The Exercise of Criminal Justice in Medieval Towns: A Comparison of English and Polish Jurisdiction

The thesis offers a new vision of medieval criminal justice and for the first time identifies the significant common elements in the exercise of criminal law regulations in selected fourteenth-century towns in two contrasting countries in late medieval Europe, England and Poland. These elements include principles of cooperation and control between royal and local powers in the establishment and exercise of legal proceedings. These are also among the main determinants of the developing status and agency of medieval European urban communities including their executive powers. Through a comparative analysis of the local practice that comprised criminal justice in both nations’ systems of law, this thesis marks new ground in the study of international features of criminal law proceedings in the period. It also contributes to a wider understanding of local mechanisms of control and the extent to which towns nevertheless relied upon the enforcement power of central royal authorities. Focusing on towns like Bristol, Exeter, Norwich, York, Wrocław and Kraków, this study explores the importance of local legal regulation in each town’s development, their aspirations to control their own administrative and legal processes and the limits to their level of autonomy. The thesis examines the individual stages of how local criminal law was exercised in towns of both countries, by demonstrating from various legal documents that formed parts of royal grants, privileges and charters, the roles of executive bodies directly involved in implementing local laws. The results reveal that despite political, territorial and monarchical differences that existed between the countries and their separate systems of law, there were certain common elements that arguably provide an international character for the application of local criminal justice. The thesis expands upon existing knowledge and scholarship about the essential role of corporal punishments in municipal legal proceedings, including how these were appropriate to each criminal and their specific crime. It also identifies a new approach towards the main factors affecting the active pursuit of criminal justice in England and Poland, especially their impact upon a general understanding of medieval European law enforcement procedures.