False Legal Testimony in Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon Law in the Medieval Period. A comparative Study

Abstract

This study compares Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon regulatory sources governing the crime of giving false testimony during a trial in the medieval period. In the Hispanic sphere reference is made to precedents in Roman Law, emphasising which elements constituted a crime and the punishments applicable under the public authority in place at the time. For the medieval period, the paper puts forward a parallel diachronic comparative study method of Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon regulatory sources. To do this, the study follows a periodization of four stages in history (early and late High and Low Middle Ages respectively), setting out both the shared and particular elements of criminal law in place for regulating crime for each stage. The study analyses the object and subjects of the crime of false testimony both in secular and canonical law. The paper discusses jurisdictional litigation, especially in English territories, taking place between the secular and ecclesiastical power to bring the perjurer to trial and apply the punishment set out in canonical or secular law. The discussion also looks at which legal interest was really being protected in these cases, whether divine authority, the victim or the correct administration of justice. This leads to an examination of the legal standing for pursuing the crime and the types of punishments set out in secular canonical law to watch over the protected asset. In the Hispanic sphere, Visigoth legislation is used in the High Medieval period and local and territorial law codes in the Lower Middle Ages, whereas in the Anglo-Saxon context, the legislative gap was filled by the compendia of Common Law (especially Britton and the Mirror of Justices), legal doctrine of the time and forensic practice recorded in the Year Books in respect of this crime.