Contenu du sommaire : Justice et sociétés rurales

The right of monks. Legal settlements of rural conflicts in Haut-Maine during the 11th century - What we know about rural justice in Haut-Maine, France, during the 11th century mainly comes from lawsuits between monasteries and the lay aristocracy. There was a vast transfer of real estate toward religious establishments. Most of these suits arose when heirs or the lord of the person who made such a donation disputed the transfer of property. At that time, there was no private appropriation of justice, but a public procedure with rules under the count's authority. How did courts made up of lay and religious persons, while favoring compromises, tend to privilege monks even though this encroached on aristocrats' economic interests?

Noble fuero and the right to dispense justice. The 18th century « lords and masters » of Zacatecas (Mexico) - Quite real captains of industry before their time, the big landowners who dominated the mining region ofZacatecas, Mexico, reproduced a system of highly traditional values. This Hispanic heritage was based on a set of privileges that granted them absolute power far beyond their estates. This de facto power was shaped by these aristocrats' clans and patronage system. It was both the symbolic and real expression of a special right recognized by the Crown of Spain itself.

Judiciary practices, property rights and class attitudes. - The 18th century Catalonian example This article dwells on the origins of the modern concept of property. This analysis of 18th century judicial practices in matters of property rights in two neighboring rural areas in Catalonia (Em- pordà and Roussillon) highlights the abuses committed by a minority of wealthy owners against the rest of the population. This study refers to research by English academics who relativize the economic importance of enclosures and emphasize the social problems inherent in any change affecting customary uses of the land.

Alcaldes de la Hermandad and justices of the peace in Buenos Aires (17th- 1 8th centuries) - Various aspects of the operation of rural justice in the Buenos Aires countryside from 1750 to 1850 shed light on the fundamental role of civil servants, whether alcaldes de la Hermandad during the colonial period or justices of the peace following Independence. These officials mainly worked toward conciliation and mediation. However, with regard to young, unmarried migrants, who were the « salt of the earth » in the countryside, they were called upon to adopt coercive measures for reinforcing social discipline.

Justice, state and society. Re-establishing order in Buenos Aires following Indépendance (1810) - Installing a new legitimate order in the Buenos Aires countryside following the collapse of the colonial system entailed creating tribunals of the peace in the early 1820s. The socioeconomic profiles of these justices of the peace and of their subordinates, landowners and heads of household, are analyzed. These persons were not necessarily wealthy. Emphasis is laid on the measures taken by the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1852) for disciplining the judiciary and rural society as a whole.

Conceptions of justice in the Buenos Aires countryside (1800-1830) - Sources in civil court archives can be used to study the ideas that inhabitants of the Buenos Aires countryside had about justice during the first thirty years of the 19th century. The diversity of these conceptions and of the values underlying them results from contradictions between Spanish traditions and practices, on the one hand, and the changes wrought by the 1810 Revolution, on the other. The conflicts that pitted landowners against share-croppers and tenant farmers reflect these tensions.

Insult and punishment in rural courts: the elaboration of civility in late imperial Russia - The article examines litigation over insults in rural courts of late imperial Russia. Peasants, thought to be outside the realm of the law in Russia, used local courts extensively to resolve controversies over civil conduct. Peasant litigants employed statute law and the formalized procedures of the local courts to defend themselves against verbal and physical insults and to elaborate ideals of public behavior. The participatory practices of the volost' courts linked rural people to national authority, and offered a meaningful forum for the defense of personal dignity, for public review of discordant opinions, and for the official evaluation of disruptive acts.

Justice and non-violent jihâd: the anti-colonial struggle in the North West frontier of British India - My paper considers one of the protest movements in the North West Frontier Province of British India, located near the sensitive zone separating the British and Russian Empires submitting therefore its population to punitive laws and measures. In the 1930s, the Pathans organised themselves into the Khudai Khidmatgar movement which rose against the severe curtailment of liberties. Until the nineteenth century, under other non-European regimes, the dispensation of justice had remained an intra-Pukhtun affair. Later on, however, the colonial administration modified traditional methods. I here look at the processes through which this battle for justice was fought.

Honor and tradition on sugarcane plantations in Nordeste (Brazil) - The results of field work conducted in 1995 on a sugarcane plantation in northeastern Brazil are used to reconstitute the political itinerary of Amaro Pedro, a wage-earning peasant who became a union delegate following the 1964 coup. The accounts collected illustrate the conflict between the peasant movement's political agenda, which advocated recourse to the judicial system, and the ties of dépendance that, based on honor, protection and gratitude, bound peasants to landowners.