Short History of Legal Validity and Invalidity

DR MARIS KPCKE is a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Barcelona. She holds a doctorate from Oxford, which won the European Award for Legal Theory 2011. She is the author of Legal Validity: The Fabric of Justice (2019).

'[...] a short and breath-taking overview of the history of validity in Western legal culture from Roman law to constitutional control.' -- Frederik Dhondt, Forum Historiae Iuris, 2021.

• Chapter 1. Introduction (p. 1)Chapter 2. Our Technique of Legal Validity (p. 11)Chapter 3. Roman Private Law: Rowing Against the Tide (p. 23)Chapter 4. Roman Law-Making: Power Usurped (p. 39)Chapter 5. Gratian’s Decretum (Mid-12th): A Novel Use (p. 51)Chapter 6. The Decretals (Mid-13th): The Terminology Settles (p. 65)Chapter 7. Bartolus (Mid-14th): From a World State to a World of States (p. 73)Chapter 8. Suarez (Early 17th): Inherent Legal Power (p. 99)Chapter 9. Codes and Constitutions (19th Onwards): The Table s are Turned (p. 115)Chapter 10. Conclusion (p. 137)Bibliography (p. 147)