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Conclusion: Attitudes to Justice

  • Chapter
The Evolution of English Justice

Part of the book series: British Studies Series ((BRSS))

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Abstract

This book argues that English royal justice evolved in the course of the fourteenth century to meet the changing needs of government and society. The resulting developments were shaped partly by the exogenous shocks of war, natural disaster and constitutional crisis, but also grew endogenously, from within, as the judicial system adapted to reflect longer-term changes in the society that it served. In Chapter 1, we repudiated the notion that evolution implies a process of advancement, and in subsequent chapters we have demonstrated how the primarily reactive nature of medieval law makes it unnecessary, as well as improbable, to say that the judicial system was any ‘better’ in 1390 than it had been in 1290. What we have not so far addressed is the question of why so many contemporaries seem to have thought that it had become ‘worse’ by the end of the fourteenth century. By way of conclusion to this study, the present chapter seeks to explore that issue by focusing on attitudes to justice. It begins with an analysis of the ways in which people spoke of, and complained about, the law in fourteenth-century England, and ends with a broader discussion of the nature, meaning and implications of these traditions of criticism.

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middle Temple, UK

    Anthony Musson (Barrister, and Associate of the Centre for Medieval Studies)

  2. University of York, UK

    Anthony Musson (Barrister, and Associate of the Centre for Medieval Studies) & W. M. Ormrod (Professor of History)

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  1. Anthony Musson
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  2. W. M. Ormrod
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© 1999 Anthony Musson and W. M. Ormrod

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Musson, A., Ormrod, W.M. (1999). Conclusion: Attitudes to Justice. In: The Evolution of English Justice. British Studies Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27004-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27004-0_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-67671-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27004-0

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