The External Character of the Internal Forum (forum internum) in the Early Modern Ius Commune

Abstract

The jurists and lawyers oft in the Early Modern Times were confronted with absolute monarchs. As the latter were God-fearing, the jurists brought theological notions into the jurisprudence. Against the almighty forum externum of the royal courts, they opposed the forum internum. The law faculties developed legal theory and, inside of it, private law, public law and international law. The legal theory and the new legal branches were diffused through legal education and applied through the internal convictions of the justices, civil servants and lawyers. This forum internum breached the monopoly of the royal courts as unique source of law.