Thomas Wolf c. Richard de Abingdon, 1293-1295 : a case study of legal argument

This essay examines the legal arguments in Wolf c. Abingdon, a tithes dispute from 1293–5 between the rector and the vicar of Aldington, Kent. The case records contain explicit citations to written law, a surprising find in a seemingly minor case. The presence of explicit citations in particular suggests first that the litigants had access to legal assistance in the provincial court, and second that advocates and possibly judges were turning to written legal sources to resolve disputed points. This essay shows how the litigants' arguments were constructed and determines whether or not these arguments were effective in court.

Citation

White , S B 2020 , ' Thomas Wolf c. Richard de Abingdon, 1293-1295 : a case study of legal argument ' , Journal of Ecclesiastical History , vol. 71 , no. 1 , pp. 40-58 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046919001155

Publication

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Status

Peer reviewed

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046919001155

ISSN

0022-0469

Type

Journal article

Rights

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046919001155

Description

The project CLCLCL has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 740611)

Collections

University of St Andrews Research

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10023/18518