This is the first English item of “Parliament of Paris. XVIth-XVIIIth centuries”, a research chronicle in exceptional archives. The topic of this “notebook” is the history of the institution, law, justice and magistracy of the Parliament of Paris in Modern Times. At the moment, the investigations are significantly increasing not only through new and complementary approaches or points of views, but also through a renewal of the problem in linking together judicial practices and ideological evolution falling in the scope of Absolutism. Investigations about Parliament received, years ago, the great and now ancient help of Anglo-Saxon historiographiers and, more generally, of foreign researchers. With Internet, research is carried out on a worldwide scale. The present sub-editor hopes her initiative will be understood as a real and wholehearted invitation to work together on this Hypothesis’ weblog. So the site is bilingual and we’ll translate the articles or comments as often as possible.
More than in any other fields, at least in France, we have to emphasize the particular, maybe exceptional aspect of the Parliament of Paris : its early installation (middle of the XIIIth century), its long-lasting (until the French Revolution, at the end of the XVIIIth century), variety and difference of its judicial and functional competences (civil and criminal jurisdiction, court of peers, but also administrative and political functions), the size of its geographical jurisdiction (between one third and a half of the kingdom) even in the XVIIIth century France). Its central role in general royal French History makes it a difficult subject which can induce discussions, questions or controversies. In his or her modest situation, the researcher can only move forward from one hypothesis to another, marking his (her) route with confirmed and ratified pieces of information.