Gerard Malynes and the "Ancient Law-Merchant": A View on the ius commune from the Borders

This paper aims at analyzing the issue of the existence of a medieval and early modern body of customary laws uniformly and universally applied across medieval and early modern Europe (lex mercatoria at hand of Gerard Malynes’ “Consuetudo, vel, Lex Mercatoria: or, the Ancient Law-Merchant” (London, 1622). His definition of the lex mercatoria, as opposed to the ius mercatorum, and his description of the ways in which mercantile controversies could be solved will be discussed with reference to Malynes’ interpretation of the role of the “doctors and learned of the ciuile law” and of the jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty. As both commercial law and England’s common law were “at the border” of the ius commune, this treatise provides a unique insight on several “borderlands”.