TY - UNPB

T1 - Learned Treatise and Legal Reform

T2 - The Purpose of Sven Aggesen's Lex castrensis Reconsidered

AU - Münster-Swendsen, Mia

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 -   The aim of this paper is to shed new light on a central, yet much misunderstood source from the initial stage in the process of the codification of Danish law. On the literal level, the Lex castrensis, written in the 1180s, represents a description of changes in the internal jurisdiction of the royal court from the time of the reign of Cnut the Great to the author's present. In Danish as well as international scholarship this deceptively simple text has frequently been treated either as a ‘law code' or ‘law book' in itself or as a reflection of actual legal practice. Yet here I will contend that the Lex castrensis is in fact a political-legal treatise masked as pseudo-history with an explicit didactic purpose as a ‘schoolbook' for future administrators. As a learned ideological construct with a remarkable afterlife, Sven's work may be regarded as part of the intellectual preparation for future legislative processes.

AB -   The aim of this paper is to shed new light on a central, yet much misunderstood source from the initial stage in the process of the codification of Danish law. On the literal level, the Lex castrensis, written in the 1180s, represents a description of changes in the internal jurisdiction of the royal court from the time of the reign of Cnut the Great to the author's present. In Danish as well as international scholarship this deceptively simple text has frequently been treated either as a ‘law code' or ‘law book' in itself or as a reflection of actual legal practice. Yet here I will contend that the Lex castrensis is in fact a political-legal treatise masked as pseudo-history with an explicit didactic purpose as a ‘schoolbook' for future administrators. As a learned ideological construct with a remarkable afterlife, Sven's work may be regarded as part of the intellectual preparation for future legislative processes.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - middelalderhistorie

KW - lærdomshistorie

KW - medieval history

KW - history of learning

M3 - Working paper

BT - Learned Treatise and Legal Reform

CY - Zürich

ER -