How European Law Became Standardized

This chapter argues that Western European legal culture became increasingly standardized from the twelfth century, giving raise eventually to the relative uniformity of modern law. Law schools and the papacy were key actors in creating the system of law known as the ius commune, but it is argued that the example of regularly meeting church law courts was pivotal in spreading that law across Europe. The chapter focuses on marriage law and legal procedure, and it compares individual church court cases from thirteenth-century Italy and fourteenth- century Norway, demonstrating their basic similarity in their use of both substantial and procedural law. Some examples from secular law show how that law adapted as well as resisted features of the ius commune, worked out in the law schools and applied in the church courts. The chapter ends with a few reflections on Max Weber’s legal sociology and how it illuminates late medieval standardizing movements in Europe.