IMC 2024: Sessions

Session 1142: Law in the Medieval North: Origins, Issues, and Possibilities

Wednesday 3 July 2024, 11:15-12:45

Sponsor:	Viking Society for Northern Research
Organiser:	Timothy Bourns, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Moderator/Chair:	Solveig Marie Wang, Historisches Institut - Nordische Geschichte, Universität Greifswald
Paper 1142-a	Methodological Crises?: The Promise of Indigenised Approaches to Early Scandinavian Law (Language: English) Keith Ruiter, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, University of Suffolk Index terms: Anthropology, Language and Literature - Scandinavian and Law
Paper 1142-b	Viking Crises in English Legislation (Language: English) Jake A. Stattel, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Law and Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1142-c	The Bergen Concordat of 1273: A Resolution on Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, or, an Invitation to Civil War? (Language: English) Eldbjørg Haug, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kultur- og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Bergen Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Law and Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	This session will explore the origins of laws in medieval Scandinavia and its diaspora, highlighting some of the key issues surrounding their study as well as new possibilities. Keith Ruiter will introduce some of the methodological problems in the study of early Scandinavian law and will question not only what the laws are but also what they do. Applying approaches from Indigenous Legal Studies, he will foreground the sophisticated reasoning that underpins these legal orders and offer some ways forward to better understand their customary character. Jake Stattel will focus on pre-Conquest English law-codes that record a peace accord made with vikings and made concessions which sacrificed typical legal norms in the interest of peace. He will argue for a hybrid legislation that merged English and Scandinavian elements, suggesting that these texts may be the earliest records of Scandinavian law. Eldbjørg Haug will challenge the prevailing view that there was a conflict over ecclesiastical jurisdiction between king Magnus the Lawmender and Archbishop Jon Raude, suggesting that the legal conflict was about succession to the Norwegian crown. The paper will thus view the concordats in relation to King Magnus’s legislation and will contextualise them in relation to contemporary crises.