Criminality : Terminology and Interpretation
The primary aim of the issue is to examine the conceptualisation and definition of crime and forms of criminal behaviour and their interpretation in the medieval and early modern period. Categories and boundaries of what was considered criminal depended not only on circumstances determined by power and religion, but would change over the time together with the language usage. Papers should focus on definitions, development and interpretation of such labels that can be found in an array of historical sources including legal and official documents such as law codes and judicial records, but also in various narrative sources, moral and philosophical treatises and private documents that refer to criminal, illicit or sinful acts, offences against the law and morality. Historical perspective, interpretation of legal nomenclature and case law terminology are the basis of any further research. Both theoretical and case studies dealing with the following areas are welcome:
• denoting criminal behavior in historical sources and its interpretations
• laws, legal and court records terminology, shifts in the language use and comparison of terms
• transformations of individual types of offenses and their interpretations
• defining crime and criminal behavior – ideas, concepts and authors
• religious aspect of criminality, crime as a sin
• criminalization and decriminalization of acts and forms of behaviour and their social consequences
• the theories of crime in philosophical and legal treatises, their influence and application in practice