Thesis presentation: ‘Les juifs face à la justice catalane (1301-1327)’ – 12/12/15, Nantes

Youna MASSET (Université de Nantes – CRHIA) will defend her thesis, ‘Les juifs face à la justice catalane (1301-1327)’  (Jews before the Catalan justice 1301-1327) on Saturday 12th of December, at 2pm at the MSH Ange Guépin.

Summary: The relationship between Christians and Jews, the place occupied by the latter in the Catalan society and, sometimes, their legal status, was abundantly studied since the nineteenth century. We chose to address these issues through the scope of procedural law and justice for the period stretching from 1301 to 1327, reviewing Catalan normative sources and 800 documents of law practice, 655 of which are unpublished. After offering an analysis of the law hierarchy, we were able to mitigate the widely accepted assumption that Jews, as serfs of the king, were necessarily under his exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, the study of the corpus revealed that Jew could access to justice in a quite similar way as Christians, althought some adjustments were made. However, their ability to access to judicial functions was low, which indirectly affected the fairness of justice towards them. Ultimately, it is during the judgment, at the instant of the issuance of the award, that the Jewishness of the defendant had an influence, as the penalties could be different depending on the religion of the accused and the victim.

This thesis was prepared under the co-direction of Mr John TOLAN (University of Nantes) and Mrs Claude DENJEAN (University of Perpignan).

Jury members:

• Mrs Claude DENJEAN, professor at the University of Perpignan
• Mr John TOLAN, professor at the University of Nantes
• Mr Maurice KRIEGEL, director of studies at the EHESS
• Mr Julien THERY, professor at the University of Lyon 2
• Mr Josep SERRANO DAURA, professor at the international University of Barcelone
• Mr Florent GARNIER, professor at the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole

Place: MSH Ange-Guépin (Salle de conférences – rdc)
5 allée Jacques Berque à Nantes (Stade Marcel-Saupin)
Tramway ligne 1 (Arrêt Gare SNCF) : sortie Gare Sud
Chronobus C3 et C5 (Arrêt Saupin-Crédit Municipal)
Busway (Arrêt Cité des congrès)  /  Bicloo

Webpage: http://www.msh.univ-nantes.fr/09627173/0/fiche___actualite/&RH=ACCUEIL