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Statutes As Judgments: The Natural Law Theory Of Parliamentary Activity In Medieval England, Morris S. Arnold

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The proposition that late medieval English lawgivers believed themselves to be exercising a declarative function has been so frequently put forward and so widely accepted that it is in danger of being canonized by sheer dint of repetition; and thus one who would deny the essential validity of that notion bears the virtually insuperable burden of proof commonly accorded an accused heretic. Nevertheless, it will be argued here that natural law notions are attributed to the medieval English legislator with only the slightest support from the sources, and after only the most rudimentary and uncritical analyses of the implications of …