IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1516: The Medieval Law Courts, I: London Litigation

Thursday 5 July 2018, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn
Organiser:	Daniel F. Gosling, Department of Archives, The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London
Moderator/Chair:	Daniel F. Gosling, Department of Archives, The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London
Paper 1516-a	Commoners and Common Pleas: Litigants and Social Status in the 15th Century (Language: English) Louisa Foroughi, Department of History, Fordham University, New York Index terms: Law, Social History
Paper 1516-b	Court Procedures for Pregnancy Diagnosis in Later Medieval England (Language: English) Zosia Edwards, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Law, Medicine
Paper 1516-c	'In novo casu, novum remedium': The Origins of the Court of the Exchequer Chamber as a Court of Appeal in England, 1370-1420 (Language: English) Edward Powell, Independent Scholar, Cambridge Index terms: Administration, Law
Abstract	The first session in the Medieval Law Courts strand examines the central law courts situated at Westminster. The first paper looks at one of the most well-known of these courts, the Court of Common Pleas, and analyses the different types of people that appeared before its justices in the 15th century. The second paper looks at a specific legal issue, pregnancy diagnoses, and the typical common law procedure for such cases in later medieval England. The final paper in this session examines the Court of the Exchequer Chamber and its origins as a Court of Appeal in the later 14th and early 15th centuries.