The ‘Just Judgment’ in Western France (C.1000–C.1150): Judicial Practice and the Sacred
Matthew McHaffie
This article examines the phrase ‘just judgment’ (justum judicium, or rectum judicium), sometimes found in western French ecclesiastical charters when describing legal proceedings over period c.1000–c.1150. It explores origins of and routes by which it entered language eleventh- twelfth-century practice. ‘Just judgment’, this suggests, represented a conscious evocation on part court-holders—especially lay court-holders—of ideas God’s Last Judgment, thereby serving to buttress authority decision-making. thus opens window onto political much-maligned courts so-called feudal society during central Middle Ages. Finally, more broadly, ways problematic might be used reconstruct mental horizons lay, aristocratic justice.
French History|St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository)