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SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The inclusion of deaf persons in a judicial setting raised questions about their ability to bear witness, be convicted, conclude a marriage, make a will and, of course, about the ability of the court to communicate with them. In their decisions, the judges of the Imperial Court of Justice in Leipzig shed light on their interpretation of the capacity of deaf persons to participate in the legal realm. The motivation of their judgments drew comparisons with different categories of citizens to compensate for incomplete laws. They also took into account developments in the education of deaf persons regarding their communication skills and mental capacity. The decisions illustrate that legal and scientific knowledge was closely linked to the effect that deaf persons were granted full legal capacity.

Publication Date

2016-01-01

Publication Title

SOLON Law, Crime and History

Volume

6

Issue

2

First Page

31

Last Page

53

ISSN

2045-9238

Deposit Date

April 2017

Embargo Period

2024-10-23

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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