The Feudal Origins of the Western Legal Tradition

Cameron Harwick and Hilton Root

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2019, vol. 70, issue 1, 3-20

Abstract: This paper draws a distinction between ‘communitarian’ and ‘rationalist’ legal orders on the basis of the implied political strategy. We argue that the West’s solution to the paradox of governance – that a government strong enough to protect rights cannot itself be restrained from violating those rights – originates in certain aspects of the feudal contract, a confluence of aspects of communitarian Germanic law, which enshrined a contractual notion of political authority, and rationalistic Roman law, which supported large-scale political organization. We trace the tradition of strong but limited government to the conflict between factions with an interest in these legal traditions – nobles and the crown, respectively – and draw limited conclusions for legal development in non-Western contexts.

Keywords: Legal Origins; Economic History; Institutions; Norms; European History; Rechtsgeschichte; Wirtschaftsgeschichte; Institutionen; Normen; Europäische Geschichte (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K1 N90 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2020-0004

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