CONFERENCE SITE

ORGANIZERS
Legal History, University of Helsinki
Matthias Calonius Society
    Glossa - Society for Medieval Studies

FUNDED BY
The Niilo Helander Foundation
The Academy of Finland

NEWS
Proceedings of this conference will be published in 2009.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Plenary speakers:
James A. Brundage
Charles Donahue Jr.
Monique Vleeschouvers-van Melkebeek
Maria Ågren

This international and interdisciplinary conference addressed the regionally varied patterns of marriage law and custom in medieval and early modern Europe in a broad geographical and cultural context. The research done, for example, on practices in England, France and the Low Countries has shed much light especially on the interaction between local law, custom and canon law, as well as on the influence of Roman law. Nevertheless, so far few studies have provided a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences amongst legal cultures at large.

This conference brought together scholars from a wide range of countries and backgrounds to discuss the historical developments of matrimonial law from a comparative perspective.

The conference aimed at exploring themes such as:
• trends of matrimonial law and practice in the light of ecclesiastical court records and the archives of the Sacred Penitentiary
• regional patterns of litigation and marriage formation
• property relations of the spouses
• the fate of regional marriage patterns after the Reformation

Following plenary presentations were given:
• Professor James A. Brundage (University of Kansas):
Regional Variations of Medieval Marriage Law? The Impact of the Church’s Developing Legal System and Legal Professionalization
• Professor Charles Donahue Jr. (Harvard Law School):
Matrimonial Litigation Patterns in England and France from a Comparative Perspective
• Professor Monique Vleeschouvers–Van Melkebeek (University of Gent):
Separation and Marital Property in Late Medieval England, France and the Southern Low Countries
• Professor Maria Ågren (University of Uppsala):
Property Rights of Married Women in the Seventeenth Century: Swedish Development in an International Context