Dec 13, 2024  
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25 
    
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
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HIST 3521 - Medieval Law & Society, 500-1000


Beginning with the end of the western Roman Empire in 476, this course surveys major legal systems emerging around the Mediterranean and western Europe over the next 500 years. The legacy of imperial Roman law affected all these systems, whose own legacies would endure for centuries. Featured in the survey are the reforms of Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis, early Frankish law, the Visigothic Code, the formation of Islamic jurisprudence, Carolingian legal reforms, and Anglo-Saxon law before the Norman Conquest. Focal topics allow comparison between different legal systems and the societies they affected, e.g. sources of legal authority (human and divine, oral and written); status and rights of women; slavery and minority groups; vengeance and restitution. Students analyze these topics through case studies, based on primary sources in translation.

Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr
Credit Hours: 3
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to identify and describe key features of several major legal systems from the early medieval period.
  • Students will be able to identify key lawmakers, jurists, and schools of legal thought.
  • Students will be able to compare social and historical effects of different legal systems.
  • Students will be able to interpret hypothetical cases in relation to different legal systems.



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