Focusing deliberately on the impact of law courts on substantive law - and not on its systematisation by learned jurists - it studies similarities and differences in the development of the law across different jurisdictions. In doing so it evaluates whether and to what extent it is possible to consider this development as a unitary and truly European phenomenon. This collection re-evaluates current debates surrounding the development of civil law in the early modern period in the context of the grand narratives of European legal history and sets out to challenge current orthodox views about early modern civil law.

• Authorities in Early Modern Law Courts
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• A Note on Names and Book Titles
• List of Contributors
• Ch. 1 Law Reports of the Parliament of Flanders and their Authority in the Parliament’s Practice
• Ch. 2 Paradigms of Authority in the College of Justice in Scotland
• Ch. 3 Legal Authorities in Castilian Courts’ Practice: Decisiones and Consilia to Study the Arbitrium Iudicis
• Ch. 4 Law Reporting, Authority and Precedent: the Common Law Paradigm
• Ch. 5 Legal Authorities in the Making of Portuguese Private Law: Emphyteusis and Majorat in Practical Literature
• Ch. 6 Iura scripta and Operae iurisperiti in Municipal Courts of the Kingdom of Poland (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)
• Ch. 7 Under the Legal Authority of the Senate of Milan (Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries)
• Ch. 8 The Imperial Chamber Court and the Development of the Law in the Holy Roman Empire
• Ch. 9 Legal Authorities in the Seventeenth-Century Swedish Empire
• Ch 10. The Parliament of Paris and the Making of the Law at the Beginning of the 18th Century
• Ch. 11 Legal Fragmentation in the Dutch Republic During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
• Ch. 12 Law Reports as Legal Authorities in Early Modern Belgian Legal Practice
• Bibliography
• Index