<論説>コモン=ロー体系の成立と国王令状

Abstract

本稿は、レーン制と王権との相互関連についての周知の中世国家論争の立論を承けつつ、西ヨーロッパ封建制の中でその強大な王権の存在の故に特殊な位置を占めるイギリス封建国家の権力構造を、権力の最も直接的形態たる裁判権のあり方という側面から解明しようとするものである。その場合、筆者は、王権原理と封建原理とは本来相反するものとして把えうるとの前提に立ち、また歴史的には前者はアングロ゠サクソン後期に、後者はノルマン゠コンクェスト以降、それぞれ定着したとみる立場から出発する。かくて、両者の整合がいつ、いかなる形において可能となったか、という点が本稿における分析の課題となろう。私見によれば、両者が王権の至上性において一体化したことが、いわゆるコモン゠ロー体系の成立であり、その契機は、当初主として統治の行政手段であった国王令状の司法令状化と、その特恵令状から当然令状への漸次的転化の中にある、と考えられる。

In this article, we postulate the making of the common law in the reign of Henry II, as unification of the principle in the feudal jurisdiction with that in the royal or franchisal jurisdiction, and as regulation of the feudal elements by the supremacy of royalty. And this assumption will be confirmed, we suppose, by the facts that the principle of "nemo tenetur respondere in curia domini sui de aliquo libero tenemento suo sine praecepto domini regis" (Glanvill, Tractatus de legibus, xii, 25) was established as the result of commonizing of issue of the "writ of right", and that the transfer of all pleas in the feudal court into the king's court became to be possible, whenever the king wishes, by the "writ praecipe". These royal writs, being originally the executive means, changed themselves gradually and customarily into the writs of judicial nature, and contributed to making of the common law during about a century after the Norman Conquest. It is true that the part played by the royal writs can be traced back in the days of early Norman kings, as R. C. Van Caenegem had showed elaborately in The Royal Writs in England (the Selden Society publ.), and we are indebted deeply to his study both in method and in historical materials. But we should consider, more seriously than this, the political motive initiated by Henry II for the legal and constitutional reforms, ending into the establishment of feudal monarchy in England.