English law is riddled with ancient entries and charters pertaining to past worlds; and from time to time they emerge and catch out the unsuspecting. For example, it's punishable to gamble in a...
A Kansas man has requested a ‘ trial by combat ’ with his wife and her lawyer to settle an ongoing dispute. To settle ongoing and clearly painful legal disputes, David Ostrom, 40, of Paola, Kansas...
Marguerite Johnson / The Conversation The ancient worlds of Greece and Rome have perhaps never been as popular as they presently are. There are numerous television series and one-off documentaries...
In medieval societies , it was always quite important to preserve law and order, and to rightfully dispense justice. A just ruler secured himself an obedient populace, and often enough, justice was...
A dowry is an ancient custom that requires the transfer of parental property to a daughter at her marriage , rather than at her father’s death. It is a tradition in which emotion does not play a role...
It is no surprise that the medieval period was filled with all kinds of undesirable jobs. There were leech collectors, cesspool cleaners, serfs, and gong farmers, to name a few. But one vocation that...
In ancient Rome, the patricians (from the Latin word patres , meaning ‘fathers’) were one of the main classes of Roman society. They were the ruling class, and enjoyed great prestige as well as...
One of the more unusual aspects of the Medieval world was that animals could be put on trial like human beings. Yes, there was such a thing as legal animal trials! While the veracity of many Medieval...
For as long as societies have had to deal with crime, they’ve had to deal out punishment. In some, places, and situations the process was only meant to humiliate the guilty, but most of the following...
The ordeal of rice is a divine method of proof that was employed in ancient India. This ordeal involves suspects chewing on rice grains and then spitting them out. The condition of the grains is then...
During the time of the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic, Roman society was divided between two important classes – the patricians and the plebeians. Originally, the patricians were part of the...
Rosie Henderson, from Guernsey, activated the ancient Norman rite of Clameur de Haro in protest of “the narrowing of a road” which she claims “would endanger pedestrians and motorists,” according to...
The Magna Carta is often lauded as an important milestone in human history. It is said to have guaranteed individual rights, the right to justice, and the right to a fair trial, as well as...
The Norse god Tyr is not very well-known, at least when compared to such names as Odin and Thor. But he is also part of the Aesir tribe in the Norse pantheon and Tyr could be called the bravest of...
The impotence trials of prerevolutionary France sound a bit like a political joke. France had mostly squelched the ability for couples to divorce, and it was in the wake of this that the impotence...
Divorce can be traced all the way back to ancient Greek and Roman societies. But the idea of marriage in these cultures was different from what is found in modern Western society, so it makes sense...