RS 27

the legacy of the parliament of paris purpose is not to show that theParlement de Paris played the first role during theMiddle Ages, then the second one during modern times. Taking account of the chronology and of the political context, I would try to say that theParlement de Paris was one of the main actors for creating and developing the artefact of the “French state”, an artefact that was at the same time the claim of the king’s power to organize a “legal order” and the way to subject the royal power to the keeping of this legal order. The different stages of the birth of theParlement de Paris are well known. During the thirteenth century, the King of France decided to organize special sessions for the meetings of his close vassals that were devoted to the judgment of cases. Whereas these cases were very few during the twelfth century, and concerned only feudal vassals of the king, they began to increase with the conquests of Philippe II (1179-1223), the creations of new judicial constituencies (bailliages or sénéchaussées in the south of France) inside the royal domain and the resurrection (according to the Roman and Canon models) of procedure of appeal against the rulings of seigniorial courts. After his return from Crusade in 1254, Louis IX(Saint Louis) made all these efforts to develop this royal justice and to attract more and more cases (including those of the urban “bourgeoisie” or of some peasants) to his court. The king was himself presiding most of the sessions (in the royal Palace of Paris or outside Paris) of what was called Curia in Parlemento, the court when one speaks (parle). After the reign of Saint Louis, at the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, the members of the court (chosen for quarter sessions during the years among the ecclesiastic and lay vassals of the kings) used to deliberate separately more and more (without the presence of the king). The first texts that were kept in a kind of notebook with abstracts in Latin written by the clerks of the court, were speaking about procedures “deliberato consilio”. The fact that the ruling was considered as emanating from the king, after advice of “nostra curia” showed that, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the court was definitely settled 118 Creating a legal order in the kingdom of France

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