The "just judgment" in Western France (c.1000–c.1150) : judicial practice and the sacred
Abstract
This article examines the phrase ‘just judgment’ (justum judicium, or rectum judicium), sometimes found in western French ecclesiastical charters when describing legal proceedings over the period c.1000–c.1150. It explores the origins of the phrase and the routes by which it entered the language of eleventh- and twelfth-century legal practice. ‘Just judgment’, this article suggests, represented a conscious evocation on the part of court-holders—especially lay court-holders—of ideas of God’s Last Judgment, thereby serving to buttress the authority of legal decision-making. This article thus opens a window onto the political ideas of the much-maligned lay courts of so-called feudal society during the central Middle Ages. Finally, the article suggests, more broadly, ways in which problematic ecclesiastical charters might be used to reconstruct the mental horizons of lay, aristocratic justice.
Citation
McHaffie , M W 2019 , ' The "just judgment" in Western France (c.1000–c.1150) : judicial practice and the sacred ' , French History , vol. 33 , no. 1 , crz045 , pp. 1–23 . https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crz045
Publication
French History
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0269-1191Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of French History. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crz045
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.