Contextes - Littératures populaires du droit - 80

LITTÉrATureS POPuLAIreS Du DrOIT

Both principles, that of representing the legal community by respectable
members of that community (in this case, secured by status) and that of
professional experts, determined by education and exam, come together
in this assignment.
Some four decades later, Maximilian's grandson Charles V went even
a step further when trying to implement an imperial criminal code, the
Constitutio criminalis Carolina, in 1532. The Carolina does not hold back
with its explicit claim to substitute the local custom and lay jurisdiction
by unified juridical profession, when already in its preface it laments that
"in the Holy roman empire of the German Nation, following old custom
and tradition, most criminal courts are manned by men who have not been
educated in our Imperial laws, nor have experience with or been practicing them" (imm Römischen Reich teutscher Nation/altem gebrauch unnd
herkommen nach/die meynsten peinlich gericht mit personen/die unsere
Keyserliche recht nit gelert/erfarn oder übung haben/besetzt werden).29
Consequently, it is decreed right in the first article that "all criminal courts
shall be administered and manned with judges, jurymen and scribes, being
the most pious, respectable, judicious, and experienced persons that may be
available in the respective place" - this very much resembles the formulation
we already known from the Reichskammergerichtsordnung of 1495 - "and
that one should also draw on noble and learned men to that end" (daß
alle peinlich gericht mit Richtern/urtheylern vnd gerichtßschreibern/
versehen und besetzt werden sollen/von frommen/erbarn/verstendigen
vnd erfarnen personen/so tugentlichst und best die selbigen nach gelegenheyt jedes orts gehabt vnd zuobekommen sein. Darzuo auch Edeln unnd
gelerten gebraucht werden mögen)30.
Availabilty of experts in face of a growing demand really seems to have
been a problem in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. No wonder then,
that princes were eager to found their own universities in their territories. But lack of experts was not the sole reason why it took way into the
seventeenth century to fully implement a juridical system that was based
primarily on professional academic expertise rather than the traditional
status representatives of the legal community. Still in 1576, Johann Arnold
von Dorneck found reason to complain "that the criminal courts at many
places in Germany are administered... by unlearned, unexperienced lay
men ; often due to lack of learned men, but even more often just because
of contempt towards them. rather there is an even more urgent need for
a judge to be pious, of a good conscience, judicious, and respectable, for
29. Des allerdurchleuchtigsten großmechtigsten, unüberwindtlichsten Keyser Karls des
fünfften unnd des heyligen Römischen Reichs peinlich gerichts ordnung (Mainz : Schöffer,
1533), fol. 2r.
30. Ibid., fol. 13r.

Contextes - Littératures populaires du droit

Table des matières de la publication Contextes - Littératures populaires du droit