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SPECIAL ISSUE: LAW COURTS, CONTRACTS AND RURAL SOCIETY IN EUROPE 1200–1600.

Volume 29 - Issue 1 - May 2014
Continuity and Change Volume 29 - Issue 1 - SPECIAL ISSUE: LAW COURTS, CONTRACTS AND RURAL SOCIETY IN EUROPE 1200–1600.
Contents

Editorial

  • Farewells, welcomes and grateful thanks
  • JULIE MARFANY, MARY LOUISE NAGATA
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, p. 1
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Research Article

  • Introduction: law courts, contracts and rural society in Europe, 1200–1600
  • CHRIS BRIGGS
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. 3-18
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    Private contracts of many different kinds were at the heart of the rural economy in medieval and early modern Europe. This article considers some of the key issues involved in the study of those contracts, and of the institutions that facilitated their registration and enforcement. Drawing on examples from medieval England as well as the articles in this special issue of the journal, it is argued that complex and effective ‘public-order’ structures for contract registration and enforcement – principally various kinds of law court – were ubiquitous in European villages and small towns in this era.

  • On the home court advantage. Participation of locals and non-residents in a village law court in sixteenth-century Holland
  • JACO ZUIJDERDUIJN
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. 19-48
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    Rural law courts are sometimes believed to have contributed to juridical fragmentation, which led to coordination failures and, hence, to high transaction costs. We present a case study of the village law court of Mijnsheerenland, and pay particular attention to the question of whether non-residents expected villagers to have a ‘home court’ advantage. Our analysis of default risk premiums demanded by participants in various exchanges does not indicate this was the case. We argue that this was caused by one of the peculiarities of the juridical system of Holland, which was fragmented but nevertheless uniform because of the dominance of public courts under central control of the ruler.

  • Suing in a local jurisdictional court in late medieval Catalonia. The case of Caldes de Malavella (1328–1369)
  • LLUÍS SALES I FAVÀ
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. 49-81
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    This article addresses the question of the effectiveness of court litigation over private contracts. Through a case study of fourteenth-century Caldes de Malavella, in northeastern Catalonia, it provides an instructive example of contract registration and enforcement. A large peasant clientele made use of the institutional framework provided by a compact jurisdictional estate. We also explore the ways in which the court system within this barony was affected by the demands of external jurisdictions. The article concludes that the whole system was efficient in prosecuting breach of contract, in serving broader mercantile strategies, and even in softening tensions among parties.

  • Rural courts, notaries and credit in the county of Empúries, 1290–1348
  • XAVIER SOLDEVILA I TEMPORAL
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. 83-114
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    This article studies the role performed by local jurisdictional courts in private credit relations in medieval Catalonia. These courts and their officers were subject to the control of local feudal lords. The courts acted as a guarantor of credit contracts agreed before them in the form of ‘court obligations’, and also carried out procedures related to the enforcement of outstanding debts: prorogations; seizures and auction of goods; and imprisonment. The study focuses on the plain of the Lower Ter, on the northeast Catalan coast. It concludes that although the jurisdictional framework provided by the courts involved a number of different great lords, including the king himself, the juridical mechanisms and collaboration between different courts functioned well enough to sustain a dynamic, complex and widespread credit system.

  • Village court records and peasant credit in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Poland
  • PIOTR GUZOWSKI
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. 115-142
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    In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Poland, village courts facilitated the registration of a variety of private transactions among peasants. This article uses the surviving court books of this period to explore the courts' development and functions, and to analyse the numerous peasant credit contracts found in their records. The aim of the article is to show that in late medieval and early modern Poland the village courts provided a well-established system for registering peasant transactions, and that this played an important role in the development of credit and land markets.

Book Review

Front Cover (OFC, IFC) and matter

  • CON volume 29 issue 1 Cover and Front matter
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. f1-f2
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Back Cover (IBC, OBC) and matter

  • CON volume 29 issue 1 Cover and Back matter
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2014, pp. b1-b8
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