117Facts

Prof. Donahue
Ms. Poole
Spring 2009

Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England

FACT SHEET FOR UNDERGRADUATES

Course	Medieval Studies 117 (Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England)
Lectures	Mon., Wed. 11:10–12:00, Room Harvard Hall 102
Section	Thu., 1:00–2:00 (subject to change), Room TBA (for undergraduates only)
Discussion Class	Fri. 11:10–12:00, Room Harvard Hall 102 (principally for undergraduates)
Required books	Donahue, Materials on English Legal and Constitutional History (multilith, passed out in class and available gratis from Ms. Reader in Room 518 of Hauser Hall) Baker, Introduction to English Legal History (available at the Law School Coop)
Recommended books	See syllabus (all the books recommended in the syllabus will be on reserve in Langdell Library [Law School]; some are also available in Lamont and the Quad libraries)
Requirements (for undergraduates)	Hour exam (Fri., Mar 13), short paper (select topic by Thu., Mar 19, draft by Thu., Apr 23, final due no later than Wed., May 13), and either a final exam or term paper (see syllabus). For more on the paper requirement, see below.
Requirements (for FAS graduate students)	Same as the law students; see the fact sheet for law students.

GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE FAS SHOULD FOLLOW THE COURSE FOR THE LAW STUDENTS. This means they should attend the Thuesday section in the Law School; they need not attend the Friday discussion class, and their requirements (readings, paper, exam, etc.) are as for the law students. See the fact sheet for law students.

PAPERS AND PAPER TOPICS

As we mentioned in the syllabus, you should turn in your first draft of your paper before the class on Thu., Apr 23. We will read your draft, make some suggestions, and return the draft to you. The final draft is due on Wed., May 13. The paper should focus on a particular document. It may be any document in the Materials or a document that you find on your own. The paper should be no longer than five double-spaced pages, exclusive of footnotes. It should contain an idea: “the kin group was a dying institution at the time of the Conquest”; “Anglo-Saxon family law was based on the systematic suppression of women,” etc., supported by evidence from primary sources: “as can be seen by a careful analysis of Alfred 42 and 2 Edmund 1”; “as every scrap of evidence from Aethelberht’s laws to the charters of marriage settlements in the eleventh century shows.” Secondary sources (Loyn, Richardson & Sayles, Milsom, etc.) should, of course, be used but only to give you some feel for what others have thought about these topics and as guides to the primary materials. They should begin your reading not end it. We want to see your ideas (whether or not they coincide with others’) based on your independent evaluation of the primary material.

Since the paper is late in the course, but may cover any set of sources, we encourage you to submit the draft of the paper earlier rather than later (especially if the paper treats sources from the early part of the course). We can give you better, more helpful comments if we have more time to read the paper and you will have more time to revise and rewrite the final version. Below we have listed successful paper topics from past years. The list is not in any sense exclusive. Indeed, we are much more impressed with a paper that carves out a topic that we did not suggest than one that simply follows our suggestions. Most of these topics were invented by students not by us.

For those of you who wish to do a term paper, please see Professor Donahue.

Paper Topics from Previous Years

01.	Women in Aethelberht’s Code (2 papers) — One argued that women were just like slaves, the other that their position depended on their wealth.
02.	The Growth of Botless Crimes in Anglo-Saxon England.
03.	Royal Charters to London, 1066–1215.
04.	Restrictions on Appeals to the Papacy from the Conquest to the Constitutions of Clarendon.
05.	The Assize of Northampton [(1176), Mats. pp. 137–40] — Focused on the background of the rebellion of the king’s sons.
06.	The Influence of Lateran IV c.18 on Trials by Ordeal in England.
07.	Dissatisfaction with the Charter of the Forest. (1215).
08.	Magna Carta c.34 (the writ praecipe) or Magna Carta c.39 (“judgment of peers”).
09.	Tenens per legem Angliae (tenancy by the “curtesy of England”).
10.	Tyrannicide: An Attempt to Understand John of Salisbury.
11.	Theology, Law and Governance: Aquinas’ Treatise on Law and Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
12.	The Petition of the Barons (1258), c. 27 and the Statute De Donis (1285).
13.	Expulsion of the Jews from England (1290).
14.	An analysis of Quia Emptores (1290).
15.	The Distinction Between Debt and Detinue (based on Hall’s edition of Registers of Writs).
16.	The Law and the Decline of Villeinage in Paris v. Page (1302).
17.	Attempts to Preserve a Status Society in the Statute of Laborers (1351).
18.	Cloth trade and the Sumptuary Law of Edward III (1363).
19.	Mills and The Miller’s Case (1367) — Placed the case in context of changing business arrangements.
20.	Treason Never Doth Prosper: Rex v. Merks (1401) (88 Selden Society 102) — Treason and benefit of clergy in the early fifteenth century.
21.	Laissez-Faire in the Fifteenth Century? (Case of Gloucester School [(1410), Sources, p. 613]) — The development of the concept of damnum absque iniuria, or the notion that economic competition is no wrong.
22.	The Legitimacy of Equity (Mats., § 7C) — How did fifteenth-century equity justify what it did?
23.	Early Defamation Actions in the Central Royal Courts (mid-16th century) (Helmholz, Select Cases on Defamation to 1600) — The common law takes over an action from the church courts.

[Home Page] [Syllabus]

Please send comments to Rosemary Spang

URL: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/cdonahue/courses/echfas/info/117facts.html
last modified: 01/25/09