On The Evolution Of Right Of Asylum In The Medieval England And It’s Influence

Asylum/Sanctuary did not originate in the Middle Ages.In antiquity,refuge was widespread as a custom and tradition,but refuge as a right was only confirmed by statutes in the late Roman Empire.Although the Roman Empire gave up its rule on Britain due to the barbarian invasion,the right of asylum had once faded from British society.Until the end of the 6th century,the right of asylum was introduced to England again with Christianity.During the Anglo-Saxon period,the right of asylum became a tool for the ruler to rule and mediate social disputes.After the Norman Conquest,with the establishment of the feudal system in England,any fugitive who entered the territory of other lords would have to resolve the dispute through the judicial trial of the lord,so the right to judicial of feudal lords,especially the church lords,had become to the legal basis for sheltering fugitives.Henry II’s reforms caused fugitives to abjure after asylum,and this evolution also brought a crisis to the right of asylum.At the same time that the abjuration combined with the right of asylum,the right of asylum in the Canon Law entered into England,which allowed the right of asylum to continue until the early modern period.Therefore,in the more than a thousand years of the existence and evolution of the right of asylum,its interaction with the medieval British society and the gestation of the relevant elements of modern asylum in international law are the content of this article.