Origins of Crime, Justice, and Legal Theory

This book explores the intersection of medieval literature and the early conceptualization of crime, justice, and legal theory. Drawing on canonical texts such as Dante’s Divine Comedy , Boccaccio’s Decameron , Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales , and court-case fiction from China and the Middle East, the authors trace the emergence of proto-criminological thought embedded within narrative traditions. Through a rigorous interdisciplinary lens, the book examines how theological notions of sin gradually evolved into secular understandings of criminal culpability, legal responsibility, and forensic reasoning. It argues that medieval literature served as a crucible for the development of legal consciousness—anticipating modern jurisprudential concepts such as mens rea, proportionality of punishment, and restorative justice. Combining literary analysis, legal theory, and criminological insight, this volume offers a compelling re-evaluation of the Middle Ages as a formative period in the genealogy of criminal law. It is essential reading for scholars of law and literature, criminology, medieval studies, and intellectual history.