Revolts and Political Crime from the 12th to the 19th Century

Legal Responses and Juridical-Political Discourses

Edited by Angela De Benedictis and Karl Härter with editorial assistance from Tina Hannappel and Thomas Walter

Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte 285
Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann 2013. X, 477 S.

ISSN 1610-6040
ISBN 978-3-465-04198-6


This volume contains 17 contributions that connect premodern peasant, urban and aristocratic revolts and uprisings to the subject of political crime, especially from the perspective of the legal reactions to them and the juridical-political debates. Scholars from Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Spain examine the interactions between revolts and political crime from the Middle Ages to early modernity with approaches from political, legal, criminological and media history. Beyond general contributions on legal development, political theory and the role of the media, there are also case studies on revolts and upheaval in several European countries, though not to the neglect of transnational effects. The volume surpasses current paradigms focusing on ‘protest’ and ‘resistance’, which are generally approached from the perspective of social history, and presents new insights and approaches. For example, revolts and uprisings were not only perceived and treated as instances of political crime, but also stimulated a broad variety of legal reactions and juridical-political debates. In terms of discourse as well as in practice, the law proves to be a flexible and variable system to regulate political and social conflicts that durably shaped concepts and images of revolts and political crime.

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