FEUDAL JUSTICE IN FRANCE

Abstract

In this paper "feudal justice" is to be understood as the justice which the seigneur had on his vassals as a seigneur for the first half of the Middle Ages when vassalism was the military and political regime. Both in Germany and England right of justice of this kind was restricted to cases of baronial jurisdiction, but in France (a) it is belived that the application of feudal justice would often be extended not only to cases of baronial jurisdiction, but also to all those cases where a vassal was involved as the defendant or the accused in any kind of law-suits. On the contrary, however, (b) it is also alleged that even in. regard to baronial jurisdiction the seigneur had no right of justice at all, those supporting this theory insisting that the seigneur had right of justice only in his capacity of "le seigneur justicier".
In this paper you will find these two theoretical view-points brought out distinctly.
In conclusion-(1) la justice personelle born out of the duty to protect his vassals must be theoretically treated of in contrast with la justice seigneuriale. From this, it is not sufficient for having such a jurisdiction, to be a simple seigneur, but, also to be a seigneur justicier. Moreover, r the connection between personalité and territorialité in justice must be taken into consideration.(2) On the other hand, any seigneur could enforce his right of justice over all his vassals in regard to any kind of proper feudal affairs. These two fundamentally different theories can possibly be traced back to the extremely divisional tendency of public jurisdiction and also to the difficulty in reaching any definite conclusion concerning the French society since the intrinsic nature of the French society had already begun to show the signs of transformation during the 13 th century and thereafter.