BOOK: Niels FIEREMANS, Law, Leverage, and Litigation in Late Medieval Bruges. Foreign Merchants in a City of Justice (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025), 248 p. ISBN 9781399545860 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

(image source: Edinburgh UP)

Our alumnus dr. dr. Niels Fieremans (JointPhD UGent/VUB 2023, D. Heirbaut/J. Dumolyn - D. De ruysscher) published his prize-winning doctoral dissertation in open access with Edinburgh University Press.

Abstract:

Late medieval Bruges was a commercial hub that connected Hanseatic, English, Scottish, Portuguese, Spanish, Aragonese, and Italian traders. This book focuses on the conflict resolution of the aldermen and how merchants operated within this legal framework. The key question being whether Bruges was a city of justice. Although this was sometimes claimed by travellers, a lot of merchants confronted with the practicalities of conflict resolution in Bruges, disagreed. Fieremans analyses how customary law, institutional frameworks, and commerce intersected and were challenged by the aldermen's pursuit of justice. By clarifying the working of the aldermen, it advances our knowledge of the basic mechanisms of a late medieval law court and the evolution of the law courts of late medieval Flanders. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book focuses on the interplay between commerce and justice, explores the diverse merchant communities, and considers the potential lessons it offers for understanding both historical and modern markets. It sheds light on the pragmatic legal culture of Bruges and the legal mechanisms that partially regulate commerce.

Table of contents:

Introduction: Historiography and Contribution

Part I. Law. The legal framework of late medieval Bruges

1. The procedures of the aldermen
2. The usage of procedures
3. The goal of these procedures

Part 2. Leverage. The group strategies to adapt the framework

1. The strategy of economic leverage: the Hanseatic, English and Scottish community
2. The strategy of political leverage: the Iberian communities
3. Strategies without privileges: the Italian communities

Part 3. Litigation. The individual strategies adapting the framework

1. The Council of Flanders and Bruges.
2. Supralocal courts. The Great Council and the Parliament of Paris
3. The end of Bruges legal dominance

Conclusion

 Read more here.