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This thesis examines the treatment of the theme of justice in the works, both poetry and prose, of Andrew Marvell and, in a final chapter, the justice of certain aspects of his behaviour. In order to do this, it seeks to locate particular works in the context of contemporary debates or discussions as to ancient rights, the ancient constitution (and competing theories as to the king's power) and the disagreement between Hugo Grotius and John Selden on the subject of the legal status of the sea and, more generally, the laws of nature and nations. !e discussion of the justice of his behaviour offers a reinterpretation of the Chancery pleadings and other records in a cluster of cases arising after Marvell's death out of the collapse of a bank in which his friend, Edward Nelthorpe, was a partner. It is argued that these records have, up to now, been misunderstood. The thesis concludes that Marvell's work evinces an ambiguity about justice, with the poetry tending to give voice to his scepticism, while the sense that justice might be at least partly achievable is more likely to appear in the prose works. The conclusion as to his actions is also a matter of some ambivalence: while the evidence does not show that he colluded in a fraud on the bank's creditors, the suspicion that he behaved badly towards his wife is complicated by a lingering uncertainty that he had, in fact, married.

This Master thesis deals with corporations in americam legal system. The theme is described from RMBCA point of view and then there is compared the law of state Delaware with the law of state New York. Preliminary there are described american legal business entities and their czech equivalent structure. The main part of the thesis is attened to the legal form of the corporation, the formation and incorporation, the corporate governance and the financial structure od the corporation. In each section there are relevant precedents of Delaware and New York. Conclusion of the thesis describes the New York courts system, especially explains the function of Court of Chancery.

La présente thèse de doctorat consiste en une enquête globale sur le développement de l’humanisme dans le contexte du retour de la cour pontificale en Italie, au moment d’une crise majeure, le Grand Schisme d’Occident. Notre travail se propose, avant toute chose, de nouer les fils de deux histoires généralement conçues comme distinctes et d’en éclairer les interactions. Il s’agit, d’une part, de l’émergence, au tournant du XVe siècle, d’une génération d’intellectuels que l’on considère comme les représentants d’un humanisme arrivé à pleine maturité après un siècle et demi de gestation et, d’autre part, de la réinstallation du pouvoir pontifical à Rome, une entreprise politique dont la première phase fut marquée par une longue et fort complexe lutte pour l’unité et la stabilité. Le propos est organisé en trois parties accompagnées d’une série d’annexes complémentaires (tableaux prosopographiques, typologies des corpus rhétoriques et diplomatiques, éditions de documents d’archives et de pièces littéraires). Y sont successivement étudiées la constitution d’un milieu savant, son insertion dans l’histoire et le fonctionnement de la curie au cours des pontificats d’Innocent VII, Grégoire XII, Alexandre V et Jean XXIII ainsi que durant les conciles de Pise et de Constance, et la composition d’un modèle rhétorique complet mis au service de la propagande pontificale. Les dynamiques socio-institutionnelles et les principes idéologiques et éthiques qui furent à l’origine d’une collaboration féconde entre humanisme et papauté sont particulièrement mis en valeur, de même que les voies de création d’une mémoire et d’une éloquence communes. / This dissertation consists of a comprehensive appraisal of the development of humanism in the context of the return of the pontifical court in Italy at the time of a major crisis, the Great Western Schism. Our work primarily aims at linking two stories, generally conceived as distinct, and enlightening interactions between them. These are, firstly, the emergence of a generation of intellectuals that are considered to be representatives of a humanism that reached its full maturity after a century and a half of gestation and, secondly, the re-establishment of the pontifical power in Rome, a political enterprise whose first phase was characterized by a long and very complex struggle for unity and stability. This thesis is as follows : it examines firstly the construction of a scholarly network, secondly its relationship to historical and institutionnal contexts, namely the operation of the curia during the pontificates of Innocent VII, Gregory XII, Alexander V and John XXIII and the councils of Pisa and Constance. Finallyit it investigates the elaboration of a complete rhetorical model that served the papal propaganda. The socio-institutional dynamics and the ideological and ethical principles that served as the basis of a fruitful collaboration between humanism and papacy are highlighted, as well as ways of creating a memory and a common eloquence. This dissertation includes a series of additional annexes (prosopographical tables, typologies of rhetorical and diplomatic corpus, and editions of archival and literary documents).

Quels rapports entretenaient avec l’écrit une société urbaine du Nord comme celle de Douai au XIIIe s.? Très rare pour les siècles antérieurs, la documentation conservée abonda alors avec près de 2.200 actes de la pratique juridique, des registres échevinaux, des comptes… L’écrit était devenu un outil indispensable de la vie sociale, qui en fut bouleversée. S’appuyant sur les acquis de la « 1ère révolution de l’écrit » de la fin du XIe s., cette profonde mutation socio-culturelle se déroula en deux temps : l’une d’intensification, d’ouverture aux laïcs et au vernaculaire (« 2e révolution de l’écrit », c. 1170-1240), l’autre de large intensification, de diversification typologique et de diffusion sociale de l’écrit (« 3e révolution de l’écrit », c. 1250-1300). Tentant de prendre en compte les divers acteurs et usagers de l’écrit, l’étude se concentre sur les 1.300 chirographes échevinaux conservés, dont les premières étapes d’une histoire totale sont esquissées (production, usages et archivage). Ces actes de juridiction gracieuse de l’élite bourgeoise se banalisèrent à la fin du siècle pour toucher des couches sociales qu’on croyait étrangères à la culture de l’écrit. / How did an urban society like the Flemish town of Douai deal with the written word in the 13th century? Up to then, archives were very rare, but at that time a documentary boom can be observed with nearly 2,200 acts of legal practice, several aldermen’s registers, accounts…The written word had become a required tool of social life, which had been changed drastically by it. Based on the experience of the “1st revolution of the written word” at the end of the 11th century, this deep socio-cultural mutation took place in two stages: one characterized by intensification, opening to lay people and to vernacular language (“2nd revolution of the writtenword”, circa 1170-1240), the other by large-scale intensification, typological diversification and social diffusion of literacy (“3rd revolution of the written word”, circa 1250-1300). Trying to take into account the various agents and users of the written word, this work focuses on the 1,300 preserved aldermen’s chirographs, of which the first stages of a total history (making, using and storing) are sketched out. Those acts of voluntary jurisdiction issued from the burgher elite had become commonplace at the end of the 13th century so as to reach social groups thought to be closed to literacy.

The presented thesis deals with a textological analysis of fifty documents written in German and published by Maximilian II. in Vienna between 1564 and 1574 and Rudolf II in Prague between 1578 and 1608. The thesis is concerned with the political-cultural, religious and social attitudes in the Czech lands in the second half of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century, offices, German as the language of the offices and the praxis of the offices during the reign of Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. The aim of the thesis is to textologically analyze with a focus on the Macrostructure and Microstructure of the selected documents, their comparison and therefore contribute to the research of the German language used in the offices in the second half of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century in the time of Habsburg.

This thesis analyses the idea of the Church adopted by the papacy of Honorius II (1124-1130), a pontificate hitherto overlooked by most historians. The main sources, examined with a particular focus on language and context, are the extant letters produced by the papal chancery, which present the official Roman view. A preliminary calendar of the letters is compiled here for the first time and is intended as a tool for future research. Chronicles and other sources are also used to expand the analysis. The first section explores the papacy's theoretical assertions of primacy over the whole Church and the innovations of the chancery led by Haimeric (1123-1141). It argues that this pontificate added a degree of novelty to ideas already in use (such as the maternal role of the Roman church) but also made new and stronger claims for the papal office. Chapter two considers the consequences of these claims on papal relations with other ecclesiastical institutions and the tools Honorius resorted to when asserting his primacy. It concludes that some of these – especially papal legates – were adapted to the pope's needs or achieved an even more significant role during this papacy, allowing Honorius to exercise a certain pragmatic primacy over the whole Church. Chapter three deals with relations with secular powers. Although this is afflicted by a serious dearth of letters – the silences of Honorius - the chapter demonstrates that it is still possible to recreate some sense of the modus operandi towards secular powers. It argues that the papacy was usually responsive and its actual power quite limited. The last section offers a case study of Honorius's relations with Montecassino. Compared with two almost contemporary cases at Cluny and Farfa, this exposes how the ecclesiology of this papacy worked in detail. It argues that these episodes should be read together as a papal attempt to assert primacy over institutions which had always pursued a policy independent from Rome. The image emerging from this analysis frames Honorius's papacy more effectively, overturning the idea of a transitional and colourless pope. This was a vital pontificate, during which some significant innovations and claims were made. In particular, by adapting the content of each letter to addressee and context, Honorius's chancery, led by Haimeric, played a decisive role in extending the ecclesiology of the papacy.

The representation of Chancery court in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1852-3) emphasises the inaccessibility of this institution to members of the laity. Dickens’ critique of Chancery chimes with Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological description of law as a formalistic social field defined by practices of exclusion. Dickens’ Chancery is however further inaccessible since it departs from Dickens’ laypeople’s horizons of expectation as a bureaucratic organisation characterised by its structural dispersion and the generation of great quantities of writing. This thesis therefore scrutinises Dickens’ treatment of Chancery in light of media-theoretical and geocritical, as well as sociological, frameworks and perspectives. This essay demonstrates that Dickens’ account of the institution of Chancery as conceptually inaccessible amounts to what I term a non-world heuristic. I contend that Dickens’ take on law anticipates what Fredric Jameson famously theorises as the dizzying “global world system” of late capitalism; the non-world heuristic of Bleak House—which combats disorientation in the social domain of law—may thus be understood as an early example of what Jameson terms an “aesthetic of cognitive mapping.” The non-world heuristic, this thesis proposes, likely has a role to play also in fictional attempts to cognitively map the global world system. I theorise the non-world heuristic in light of the discourse on accessibility in possible-worlds theory and the Kantian sublime, finding that the sublime non-world of Chancery is made accessible as inaccessible and that this dynamic is integral to Dickens’ aesthetic both as a maker of cognitive maps and as a realist novelist.

This thesis examines representations of lawyers and law in examples of Jacobean city comedy, taking into account certain contemporary developments in the legal profession and the law in England. The period covered is 1598-1616. The thesis questions the conventional interpretation of city comedy as hostile to the legal profession. It suggests the topic is more complex than has been assumed, arguing that city comedy makes direct and indirect positive representation of Inns of Court lawyers, who are to be distinguished from attorneys (newly segregated in the Inns of Chancery), amateur quasi-lawyers, and university-educated civil lawyers. It is proposed that city comedy represents Inns of Court lawyers positively in two ways. Firstly, by means of legal content: representations of developments in the profession and the law demonstrate a wish to connect with the young lawyers and students of the Inns of Court, and reflect a contemporary drive by them for increased organization and regulation. Secondly, by means of literary form: ostensibly pejorative representations need not be taken at face value; instead, they may be found to be ironic. The main proposed contributions to knowledge are: that Inns of Court lawyers were a favoured part of the target audience of the private playhouses, making it questionable that they would be represented negatively in city comedy; that lawyers as represented in city comedy are not a single or a simple category; that representation of lawyers is inflected by the various forms and impulses of city comedy; and that city comedy incorporates some reflection of the increasing professionalization of legal practice in the period.

Le 9 octobre 1733, une circulaire du Chancelier Henri-François d’Aguesseau est envoyée à l’ensemble des intendants et des procureurs généraux du royaume. C’est le début des « états des crimes dignes de mort ou de peines afflictives », une enquête réalisée sur près de soixante-dix ans et qui a pour but de contrôler l’activité des officiers de justice. Sa réalisation et son exploitation mettent en lumière le travail de la monarchie administrative, qu’il s’agisse des instances gouvernementales comme la chancellerie ou de l’administration provinciale (intendants et subdélégués). Elle nous informe aussi sur les relations entre les différents acteurs (officiers et administrateurs) qui interviennent au cours de sa réalisation. Enfin, en s’intéressant aux crimes graves, cette enquête nous interroge sur la manière d’appréhender et de définir le crime au XVIIIe siècle tout en nous offrant une vision globale de la criminalité en France. / On October 9, 1733, a circular from Chancellor Henri-Francois d'Aguesseau is sent to the whole of the intendants and attorneys general of the kingdom. This is the beginning of the « états des crimes dignes de mort ou de peines affictives », a survey carried out for nearly seventy years and which aims to control the activity of the officers of justice. Its realization and exploitation inform us about the work of the administrative monarchy, be it governmental bodies such as the Chancery or the provincial administration (intendants and subdelegates). It also informs us about the relations between the various actors (officers of justice and administrators) that intervene during its realization. Finally, by investigating serious crimes, this survey questions us about grasping and defining crime in the eighteenth century while offering us a global view of criminalty in France.