Self-study
P1
Until about 1970, anyone who wanted to write a comprehensive history of medieval English law as it actually affected women would have found a dearth of published books or articles concerned with specific legal topics relating to women and derived from extensive research in actual court records. ████ ██ █ ███████ ███████████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ███
Problem ·
Lack of records-based research on how medieval English law affected women
Court records an important resource on real-world impacts of law on women
Contrast ·
court records against other research sources
Other sources (treatises, commentaries, statutes) show how the law was intended or believed to affect women, but do not show actual outcomes
Possible solution ·
Quantitative studies of court cases
Reinforce problem: few such studies exist
P2
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Reason for problem ·
Large number of lengthy, untranslated records in Latin and old French
Author's perspective ·
on real reason for problem
Few legal historians are interested specifically in women's history as it relates to the law
Implications of problem ·
Incomplete knowledge of how medieval English law affected women
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
27.
It can be inferred from ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████
a
most modern legal ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████
b
the linguistic and █████████ ████████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████
Anti-supported. The author describes this potential difficulty but actually says that this difficulty “seems actually to have deterred few.” The author then goes on to discuss the real reason we have a lack of relevant scholarship.
c
a tendency on ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████████████ ███ █████████
This isn’t the reason discussed in P2 regarding what’s responsible for the current deficiencies in our knowledge of women’s legal history. Treatises and commentaries were mentioned in P1 in connection with nineteenth and early twentieth scholars. They are not connected in P2 to modern historians and their lack of interest in studying how women were actually affected.
d
the mistaken view ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████
This isn’t the reason discussed in P2 regarding what’s responsible for the current deficiencies in our knowledge of women’s legal history. There’s some discussion of laws that apply only to women in P1, but that part isn’t connected to P2’s description of why there’s a deficiency in our knowledge of women’s history.
e
the relative scarcity ██ ███████ █████████ █ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████
This isn’t the reason discussed in P2 regarding what’s responsible for the current deficiencies in our knowledge of women’s legal history. Also, the author notes that there’s a lack of quantitative studies into how women were actually affected by medieval law. These aren’t the same as studies that provide a “comprehensive overview of women’s legal history” (which would include laws both before and after medieval laws). So (E) misdescribes the kind of studies that the author identities as scarce. We’re just concerned with how medieval laws affected women, not a comprehensive overview of women’s legal history.