S.J.C. (Sherilyn) Bouyer, MA

Trial and Error: Transitional Justice in the Bipartisan Courts 

The Edict of Nantes (1598) put an end to 4 decades of armed conflicts between Catholics and Protestants and implemented mechanisms to promote peace in a divided society, including bipartisan courts, which this sub-project focuses on. The Edict of Nantes created these bipartisan courts, also known as chambres de l’édit (Chambers of the Edict) in 5 parlements (courts of appeal) of the Kingdom of France. Until their demise in 1679, these courts, composed of Catholic and Protestant judges, adjudicated on disputes between individual Catholics and Protestants. The research will investigate the implementation and application of the bipartisan courts in Early Modern France, and in particular, my focus will be on the chambre de l’édit of Languedoc, a region with above-average concentrations of Protestants and ongoing religious tensions after 1598. The objective of this sub-project is to analyse the role of tribunals in the peace-making process of a post-conflict society with a long-term perspective: it will examine post-war lawsuits throughout the seventeenth century, analysing how litigation evolved. The central hypothesis is that the bipartisan courts succeeded in reaching even-handed sentences, but eventually had their rulings undercut by local authorities questioning their legitimacy. 

Supervisors

prof. dr. R.M. Esser

dr. D.C. (David) van der Linden