If law is meant to order and govern society, then blood-feud, vendetta and internecine or intergroup warfare must surely stand outside it. Yet, throughout history, societies have engaged in these types of conflict within existing legal frameworks. Provision has been made in law codes and legislation for acts of violence in retribution for perceived injustice. Susanne Pohl-Zucker's book is a welcome addition to this area of study. It is also a welcome addition to the practice of legal history in a more general sense. In contrast to a number of recent writings that have looked at violence and law, Pohl-Zucker does not get too lost in theory, anthropology or sociological frameworks. Instead, at the heart of this book, is an astonishing effort with close detailed reading of a vast number of contemporary legal records. This is legal history at its best; rooted in the evidence, drawing upon recent approaches and ideas but at all times returning to the sources, guided by informed historical questioning and reasoning. This will become set reading not just for studies of violence and homicide in the late Middle Ages, but for practitioners across different fields. That is not to say that the book is unaffected by any problems, but I believe this to be one of the most important studies of its kind published in the last few years.

Pohl-Zucker has set herself a difficult task. She looks at the duchy of Württemberg and the imperial city of Zurich, both of which contain different types of legal record and practice, across an impressive time span (1376–1700). The book is divided into five chapters and a substantial introduction. Each chapter moves logically through the topics (restitution, prosecution, legitimation, mediation and justification), and demonstrates a thorough and extensive engagement with contemporary sources, allowing for a confident conclusion to be reached: “[t]he centralization of judicial procedures during the course of the early modern period circumscribed rather than eradicated lenient judicial responses towards the use of violence in the defense of honour” (p. 307). The argument is well-defended through examples taken from the legal records, and is particularly visible in Württemberg; the evidence from Zurich gives a slightly less clear perspective.

The introduction is the weakest section of the book. In part this is because it is seeking to set up discussion of two different regions, from the fourteenth to the start of the eighteenth centuries. It is also too long, putting the argument of later chapters out of sight. Opening with a homicide case from 1447 in Michelwinnaden, Pohl-Zucker launches straight into the Totschlagssühne (extrajudicial agreements), recognising the cultural expectations and social norms to do with schlechter and ehrlicher todslag, against the backdrop of the ius commune, governmental supervision and state control, before briefly discussing her approach to the two studies, of Württemberg and Zurich. The choice of the two sites makes sense. However, Pohl-Zucker could have said more of just how different Württemberg and Zurich were, and what might be achieved by studying them together. The final section of the introduction, considering the introduction of the ius commune into mediaeval German jurisprudence (Rezeption des römischen Rechts), is important and provides a necessary backdrop against which to evaluate the research explained in the later chapters. Here Pohl-Zucker discusses the Frührezeption (early reception) and Vollrezeption (full reception), as well as the ideological basis and the creation of the Reichskammergericht (30–42). The development of Aktenversendung, the remarkable practice of local judges sending records to legal specialists requesting a consilium, is linked well with the emergence of the ius commune. The long section in between, however, where Pohl-Zucker sets out the scholarship lacks focus and precision (pp. 4–29). In tackling the historiographical approaches of both Kriminalitätgeschichte and Rechtsgeschichte alongside l'infrajudiciare (echoing Loetz) and Justiznutzung (echoing Dinges) the introduction loses analytical focus, and attempts to cover far too many different ideas and approaches, not each of which follow naturally on from one another. Medieval efforts at improving civil behaviour and government are referred to as “Gute policey”, and this becomes a crucial analytical device throughout the later chapters. However it ought to have been explored with much greater precision here, separately from the other areas of historiographical discussion. The exploration of late medieval legal culture and punishment is better when focused on specific items instead of general observations such as on gender and honour (pp. 18–21).

Chapter One focuses on Württemberg, looking at the strategies of compensation and conflict resolution. Pohl-Zucker focuses on homicide cases from the sixteenth century, where ducal involvement and recourse to the ius commune became the norm. Although this ran counter to the prevalent attitude that a negotiated agreement would be enough between a victim's family and the perpetrator to settle the matter, Pohl-Zucker demonstrates how important the desires of the injured parties were in shaping the ducal response, and that these were played out against a backdrop of gute polciey and Romanised legal practice. This chapter also considers how this practice changed over the course of the sixteenth century, where a trial became necessary (without which the duke would not accept private agreements). This created in turn a dual process of private and criminal restitution, where “formal and informal justice continued to intersect” (p. 43). Pohl-Zucker argues that we should not view this as a “successive suppression of private modes of conflict resolution with forms of public justice”. Instead, she speaks of “shifts in emphasis”, motivated in part by the recording process (p. 44).

Chapter Two looks at how the shift in legal understanding regarding homicides altered legal discourse, while also responded to social pressures and civil behaviour. Once homicide became a strictly criminal offence, it fell under peinliche jurisdiction; a trial would result in corporal punishment. Pohl-Zucker importantly recognises that peinliche penalties carried with them social stigma, not seen in bürgerliche punishments. One peinliche punishment was the Stäupung (Lat. Fustigatio), public whipping, while perhaps also wearing an iron necklace (Halseisen) in the stocks. This can be placed against the wider category of Ehrenstrafen, “shaming punishments” (p. 94). Pohl-Zucker identifies how strongly shame and dishonour were felt and feared by contemporaries, and how this led to the development of the superfacto procedure (a trial über das Faktum), in between peinlich and bürgerliche. In reality of course this meant that “long before the verdict was found, the case was prejudged” (p. 104). Although superfacto could be used to make those who had fled return for trial, without stigma and shame, allowing for a compensatory rather than corporal punishment, it was also flexible enough that the Oberräte could shift and change those parameters, depending upon the facts of the case (p. 136). It demonstrates the interconnectedness of the ius commune and the social and cultural norms.

Chapter Three is closely linked with this, exploring the increasing dominance of legal specialists in shaping the practice and understanding of law in Württemberg, and the conflict between medical and legal experts. This allows Pohl-Zucker to demonstrate “the important legitimating function of administrative regulations and expert discourses” and “the strategic behaviour of legal actors within malleable judicial parameters” (p. 139). The seeking of consilia exemplified the close connection of Oberräte and the law faculty of Tübingen, and their recommendations were largely accepted by the Oberräte and the duke. There were a small number of occasions where the Oberräte were displeased with the consilium and could seek a second learned opinion (Zweitgutachten); pp. 153–70. Here Pohl-Zucker demonstrates the flexibility of incorporating the ius commune into the social milieu of Württemberg, and the guiding principle of gute policey. The discussion of medical inquests and evidence provides an excellent ancillary discussion governing legal practice and issues therein. The procedure laid out in the Carolinia was extensive: requiring at least one surgeon (Wundärzte), the judge, two members of the court, and then later the local doctor as well (physicus). As Pohl-Zucker notes, “Württemburg rules regarding medical inquests were binding; without a properly conducted inquest, legally valid proof of the wound's lethality did not exist” (p. 171). It becomes clear from the evidence analysed that distinctions and disagreements could arise between legal and medical experts.

Chapters Four and Five turn to Zurich. In contrast to the earlier chapters the discussion is a touch less forceful and focused. Chapter Four looks at the amalgamation of extrajudicial and state justice but paints a rather different image to that seen in Württemberg. In Zurich, the weight of the ius commune was not felt; and its guiding principles were engaged with only sporadically, and in a much more muted fashion. Instead, it appears that custom retained its prevalence into the seventeenth century. The argument made is a good one, but not developed and defended quite as successfully as those seen in the preceding chapters: “the development of stricter categories and punishments in manslaughter cases occurred partly in reaction to, and was endorsed by, the legal strategies of witnesses and injured kin” (p. 197). Although there are certain strong similarities to Württemberg, the legal system was different. In Zurich there existed a complex myriad of different courts, over which the Ratsgericht (council court) gradually grew in importance, combining the political leadership of the city council with the powers of the Reichsvogt (in particular the ability to summon the “blood-court” in the public square). The Ratsgericht had the ability to investigate breaches of the peace (Nachgansverfahren), although this process shifted in favour of private accusation, a Klage. This was still maintained and investigated, but more quickly, by the Ratsgericht, which Pohl-Zucker interprets as “the council … seeking to tie the execution of vengeance to an official trial” (p. 214). This was seen in the language employed in verdicts and accusations, that echo those found in earlier mediaeval law codes (e.g. übel und unrecht; by nacht und nebel; nit verdient noch beschult; unverschult; muotwillenklich). There also was a route called the hohe Klage (high accusation) that families could pursue, effectively seeking the death penalty. Pohl-Zucker interprets this as a method to both epitomise blood vengeance and draw out more severe repercussions, including financial settlements. This was all played out against shifts in the political, cultural and religious fabric of the city. Chapter Five looks at the defensive strategies employed in Zurich. This draws upon Natalie Zemon Davis’ Fiction in the Archives, where the slayers sought to employ exculpatory language in their defence, adapting “honour based rhetorical strategies to changes in the legal system”. Although the sources present interpretive problems (outlined at pp. 263–66) the increasing rhetorical sophistication in the trial records certainly suggests the “growing emphasis on form and display” (p. 264). The rest of the chapter sets out a number of useful rhetorical strategies that could be employed to protect from the death penalty but also offer a limited shield against other punitive measures and financial ruin. It is interesting to see how this could be framed against a cultural honour based sense of identity.

To close, this is an impressive volume. Scholarly in tone, careful in analysis and led at each turn by industrious engagement with contemporary legal records, Pohl-Zucker has written a highly persuasive and fluent examination of Württemberg and Zurich (weighted somewhat in favour of the former), that asks new questions of the realities of law in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Most notably, Pohl-Zucker demonstrates how closely enshrined law was with social expectations and regional cultural realities.