---

[WesMaps 98/99 Home Page] [Course Search] [Course Search by CID]

The Legalization of Europe: Law, Culture and Society (c. 1400- c. 1800) HIST227 SP

In an era where lawyers advertise on television and legal disputes (both civil and criminal) often dominate public consciousness, it can be difficult to imagine a world where social interactions and intellectual concerns were not defined by "The Law". For most late medieval Europeans, however, the Law was a specialized form of knowledge restricted to a small, univeristy-trained elite, and judicial tribunals were suspiscous, alien institutions imposed by distant, often hostile authorities. How, then, did legal institutions and modes of thought became so central to Western European culture and society? This course will address this question by examining three central issues. First, the gradual development of a university-based "legal culture" and its eventual diffusion through the rest of European society. Second, how the "professionalization" of criminal justice subjected large portions of the European population to a process of "social disciplining" that redefined long-tolerated behaviors as "deviant" and "criminal". And finally, the reasons why individuals from all social levels came to prefer civil litigation as both a means of conflict resolution and a means of pursuing personal and familial ends.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Section 01

Breen, M

Times: .T.T... 1:10PM- 2:30PM;

Grading Mode: A/F

Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 2, Fr: 2

No Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999