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Project

Het huwelijk als vennootschap: de juridische positie van gehuwde vrouwen in de zestiende-eeuwse Zuidelijke Nederlanden (FWOAL741)

In the early modern Low Countries, the household was by law built on cooperation between

spouses. It was construed as a partnership, which made that the wife - since she was an

'associate' - could sign contracts that were beneficial for the household. Assessing the extent

to which this autonomous behaviour was allowed in legal terms, thus detailing the legal

position of married women, will contribute to debates on the impact of law on gender status in

history, and to discussions regarding the patriarchal nature of sixteenth-century family law,

contract law and patrimonial law. It will allow for an adjustment of older legal-historical

scholarship that sets forth the general incapacity of married women to sign contracts and to

act in court without the authority of their husband. The proposed project will advance

conclusions on the basis of an analysis of different types of rules and law that in the 1500s

were in use in Antwerp and in Leuven, both of which had a different economic setting and

legal regime as to family estates.
Datum:1 jan 2014 →  31 dec 2017
Trefwoorden:Interdisciplinary Study of the Law, Meta-Law
Disciplines:Geschiedenis van het recht, Rechten, Metarecht