Chen Taibao Research Associate

E-mail:chentaibao2006@163.com

Research interests:

Most of my research is focused on the history of law and politics in Medieval Europe. “Politics is the mainstay of history”, the political history in the Western Europe would affect the judgement about the entire Western civilization, and would also deepen the comprehension of ancient history of China. For a long time, The period of Middle Ages was so called “dark ages”, in fact, the Western Europe including England was expiring a social transformation which had far-reaching significance. On this issue, Some scholars put too much emphasis on the “economic foundation”, but they ignored the legal, political, cultural and ideal elements. In fact, the speed and scale of economic development depended on the legal and political situation.

Medieval English civilization has come from three sources: the Germanic element, Christianity and Rome element. As a result, a pluralistic legal system was created in medieval England, and the tradition of law supreme was formed. The medieval British law is customary law, and the most important character is the legal tradition protecting the subjective right. Under this legal and political environment, the development of kingship and government exposed special orbit, in which government authority was restrained. As a result, constitutional traditions were formed in Middle Ages: the principle of legal limitation, the principle of consent, and the right of resistance. And the constitutional traditions formed the base of the future political development in England. No matter how strong the king’s government became in Middle Ages, it did not evolved into the emperor system of Orientalism.

Education：

2006-2009 Ph. D Degree, from School of History and Culture, Tianjin Normal University, Major Research Direction: Kingship and law in the Middle Ages.

2003-2006 M.A., Degree from School of History and Culture, Tianjin Normal University, Major Research Direction: legal culture and social transformation in Western Europe.

1996-2000 B.A Degree from Department of History, Tianjin Normal University,

History education.

Professional Experience：

2009-2011 Postdoctoral Researcher，from Faculty of History, Nankai University, Major Research Direction: The history of central government in Medieval England.

Selected Articles:

The Influence of eyre system on king’s Judicial Authority in Medieval England

The eyre system grew up from Anglo-Norman justice. This eyre system was officially formed under the government of Henry I, and evolved under the government of Henry II. Along with the development of eyre system, justice itinerants went around the kingdom, and the king’s judicial authority was strengthened. However, under the circumstances of multiple justice system and dualism politics between church and state, the aim that kings desired did not achieved. It is impossible to stretch kingship to the bottom of the society even by eyre system. In medieval England, king’s authority was divided, and did not evolved into absolutism.

The Kingship under the Influence of Medieval Western European Ideas of Law

It is always regarded that Medieval Western European has a law tradition. The law tradition was promoted by both the Germanic custom law and the ideas of Christian. According to the Germanic concept, custom law was ancient customs and ideas which were recognized by the whole community, and followed the principle of old law. Custom law was neither made by the kings nor enforced from the top authorities. Furthermore, basing on the Christian ideas, secular kingship was situated below the authority of the God and the divine law, and the popular respected God much more than secular rules. Above all, law was the first and the nation was the second. Under the influences of this kind of legal and political circumstances, it was considered that the kings should rule by law. In medieval times, many scholars kept generalizing and illustrating this theory. As a result, the tradition that ruling authority should be restricted by law was formed in the Middle Ages.