Conflict Regulation in the 15th Century. Feuds, Comparisons and Arbitrational Tribunals of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Brigitte Kasten
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403498818

The project intends to deliver a monography, which analyses the strategies for settling conflicts in the 15th century – compromise and arbitration tribunal – based on the county of Nassau-Saarbrücken, furthermore discusses the relative conflicts in their imperial bearings and examines the personal engaged in the out-of-court legal settlements concerning their legal education and their courtly connection. A procedural reconstruction of compromises and arbitration tribunals regarding the documents, which define the multistage processes (rachtung/anlass/kompromisz), the correspondence relating to the contentious points including evidence (forderungen, antworten, widerreden and nachreden) and the deeds (entscheidt/spruch/kompromiss) is the central intent. The systematic terms in the rich sources for compromises (fruntlich/mynne/gutlich) and arbitration tribunals (mynne und recht/frundliches resp. gutliches recht/gewillkurter prozess) allow the separation of these legal instruments. The most important documents shall be edited in printed and digital form because, besides general further usability (in the regional history, the officialise or the regional language analysis), they are supposed to be re-used in a project of the chair for Digital Humanities and the Centre of Digital Humanities at the Göttingen University.Following working assumptions are becoming apparent: (1) The feud was the first of three steps for settling conflicts over manorial claims, secondly a comparison was tried during a conference and finally open questions were directed to an arbitration tribunal. Such, a modus operandi of aggression, comparison and arbitrational tribunal for settling legal disputes would be evident. (2) The manorial fragmentation of the Westrich and the many inter-territorial conflicts could have been amplifiers of the frequent out-of-court legal settlements in Nassau-Saarbrücken. Especially when competences of ordinary courts weren’t clear, the more flexible arbitrations should have been the easiest way for settling conflicts. It is to examine, if Nassau-Saarbrücken was influenced by the Electoral Palatinate (where similar documents are to be found) regarding their strategies for adjustments.Due to the regular terms and consulting the Einungsverträge and Landfrieden, an advancing institutionalization of arbitration tribunals in the 15th century, which began in the 13th century, ought to be proved. Also a contribution to the discussion about the origins of arbitrational tribunals in the secular realm – roman-canonical or dingenossenschaftliches Recht are assumed – is possible.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants