Medieval Law and the Foundations of the State

Alan Harding9780198219583, 0-19-821958-X

The State is the most powerful of political ideas but where does it come from? This broad-ranging new study traces the history of the word and the concept back to the systems of law and justice created by medieval kings and shows how legal institutions acquired political force.

---

Table of contents :
Medieval Law and theFoundations of the State……Page 1
Preface……Page 5
Contents……Page 7
Abbreviations……Page 10
1 – Introduction. State: Word and Concept……Page 11
2 – Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Justice……Page 20
3 – The Courts of Lords and Townsmen……Page 53
4 – The Spread of the Organized Peace……Page 79
5 – The Judicial Systems of France and England……Page 119
6 – New High Courts and Reform of the Regime……Page 157
7 – The Legal Ordering of ‘the State of the Realm’……Page 201
8 – The Monarchical State of the Later Middle Ages……Page 262
9 – From Law to Politics: the Genesis of ‘the Modern State’……Page 305
Conclusion: Law and the State in History……Page 346
Bibliography……Page 351
Index……Page 379