Final Essay Due: Friday, December 13, 2013. (Nota bene: If you are enrolled in the School of Canon Law, you must have the permission of the Dean of the School to receive an incomplete. All other students need only my permission)
Write on the first two topics: 1. As canon law took its place besides Roman law in the Ius commune canonistic jurisprudence became central to European legal thought. Gratian was the key figure in elevating canon law to a status equal to Roman law in the schools. Describe Gratian's methodology and purpose.
2. Using the first twenty distinctions of his Decretum describe Gratian's first attempt to formulate a doctrine of law and legislative authority in canon law and in the Ius commune. What was the role of Ius naturale, justice, equity, and reason in Gratian's thinking about law. How did these concepts shape future developments? Outline the progress of legislative doctrine from "all law is custom" to "all law resides in legislative institutions." Describe how Gratian's conception of law differed from that of the compilers of decretal collections in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but how it shaped the contents of them. Discuss the importance of consent in canonistic jurisprudence. Describe the introduction of "stare decisis" by the canonists. Give examples from the marriage decretals of Pope Innocent III how the papal curia decided cases that were appealed to Rome.
Write on two of the