Description
Book SynopsisThe State is the most powerful of political ideas but where does it come from? This broad-ranging new study traces the history of the word and the concept back to the systems of law and justice created by medieval kings and shows how legal institutions acquired political force.
Trade ReviewMedieval Law and the Foundations of the State is a substantial and scholarly study of medieval law, political theory, and political practice, which engages with a vast body of source material in very close argument in tracing the 'pre-theoretical understanding' (p.v) of the medieval state. * Medium Aevum *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: State - Word and Concept ; 2. Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Justice ; 3. The Courts of Lords and Townsmen ; 4. The Spread of Organized Peace ; 5. The Judicial Systems of France and England ; 6. New High Courts and Reform of the Regime ; 7. The Legal Ordering of 'the State of the Realm' ; 8. The Monarchical State of the Later Middle Ages ; 9. From Law to Politics ; 10. Conclusion: Law and the State in History ; Bibliography
