Law, Leverage, and Litigation in Late Medieval Bruges: Foreign Merchants in a City of Justice

Author: Niels Fieremans
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781399545860
Published In: September 2025
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Contents

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Explores the interaction between law and commerce in late medieval Bruges and its impact on the concept of justice.

Takes an interdisciplinary approach and engages in the debates of commercial history and legal history
Draws on extensive archival material from across Europe
Challenges the notion that a commercial city tailored its system to merchants
Contributes to the field of customary law where scholars diverge from the previous theoretical law treaties and look to what happened in the more practical sources e.g. Litigation records
Illustrated with examples to demonstrate key concepts and ideas

Late medieval Bruges was a commercial hub that connected Hanseatic, English, Scottish, Portuguese, Spanish, Aragonese, and Italian traders. This book focuses on the conflict resolution of the aldermen and how merchants operated within this legal framework. The key question being whether Bruges was a city of justice. Although this was sometimes claimed by travellers, a lot of merchants confronted with the practicalities of conflict resolution in Bruges, disagreed.

Fieremans analyses how customary law, institutional frameworks, and commerce intersected and were challenged by the aldermen's pursuit of justice. By clarifying the working of the aldermen, it advances our knowledge of the basic mechanisms of a late medieval law court and the evolution of the law courts of late medieval Flanders. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book focuses on the interplay between commerce and justice, explores the diverse merchant communities, and considers the potential lessons it offers for understanding both historical and modern markets. It sheds light on the pragmatic legal culture of Bruges and the legal mechanisms that partially regulate commerce.

Introduction: Historiography and Contribution

Part I. Law. The legal framework of late medieval Bruges

The procedures of the aldermen

The usage of procedures

The goal of these procedures

Part 2. Leverage. The group strategies to adapt the framework

The strategy of economic leverage: the Hanseatic, English and Scottish community

The strategy of political leverage: the Iberian communities

Strategies without privileges: the Italian communities

Part 3. Litigation. The individual strategies adapting the framework

The Council of Flanders and Bruges.

Supralocal courts. The Great Council and the Parliament of Paris