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The Middle Ages are often viewed as a repository of tradition, yet what we think of as traditional marriage was far from the only available alternative to the single state in medieval Europe. Many people lived together in long-term, quasimarital heterosexual relationships, unable to marry if one was in holy orders or if the partners were of different religions. Social norms militated against the marriage of master to slave or between individuals of very different classes, or when the couple was so poor that they could not establish an independent household. Such unions, where the protections that medieval law furnished to wives (and their children) were absent, were fraught with danger for w...
Although the new EU Party Financing Regulation is actually a sub-topic of the widely discussed European Constitution, officials have so far been rather quiet in this regard. The Regulation declares artificially created bodies called `party alliances' as political parties for the sole purpose of enabling subsidies from the EU budget to be paid to the European umbrella organizations of the established parties. The Regulation violates almost every principle of appropriate and legitimate public funding of political parties. Such principles have, for instance, already been drawn up by the German Constitutional Court and the Council of Europe.
The stigmatization as 'bastards' of children born outside of wedlock is commonly thought to have emerged early in Medieval European history. Christian ideas about legitimate marriage, it is assumed, set the standard for legitimate birth. Children born to anything other than marriage had fewer rights or opportunities. They certainly could not become king or queen. As this volume demonstrates, however, well into the late twelfth century, ideas of what made a child a legitimate heir had little to do with the validity of his or her parents' union according to the dictates of Christian marriage law. Instead a child's prospects depended upon the social status, and above all the lineage, of both pa...
Over the last decades, shipping, fisheries and other uses of the oceans have considerably increased. However, adverse impacts caused by man have also been threatening the marine environment and the living resources of the sea. Hence the various international maritime organisations involved in managing the oceans are facing new challenges which in particular may be met by the concept of sustainability. How they cope with the present and future needs is shown in this book compiling information about some of the most relevant organisations in light of a sustainable marine development.
Anglo-Saxon authorities often punished lawbreakers with harsh corporal penalties, such as execution, mutilation and imprisonment. Despite their severity, however, these penalties were not arbitrary exercises of power. Rather, they were informed by nuanced philosophies of punishment which sought to resolve conflict, keep the peace and enforce Christian morality. The ten essays in this volume engage legal, literary, historical, and archaeological evidence to investigate the role of punishment in Anglo-Saxon society. Three dominant themes emerge in the collection. First is the shift from a culture of retributive feud to a system of top-down punishment, in which penalties were imposed by an auth...
Frankfurt am Main, in common with other imperial German cities, enjoyed a large degree of legal autonomy during the early modern period, and produced a unique and rich body of criminal archives. In particular, Frankfurt’s Strafenbuch, which records all criminal sentences between 1562 and 1696, provides a fascinating insight into contemporary penal trends. Drawing on this and other rich resources, Dr. Boes reveals shifting and fluid attitudes towards crime and punishment and how these were conditioned by issues of gender, class, and social standing within the city’s establishment. She attributes a significant role in this process to the steady proliferation of municipal advocates, jurists...
Traditionally, the Order of Malta is a Hospitaller and Knights Crusader Order. Most representations - as illustrations or text - emphasize the military element. By comparison, the aim and subject matter of this source edition is meant to show the original state of the Order, its hospital situated at the central location of the Order with the relevant rules in the Notizia della Sacra Infermeria. For the Order, the regulations concerning the hospital were of special importance right from the beginning. In this book, the rules applied during the 18th century are particularly explained. The loss of the Order State on Malta in 1798 marked also the end of the classic hospitaller period of the knight brothers. Today, there are hardly any stipulations contained in their central modern rules and regulations concerning hospital organization respectively hospital work. (Series: IUS VIVENS /Abteilung A: Quellentexte zur Rechtsgeschichte - Vol. 9) [Subject: History, Legal History]