Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-222) and index.

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER ONE: FUNCTIONS AND FORMS OF LAW -- CHAPTER TWO: THE REALITY OF MEDIEVAL LAW AND ITS MYTHS -- CHAPTER THREE: THE REALITY OF LATE MEDIEVAL FRENCH LAW AND ITS MYTHS -- CHAPTER FOUR: COURTHOUSE RITUALS IN TRANSITION -- CHAPTER FIVE: FOLKLORE AND SYMBOLIC FUNCTIONS IN MEDIEVAL LEGAL RITUALS -- CHAPTER SIX: THE RITUALS OF EXCLUSION: WOMEN AND JEWS -- CHAPTER SEVEN: THE RITUALS OF INCLUSION: ANIMALS -- CHAPTER EIGHT\' THE RITUALS OF THE EXCLUDED: THE DEAD -- CHAPTER NINE: THE INTERACTIVE VOCABULARY OF JUSTICE -- CHAPTER TEN: POWER AND DISGRACE: RITUALS OF INFAMY -- CHAPTER ELEVEN\' POWER AND DEATH: PUBLIC EXECUTIONS -- CONCLUSION -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

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The book is an analysis of the cultural and social functions of law, legal processes and legal rituals in late medieval Northern France. It is centered around a time and a place in which European law underwent some major transformations, from a plethora of local oral customs to a fairly coherent system of national, written customary law. In this process, law and legal procedures came to reflect a great variety of cultural traditions, ranging from popular perceptions of animals and the human body to learned ideas of Roman jurisprudence. Drawing upon wide-ranging sources: judicial, legal, literary and historical, Cohen analyzes the various influences upon the shaping of law as a cultural manifestation and its application as an actual system of justice.