PhD. Topics

A Selected Aspect or Phenomenon of History of Crime and Punishment in the Early Modern Period

Slovak History

2025

Mgr. Blanka Szeghyová, PhD.

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Faculty of Arts, Comenius University Bratislava

The aim of the dissertation is to investigate functioning of judicial practice, competence and strategies of judicial institutions in comparison with its contemporary legal norms in a more narrowly defined period of time. The doctoral candidate has the choice of researching the topic on the example of a selected region or city, or focusing on a chosen crime or group of crimes (prostitution/sexual offences, homicide/violent offences, libel, etc.), or on female or male criminality using selected archival sources in a defined time period. Criminality was perceived as a sin in the early modern period, and the relationship of legal norms to judicial practice was not absolutely binding, which contributed to the predominance of local customary law and the considerable discretionary power of judges. In analysing the chosen judicial practice, the PhD student may explore the strategies and attitudes of judges (on the basis of moral justifications for sentences, reference to specific legal or ecclesiastical norms, the nature of mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the impact of intercessions or the possibility of mitigation of punishment or pardon), the ecclesiastical treatment of sexual offences and marital conflicts, and the punishment of religious/moral offences in the early years after the adoption of the Code of Law by Joseph II (legal implementation in practice) or focus only on the criminalisation or decriminalisation of certain offences (e.g. moral/sexual offences, witchcraft and sorcery, etc.).
Prerequisite: A good knowledge of the language(s) of the chosen archival sources (usually Latin, German or Hungarian) and Slovak/Czech or English.