Money in the Western Legal Tradition: Middle Ages to Bretton Woods

Monetary law is essential to the functioning of private transactions and international dealings by the state: nearly every legal transaction has a monetary aspect. Money in the Western Legal Tradition presents the first comprehensive analysis of Western monetary law, covering the civil law and Anglo-American common law legal systems from the High Middle Ages up to the middle of the 20th century. Weaving a detailed tapestry of the changing concepts of money and private transactions throughout the ages, the contributors investigate the special contribution made by legal scholars and practitioners to our understanding of money and the laws that govern it. Divided in five parts, the book begins with the coin currency of the Middle Ages, moving through the invention of nominalism in the early modern period to cashless payment and the rise of the banking system and paper money, then charting the progression to fiat money in the modern era. Each part commences with an overview of the monetary environment for the historical period written by an economic historian or numismatist. These are followed by chapters describing the legal doctrines of each period in civil and common law. Each section contains examples of contemporary litigation or statute law which engages with the distinctive issues affecting the monetary law of the period. This interdisciplinary approach reveals the distinctive conception of money prevalent in each period, which either facilitated or hampered the implementation of economic policy and the operation of private transactions. Contributors to this volume - Martin Allen is the Senior Assistant Keeper in the Department of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. Anja Amend-Traut is Professor of German and European Legal History, Canon Law and Civil Law, Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg Michael Bordo is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey Wim Decock is Research Professor at the Faculty of Law, KU Leuven, and an Associate Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main Christine Desan is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Harry Dondorp is Assistant Professor of Legal History at the VU (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam Wolfgang Ernst is Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, and Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford. David Fox is University Lecturer, University of Cambridge, and Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge. Benjamin Geva is Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto. Stefan Kotz is Keeper of the Coin Cabinet at the LWL (Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe)- Museum of Art and Culture/Westphalian State Museum in Munster, Germany. Roy Kreitner is Professor of Law, Tel Aviv University. Peter Kugler is Professor of Monetary History at the University of Basel. Stephan Meder is Professor of Civil Law and Legal History, University of Hannover. Michael North is Professor of Modern History at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald. Angela Redish is Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Kenneth G. C. Reid is Professor of Scots Law, University of Edinburgh. William Roberds is Research Economist and Senior Policy Adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. James Steven Rogers is Professor of Law at Boston College Law School. Thomas Rufner is Professor of Roman Law and Private Law, University of Trier. Clausdieter Schott is Professor Emeritus of Legal History and Private Law, University of Zurich. Helmut Siekmann is Professor of Money, Currency and Central Bank Law, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Franfurt am Main. Andreas Thier is Professor of Legal History, Ecclesiastical Law, Legal Theory, and Private Law, University of Zurich. Jan Thiessen is Professor of Civil Law, German and Contemporary Legal History, Commercial and Corporate Law, University of Tubingen. Francois Velde is a Senior Economist and Research Adviser, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Rastko Vrbaski is Head of the Department for Intensive Supervision and Crisis Intervention, Banking Division, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA (Eidgenossische Finanzmarktaufsicht), Berne. Alain Wijffels is Professor of Comparative Law and Legal History, Universities of Leiden, Leuven, and Louvain-la-Neuve; Senior Research Fellow CNRS (Lille-2). Fabian Wittreck is Professor of Public Law, Legal Philosophy, and Sociology of Law, University of Munster. L. Randall Wray is Professor of Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute.