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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 127: Canon Law, I: Legal Change and Legal Learning - The Medieval Nordic Laws and the Rest of Europe

Monday 11 July 2011, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Church, Law, and Society in the Middle Ages (CLASMA) Research Network
Organiser:Frederik Pedersen, School of History, Divinity & Philosophy, University of Aberdeen
Moderator/Chair:Frederik Pedersen, School of History, Divinity & Philosophy, University of Aberdeen
Paper 127-aThe Medieval Nordic Laws Project (MNL): An Introduction
(Language: English)
Lisa Collinson, Medieval Nordic Laws / Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen
Index terms: Canon Law, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 127-b'Unless it is openly against God': Canon Law and Legal Change in Denmark, c. 1170-1250
(Language: English)
Michael H. Gelting, Centre for Scandinavian Studies King's College University of Aberdeen 24 High Street OLD ABERDEEN AB24 3EB
Index terms: Canon Law, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Social History
Paper 127-cThe Power of the Law: Danish Law Manuscripts and the Legal Culture's Understanding of the Power of the Book
(Language: English)
Per Andersen, Medieval Nordic Laws / School of Law
Index terms: Canon Law, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Social History
Abstract

Paper -a:
The Medieval Nordic Laws Project (MNL) is a three-year international, interdisciplinary network-project, which began in autumn 2009 and will continue until autumn 2012, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities (Stockholm). The project is headed by Stefan Brink, and coordinated by Lisa Collinson (both University of Aberdeen), and involves a large team of researchers and reference-group experts from Britain, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany. The aim of the project is to produce new English-language translations of, and commentaries upon, all of the medieval Nordic provincial laws, which will be published in a series of approximately fifteen volumes. (Further material is likely to be published online.) This is the first occasion on which scholars from all the Nordic countries have worked together (along with other experts) to provide consistent and reliable translations of the full range of original texts. The project will make this important corpus of laws available to an international audience, and promises to shed new light on the legal history of the Nordic countries. (The Danish law-codes, for example, are being re-examined afresh for the first time in a generation.) This paper will introduce the project, report on current progress, and suggest future research directions.

Paper -b:
During recent years, the focus of research on the medieval Danish law-books has changed significantly. Influences from canon law and the ius commune are increasingly being recognized as important factors in the development of medieval Danish law, whereas previous research tended to focus on autochtonous developments as the prime motor of legal change. Taking my point of departure in the prologue to the Law of Jutland from 1241, I wish to discuss the dynamics of legal change in Denmark in the 12th and 13th centuries as being largely determined and conditioned by developments within canon law.

Paper -c:
Abstract to follow