The History of Justice

Teacher(s)

Dauchy Serge;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to the history of justice (from the Middle Ages to the present day) in the diversity of its expressions and the particular fields covered by this notion: judicial institutions, judicial personnel and legal practitioners, procedures, law... The course aims primarily to introduce students to lesser-known and less-used sources. Historians and legal historians rely mainly, if not exclusively, on written sources, and it is clear that, especially from the 13th century onwards, there is no lack of writings to trace the history of law and justice. On the other hand, it remains rare that, in the absence of or in addition to written documents, historians turn to other sources of information or explore the material culture of law and justice. The course will therefore focus primarily on legal and judicial iconography (and iconology), considered not as a simple illustration but as a real object of study.

Content

Given the wide scope of the subject and the chronological framework, it is not intended to present an exhaustive history of justice, nor to address all the facets of judicial history.
We will emphasize the representations of justice, the images on justice as well as the image that the judicial institution intends to give of itself. Indeed, it is not enough for justice to be rendered, it is also necessary for it to share the conviction that it is. Being and appearing are indispensable to it.

The study of iconographic representations will first be apprehended within the broader perspective of "Law and the Humanities", itself an offshoot of "Cultural Studies"; i.e. a study of justice using the methods, definitions and paradigms of the social sciences. This first part will also provide a methodological framework.
In a second part, more specific questions (crimes, evidence, the figure of the judge...) will be studied starting from different cycles of images illustrating different themes and different periods.

Teaching methods

Lectures including interactions and exchanges with the students.

Evaluation methods

Students will be required to submit a written assignment based on an original work of their choice (previously approved by the instructor) related to the history of law and justice, including a comparison with at least one image analyzed during the course. The use of I.A. is not permitted (except for spell checking) and the paper cannot be based solely or mainly on websites such as Wikipedia, but must be based on a scientific bibliography.
The written paper is supplemented by an oral exchange (exam) on the work carried out in connection with the course.

Online resources

The images presented during the course and included in the PowerPoint presentations are for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed (in accordance with intellectual and artistic property rights).

Bibliography

Une bibliographie générale est fournie.

Supports :
Le respect des droits d’auteurs et des règles en vigueur en matière de propriété intellectuelle et artistique ne permet pas de mettre les images ou films utilisés en ligne, même sur l’intranet.

Teaching materials

• Powerpoints sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

> PHLB