Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism
Subject: A World without Lawyers: Rabbinic Perceptions of Fama and the Concept of Law in Medieval Europe.
Advisor: Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten and Prof. Moshe Halbertal
Abstract:
My MA thesis suggests a comparative analysis of public knowledge in Rabbinic and Ecclesiastical courts in medieval Europe (especially in the Rhineland) - from mere rumors to common conventions concerning human 'reasonable' behavior. The thesis sketches the subtle dynamic in which public knowledge used in legal practice. By the middle of the 12th century, rumors and reputation were used as an ultimate evidence, in order to close cases - in some kind of arbitrary procedure, which overcomes its lack of regulative power by constructing a reliable description that would convince the parties to obey the verdict. On the contrary, during the 13th century, European courts developed new legal techniques, led by inquisitorial procedure - the possibility to manage public persecution without any individual lawsuit.
In fact, this is an unknown chapter in the legal pre-history of common sense, in which public 'transparency' actually covered the attempt of ingenious judges to close open cases in quick arbitral procedure (Summary Justice). The thesis also attempts to rethink critically the institutional and the epistemic aspects of legal casuistry - a jurisprudence based on intuitive analogies between particular precedents, without any articulated principles. In such a system, the judge needs not only to seek justice, but also to make a cogent description of the real world and its states of affairs - at least the best he could
Bio:
I completed my BA in History at the Open University. Currently, I am an MA student at the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism in the Hebrew University. My main field of research is social and intellectual history of late-medieval Europe - in relation with anthropology, philosophy of science and pragmatics of natural languages. In addition to my academic studies, I am also a student in Yeshivat Har Etzion, and teaching in several high schools.
MA Honors 2022/23