中世纪英格兰妇女陪审团与父权制司法

Juries of Matrons and Patriarchal Justice in Medieval England

以男性为主导的中世纪英格兰司法制度存在对女性的怜悯,这主要体现在女性犯罪者享有“怀孕抗辩”的权利,以及由此产生的妇女陪审团。以往学者认为,妇女陪审团会协助女性罪犯逃避死刑的惩罚,它显示女性具有相对于父权制司法的独立性;然而,司法档案显示,女性罪犯提出怀孕抗辩的几率并不高,且她们提出的怀孕抗辩请求有时也会被妇女陪审团驳回。中世纪有限的医学水平使得妇女陪审团的检查鉴定工作粗糙且存在困难,判断的具体标准随着时间变化。整体来看,妇女陪审团的作用存在局限性,始终受控于由男性操纵的司法之下。

The male-dominated justice of medieval England showed compassion towards women,primarily reflected in the right of female offenders of“pleas of the belly”and the resulting establishment of juries of matrons.Previously,some Western scholars believed that juries of matrons would help female criminals evade the death penalty,suggesting that women had a certain degree of independence from the patriarchal justice.However,judicial archives indicate that the likelihood of female criminals invoking the pleas of belly was not high,and their requests were sometimes rejected by the juries of matrons.The limited medical knowledge of the medieval period made the examination and identification work of the juries of matrons crude and challenging,and the specific standards of judgment also changed over time.Overall,the role of juries of matrons remained limited and was always under the control of the male-dominated justice.