Law & Humanities Blog

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Domestic Relations Law in Seventeenth Century Moldavia and Walachia Posted: 02 May 2013 08:07 AM PDT Cosmis Dariescu, Alexandru I. Cuza, University of Iasi, has published How to Beat Your Wife: Regulations on Domestic Violence in the 17th Century - Moldavia and Walachia. Here is the abstract. Nowadays, domestic violence, may it be it physical or emotional, is fiercely condemned both by both the law and the public opinion. In the eyes of society there is no justification for a husband or a wife to impose his or her thoughts by hurtful means. The repulsion one feels for home violence is an effect of the necessity to respect the human rights, among which sex equality is one of the most important. In the past, however, when gender equality was rejected even in legal texts, the society had a more permissive opinion on the use of domestic violence. This paper aims to present a 17th century regulation, enforced by the ecclesiastical justice in Moldavia and Walachia, on the husband's right to beat his wife.