empires, 1200-1800

From the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, men and women across Europe and its colonies flocked to courts of law in growing numbers as plaintiffs, defendants, or witnesses. Why did people from all social ranks increasingly turn to legal tribunals and the law-centered justice they offered in lieu of other well-established methods of punishing lawbreakers and resolving disputes? Was the “rule of law” imposed by social elites and political authorities, or did it emerge from premodern individuals’ use of law and the courts to manage credit, defend reputations, air marital grievances, remedy injuries, and generally maintain order in their families and communities? What do the “uses of the law,” in other words, reveal about the contested and negotiated nature of social relations and political authority in medieval and early modern Europe and its colonies?

Unit(s): 0.5
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes: Graduate course. Offered fall 2024.
Not offered: 2023-24