Law and Jurisdiction in the Middle Ages

Walter Ullmann's contribution to the study of medieval political and legal thought needs no emphasis. In the present volume are collected a number of the early articles which it was not possible to include in his previous collections, together with others published since those volumes appeared. The articles display a striking consistency of approach, though in the more than forty years separating the earliest from the latest there is an obvious development in his thought. Ullman held the view that the law must be studied in its own historical context, as a function of society and a product of the factors which shaped social life; equally, he stressed the central position of the law in the study of medieval history, for its precise character meant that it could provide a more reliable probe into medieval beliefs and doctrine than any other form of evidence.