Matt McHaffie is one of the team leads for the ‘Jurisdiction, Legal Community, and Political Discourse in Medieval Europe, 1050-1250’ project. Run out of the University of Sheffield, and funded by the British Academy’s ‘Tackling the UK’s International Challenges Fund’, McHaffie joins Danica Summerlin (PI), Alice Taylor, Jason Taliadoros, and Helle Vogt in looking afresh at jurisdiction in the medieval west. The summary of the project’s aims is as follows:
The central Middle Ages is often understood as a period when secular jurisdictions clashed not only with each other but also with their ecclesiastical counterparts, creating a legacy of jurisdictional distinctions and conflict which still resonates today. Through the analytical lens of multi-legalism, this project re-examines the formation, interaction, and overlap of legal and governmental boundaries during this key period, with the dual aim of reconceptualising Europe’s multi-legal past (and how medieval litigants, lawmakers and legal commentators experienced it) for an academic audience and, through interventions in popular media outlets, of presenting this approach to a wider public.
For more information, see their website: https://medievaljurisdictions.group.shef.ac.uk