Events

Event Description

Love in the Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century

We tend to view law as impartial and impersonal, but emotions are often part of its practice. In this presentation, Woolley argues that love and friendships were viewed as essential components to create peace in twelfth-century English law. Woolley examines passages from an early twelfth-century lawbook to analyze what love within the law could mean in practice, showing the centrality of love as a flexible, honor-giving bond for sustaining settlements. Then, explores how the English common law - the first national body of law in England - transitioned to framing love and affection as threats. This opposition between law and emotions is not a natural one, but one built by administrators to craft a vision of perfect centralized justice, a vision that could never be fulfilled in reality.