Law in the Pre-Industrial City - Heritage of the Past, Tool for Modernization

Jagiellonian University, Kraków

27 May 2024

Law was undoubtedly one of the key factors defining cities in the pre-industrial period. Legal and judicial autonomy were at the very basis of the model of urban self-government developed in the Middle Ages, and its spread to the lands of Central Europe was in turn related to the adaptation of the foreign German law system. The distinctiveness of the townspeople was symbolically emphasized by fortifications, which clearly marked one of the boundaries of the commune's judiciary. However, the cities were not internally monoliths in legal terms, because within their area there were enclaves of other jurisdictions (e.g. church, university or monarchical), and burghers itself were divided into groups differing in status, including: in terms of having municipal rights or belonging to craft corporations. Moreover, differences existed even between centers operating on the basis of the same political model, the source of which was primarily the individually granted privileges and internally adopted norms regulating the functioning of the commune. At the same time, they prove that the legal environment in which the cities operated was not static and was subject to constant changes, inspired by, for example, the superior authorities or social conflicts and tensions among the commune's inhabitants. Another process taking place over time was the gradual expansion of knowledge of the law and its procedures. It was reflected in, among others, the development of records documenting the activities of the judiciary or the spreading of guild statutes.

Law understood in this way could therefore be both an instrument for the modernization of urban life and a factor preserving social and economic relations in the city. Therefore, with reference to the main topic of the conference of the Committee on the History of Cities, we propose to raise a subject of the impact of law and its institutions on the life of the city in the context of both the reforms introduced using it and its enforcement in the event of exceeding the established norms. As “law in the city” we understand not only the municipal law system itself (understood as a pattern of commune organization), but also local legislation (e.g. city councils, commoners' representation, guilds), general and individual state legislation, as well as other legal systems (e.g. church law ), insofar as they influenced cities. The modernizing role of law in the life of municipalities and their inhabitants, as well as the impact of existing standards on the functioning of cities, will be important.