Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750

法治是政治社会的普遍原则。我们期望政府制定良好的法律，我们有责任尊重和遵守这些法律。国家和公民之间的这种关系的基础是一种至关重要的认识，即必须先知道法律，然后才能遵守它。传播这一信息的过程是这个拟议项目的核心，该项目调查了早期现代欧洲(1500-1750年)政府如何将法律传达给公民和臣民。它对市政、地区和国家法律的出版和流通进行了原创性的比较研究。它包括口头交流，通过仪式宣布和雇用叫喊者，以及以手稿和印刷形式粘贴、分发和出售法律文本。这个项目的核心论点是，如果不考虑谁被告知了法律，以及以什么方式被告知，就不能研究早期的现代政治和法律制定。在广泛的档案研究的基础上，该项目将寻求首次确定现代早期欧洲颁布的越来越多的法律在多大程度上是公开的，以什么形式提供。这将为在一个国家形成的关键时代研究欧洲政治增添一个新的、亟需的视角，将法律沟通作为一个高度参与但不民主的政治时代的一个重要稳定因素。该项目将提供多个比较框架，通过这些框架研究法律的传播，包括新教和天主教国家、城市和农村地区、帝国、民族王国和城邦。借助这种比较视角，本项目的主要目标将是分析法律的公开传播如何塑造早期现代公民社会，并影响政治参与和问责。

The rule of law is a universal principle of political societies. We expect government to enact good laws, and we have the responsibility to respect and observe those laws. Underpinning this relationship between state and citizen is the crucial recognition that the law must be known before it can be observed. The process by which this information is disseminated is at the heart of this proposed project, which investigates how law was communicated to citizens and subjects by governments in early modern Europe (1500-1750). It offers an original comparative study of the publication and circulation of municipal, regional and national law. It encompasses oral communication, through ceremonial proclamations and the employment of criers, as well as the affixing, distribution and sale of law texts, in manuscript and printed form.It is the central contention of this project that one cannot study early modern politics and law making without considering who was informed of law, and in what manner. Based on extensive archival research, this project will seek to establish for the first time to what extent the increasing body of law that was issued in early modern Europe was made publicly available, and in what forms. This will add a new and much-needed perspective to the study of European politics in a critical era of state formation, framing the communication of law as an essential stabilising factor in an era of highly participatory but undemocratic politics. This project will offer multiple comparative frameworks through which the communication of law will be studied, including Protestant and Catholic states, urban and rural areas, and empires, national kingdoms and city-states. With the aid of such a comparative lens, it will be an overarching aim of this project to analyse how the public dissemination of law shaped early modern civic society and influenced political participation and accountability.