Research Project

Plurality of Courts as an Opportunity? Litigation Behaviour in Civil Proceedings in the Schwarzburg Territories (c. 1600–1700)

The dissertation project examines the litigation behaviour in small territories within the Thuringian-Saxon region of the Holy Roman Empire in the 17th century. Using a small territory as an example, the project analyses the extent to which, despite a distinctly polycentric judicial landscape, standardisation effects emerged in judicial practice, and for which problems subjects turned to different courts. The starting point forms the in early modern research already established ‘uses of justice’ concept (Justiznutzung), which is specifically applied to litigation and civil law proceedings. In doing so, the work addresses a research gap, as these proceedings – in contrast to the history of criminal law and crime – have been examined rather selectively so far and heavily segmented according to the subject matter of the dispute.

Methodologically, the project is based on the systematic analysis of previously unexamined archival material, in particular serial court records and files from chancellery, district, consistorial and patrimonial courts in the territories of the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen line. Through a combination of quantitative sample analysis and qualitative case studies, the project examines procedural forms, levels of jurisdiction, subjects of dispute and the social profiles of those involved in the proceedings. The project thus contributes to the research field of early modern civil proceedings at the entire territorial level, as well as to the practice of polycentric court jurisdictions within smaller territories of the Holy Roman Empire.