对中世纪英国财产继承制度的考察

On the System of Property Inheritance in Medieval England

12世纪末13世纪初,英国形成了以长子继承制为主要特征的普通法继承规则。该规则以严苛著称,在整个中世纪占据主导地位,但是并未给英国社会带来过多负面影响。其原因在于,在主流的普通法继承规则之外,英国还存在诸多非主流因素,如个体封建主设计的家产分配方案,下层民众和边缘群体坚持的继承习惯,以及教会法庭和大法官法庭倡导的分配原则等等。它们皆以公平正义为核心理念,关注弱势家庭成员,维护个体权力,适应下层民众习惯。这些非主流因素的存在,有效地平衡了家庭成员的继承份额,协调了个体封建主和封建主阶层的整体利益,匡正了不合时宜的普通法继承规则。

The Common law inheritance rules characterized by primogeniture and famous for their rigidity took shape in the early 13^th century exerted a dominant role throughout the middle ages. But they did not bring much negative influence to the society of medieval England. This was attributed to the existence of many marginal elements, for example, family settlements designed by individual landlords, inheritance customs persisted in by common people, and the equal distribution plans promoted by church and chancery. These elements showed due concern for the disadvantaged family members, protected the rights of individual landlords, supported common people＇s customs, under the influence of which the portion of family members was balanced, the relationship of individual landlords and the whole nobility class harmonized, and the stiff inheritance rules of common law effectively rectified.