loading . . . Legal History Review 113:3-4 Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis/Revue d'histoire du droit/The Legal History Review 113: 3-4 (2025) has been published, Here, with a hat tip to ESCLH Blog, is the TOC:
The Hexabiblos: the Humanist quest for the text (Lorena Atzeri)
Since the publication of its editio princeps in 1540, the Hexabiblos of Constantinos Harmenopoulos attracted the attention of many legal humanists, including Cujas, Contius, Soarez de Ribeira, Falkenburg, and others. As was their practice, they wrote annotations, emendations and comments in the margins of their personal copies, often collating the printed text with other manuscripts they discovered in various libraries. Some of this precious evidence has been preserved in a set of seven copies now in the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. These copies were used in the 18th century by Otto Reitz, the scholar entrusted by Meerman with the preparation of a new edition of the Hexabiblos. The books were later sold at the auction of Meerman’s library in 1824. This late Byzantine source offers an illuminating example of the philological approach of the legal humanists, and of the process which, over the centuries, led from manuscript text to printed edition.
Frühklassische Testamentsauslegung im Spiegel von Phaedrus Fab. iv,5 (Andreas Herrmann)In Phaedrus we find striking examples of law in literature. Not only does Phaedrus exhibit a propensity for juristic parlance, he shows a recurring interest in questions of law as well as an understanding of legal concepts. His Fab. iv,5 in particular reflects topics which will have occupied early classical Roman jurists in their attempts to interpret testamentary dispositions. Read with a view to law as literature, Phaedrus’s narration draws attention to a particular pattern in which arguments are presented in some texts composed by Roman jurists.‘Quibus permissum est iura condere’ Some ideas on the origin of the Ius respondendi (W.J. Zwalve)
It is contended in this article that there has never been a ‘ius respondendi’, a licence to respond, introduced by the emperor Augustus. Instead, Justinian, after having repealed the 426 Law of Citations, wanted to stress that the authority of Roman jurisprudence (ius) had always been dependent on imperial authority even before the Law of Citations, retroactively granting an imperial ‘licence to explain the law’ to all jurists mentioned in his Digest.
Publication and the validity of constitutions in the Late Roman Empire (A.J.B. Sirks)
Contrary to the current view of Mommsen, Seeck and Schwind that imperial legislation required publication to gain validity, Bianchi Fossati Vanzetti and particularly Kreuzsaler maintained that imperial legislation gained validity directly by the issuing by the emperor (the datio). Purpose of publication was merely to make the law known. For legal acts performed in the period between datio and publication according to the old law generally restitution was granted. In a reaction Kaiser has submitted arguments against this position. The present article examines his and Kreuzsaler’s arguments and confirms the conclusion of Kreuzsaler.Henricus Kinschotius (1541–1608) On practices of grace and debt relief before the Sovereign Council of Brabant (Nicolas Ruys)
This article is aimed at investigating the power to pardon insolvent debtors in the early modern Duchy of Brabant through the analysis of Henricus Kinschotius’ treatise De solutionum induciis, 4th part of his opus De rescriptis Gratiae, a supremo Brabantia senatu nomine Ducis concedi solitis. In his treatise, Kinschotius, a Brabantian lawyer of the second part of the xvith century, seeks to study the so-called letters of atterminatio and respite, which are ducal grace letters intended to grant payment suspension to insolvent bona fide debtors. As supreme jurisdiction of the duchy, the Sovereign Council of Brabant is the main institution empowered to issue these pardon letters on behalf of the Duke. But granting such debt deferral is likely to affect the creditors’ interests. As a matter of consequence, several legal requirements must be fulfilled to benefit from a letter of atterminatio: the requesting debtor must notably provide a sufficient guarantee and obtain the consent of the majority of his creditors. This paper will thus discuss the procedural aspects for acquiring those letters, the scope of application ratione personae and materiae (with a list of claims that cannot be subject to a debt deferral) as well as their legal conditions and effects. Finally, special attention will be paid to the common practices of abuse committed by fraudulent debtors and which solutions Kinschotius proposes to put an end to it. As it will be concluded, Kinschotius’ study of the practice of letters of atterminatio and respite by the Council of Brabant illustrates a strong and tenacious autonomy of a provincial institution in the context of the assertion of sovereignty and centralisation of power that characterised the modern Habsburg Low Countries.
Passer lectres et contraitz entre les parties consentens et eux soubmectans a ladicte jurisdicion volontaire De vrijwillige rechtspleging voor publieke notarissen, grafelijke leenmannen en lokale schepenbanken binnen laatmiddeleeuws Henegouwen (14de–15de eeuw) (Falco Van Der Schueren)In late medieval Hainaut, notaries public, comital vassals, and local benches of aldermen alike were competent to authenticate deeds of various legal transactions. As they could all exercise voluntary or non-contentious jurisdiction, they competed with one another in a free legal market. From a legal-historical perspective, this contribution aims to assess their relative market share. Methodologically, it uses the concepts of ‘validity’ and ‘proof’ as objective analytical criteria in a contextual framework combining normative texts, a unique fifteenth-century formulary, and a substantial corpus of chirographs, sealed charters, and notarial instruments. In doing so, it examines how these three legal actors ensured the validity of the transactions they handled, and to what extent their deeds had any probative value.Versions of War Slavery: Grotius, Hobbes and the reception of their ideas (Gustaaf van Nifterik)
This article discusses two approaches to war slavery, one by Hugo Grotius based on jus gentium with a moral appeal to treat one’s war slaves well, the other by Thomas Hobbes for whom jus gentium plays no role and who focuses on the difference between chained and unchained slaves. Next, we look at the works of Pufendorf, Huber, and Noodt. There we find elements of both Grotius and Hobbes, in various combinations and with different outcomes. We see Grotius’ moral appeal gradually becoming an integrated part of jus gentium, applying to both chained and unchained slaves.Book reviews
Daphne Penna [and] Roos Meijering, A sourcebook on Byzantine law, Illustrating Byzantine law through the sources. [Medieval law and its practice, 34]. Brill, Leiden – Boston [2022]. xvii + 224 p. (Philipp Scheibelreiter)
Isabel Alfonso, José M. Andrade [and] André Evangelista Marques (eds.), Records and processes of dispute settlements in early medieval societies, Iberia and beyond. [Medieval law and its practise, 41]. Brill, Leiden – Boston 2024. xiv + 425 S. isbn 978-90-04-68295-5 (hardcopy), 978-90-04-68300-6 (e-book) (Steffen Schlinker)
Frisian Land Law, A critical edition and translation of the Freeska Landriucht, edited by H. Nijdam, J. Hallebeck [and] Hylkje de Jong. [Medieval law and its practice, 33]. Brill, Leiden – Boston [2023]. viii + 449 p. (Helle Vogt)
Srdan Šarkic, A history of Serbian mediaeval law. [Medieval law and its practice, 39]. Brill, Leiden – Boston [2023]. xiii + 616 p. (Tomislav Karlovic)
G. Mazzanti, Matrimoni post-tridentini, Un dibatto dottrinale fra continuità e cambiamento (secc. xvi–xviii). [Diritto cultura società, Storia e problemi della giustizia criminale, 14]. Bononia University Press, [Bologna 2020]. 235 p. (Ton Meijers)
Sir John Baker, Sources of English legal history, Public law to 1750. Oxford University Press, [Oxford] 2024. lii + 788 p. (Guillaume Leyte)
T. Pasquiet-Briand (dir.), Les conflits doctrinaux du xix e siècle, Une analyse des fondements politiques du droit. Éditions mare & martin, [Paris 2023]. 261 p. (Guillaume Grégoire)
A. Cordes, H.-P. Haferkamp, B. Kannowski, H. Lück, H. de Wall, D. Werkmüller† und C. Bertelsmeier-Kierst (Hrg.), Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte hrg , 2., völlig überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage, Redaktion: A.M. Auer, A.-M. Heil, R. Penssel, L. Samad-Tari, S. Schmidt, P.-M. Schmitt, O. Walther, Th. Wanninger und M. Wolter, Band iv: Nüchternheit, nüchtern – Richtsteig. Erich Schmidt Verlag, [Berlin 2024]. xvi S. + 2016 Sp. (Alain Wijffels)
P. Collin [and] A. Casagrande (eds.), Law and diversity: European and Latin American experiences from a legal historical perspective, vol. 1: Fundamental questions. [Global perspectives on legal history, 21]. Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie, Frankfurt am Main 2023. xii + 764 p. (Sandrine Brachotte)
--Dan Ernst http://dlvr.it/TPyz2v
