Ius feretri: archeologia e trasformazione di una pratica giuridica

Abstract

Across Europe the convinction the corpse began to bleed in the presence of the murderer was known as ius feretri. It was, in fact, an ordeal by which the intervention of divine power assured justice and legal certainty. The different forms of ordeals were a means commonly used to establish the guilt or less than one person. The trust in a higher power and external assumed such strength can be a guiding principle and norm of social relations. The ius feretri was applied until the 18th Century and during its longue durée acquired a new social-legal dimension, so that is fair to consider that this practice is not to be regarded as a classic ordeal, but as an actual social-legal practice for the achievement of legal truth and, in some cases, the formation of the consensus.