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Time, equity, and the artifice of English law : reflections on the king's two bodies
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Raffield, Paul (2017) Time, equity, and the artifice of English law : reflections on the king's two bodies. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 13 (1). pp. 36-45. doi:10.1177/1743872114534800 ISSN 1743-8721.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1743872114534800
Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze the contribution of the early modern English legal institution to the formulation of the theory of the king’s two bodies. I explore three principal themes in the course of this article, all of which relate directly to central tenets of the thesis proposed by Kantorowicz in The King’s Two Bodies. First, is the centrality of time and continuity to theories of kingship and to the ideology of common law. Secondly, I consider the importance of equity to the formulation of decision-making in English law, and in pursuit of this end, the manipulation by the judiciary of political theology concerning the king’s two bodies. Lastly, I analyze the persuasive power of the trope, and especially the capacity of metaphor and metonym to embody such invisible and intangible juristic concepts as justice, equity, and law itself. Whilst recognizing the magisterial quality of Kantorowicz’s magnum opus, I take issue with some of the more extravagant of the author’s claims for the pervasive power of mystical kingship and its influence over English jurists and the English legal profession.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | K Law [Moys] > KF Common Law, British Isles > KF England and Wales J Political Science > JC Political theory |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Kantorowicz, Ernst H. -- Criticism and interpretation , King's two bodies a study in mediaeval political theology, Common law, Time, Equity, Theology, Metaphor | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Law, Culture and the Humanities | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1743-8721 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 1 February 2017 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 13 | ||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 36-45 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/1743872114534800 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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