Women and the Law in Early Modern Liège : Women's Legal Status between Customary Law, Notarial Practice and Ius Commune (16th-17th Century) (Studies in the History of Private Law)

This book offers the first detailed study of women’s legal status in early modern Liège, an otherwise largely overlooked case in European legal history. It follows women across the course of their lives, from birth to widowhood, to show how their legal position and control over property shifted over time, depending on their social status and place within the family. Drawing on a substantial body of wills and marriage contracts from notarial practice, it moves beyond traditional sources to show how the law actually worked in everyday practice, and who took part in its creation. By bringing all these elements together, this book offers a nuanced picture of how law and gender interacted in early modern Europe.