Abstract
The gap between written law (lex scripta) and legal practice has long been a problem for medieval historians. The content of law does not necessarily envisage structures for its own enforcement, nor were the texts themselves cited in court proceedings. This chapter offers a different perspective on enforcement. It examines three legal traditions and argues that all contain common expectations that individuals in the locality should actively maintain order, particularly when transgressions occurred; indeed, there could be explicit consequences for not doing so. These individuals, however, were not autonomous but were necessarily attached to others: friends, kin, and lords. The content of written law thus absorbed and was informed by the values and socio-legal networks of an abstracted local community. Seeing enforcement as a ‘problem’ that the drafters of written law did not confront is thus to misunderstand the communal logics that informed the prescriptions and norms of written law.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Legalism |
| Subtitle of host publication | Justice and Community |
| Editors | Fernanda Pirie, Judith Scheele |
| Place of Publication | Oxford |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | 47-75 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780191785108 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780198716570 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Jul 2014 |
Keywords
- Law
- Statute law
- Written law
- Anglo-Saxon
- Wales
- Scotland
- Enforcement