Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part 1 Towards a Globalist Jurisprudence
- Part 2 A Holy Roman Empire
- 4 The original European community
- 5 Universal law and the Papal Revolution
- Part 3 State Formation and Reformation
- Part 4 A Wholly Mammon Empire?
- Part 5 Competing Jurisdictions Case Studies
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The original European community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part 1 Towards a Globalist Jurisprudence
- Part 2 A Holy Roman Empire
- 4 The original European community
- 5 Universal law and the Papal Revolution
- Part 3 State Formation and Reformation
- Part 4 A Wholly Mammon Empire?
- Part 5 Competing Jurisdictions Case Studies
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this great intermingling at the time of Europe's birth, a salient feature, right from the start, was the dialectic between unity and diversity, Christendom and nations, which even today is still one of the fundamental characteristics of Europe.
Jacques Le GoffAs unjust as it might seem for a historical discussion of European society to dispense with Greek and Roman antiquity, unjust we must be for present purposes. (Reference will be made in later chapters, though, to reincarnations of Greek philosophy and Roman law.) With the nightfall of the inaptly named ‘dark ages’ heralded by raiding Germanic tribes, the ‘high’ classical culture and Roman Empire receded in the fifth and sixth centuries, in the face of fragmented, indigenous diversity. This was tempered by the emerging universalistic, moral and political tentacles of the Roman Catholic Church. It was that style of diversity, after the fall of the Roman Empire, which was the original Europe. To the extent there was then a medieval European union, membership depended not upon the fulfilment of economic criteria required today, but the conversion of people to Christianity.
Just as the challenges faced by the European Union (EU) today are endemic of many of the challenges of globalisation and law, so may the original European community assist our enquiry. Especially will this aid the formulation of a normative jurisprudence concerned to take questions of allegiance and authority seriously. The diversity of Europe in the time preceding and including the foundation of the Western legal tradition in the late eleventh century will be considered. Practical authority or sovereignty was extremely particular – there was nothing like a state in the modern sense.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Globalisation and the Western Legal TraditionRecurring Patterns of Law and Authority, pp. 79 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008