ABSTRACT
There was no permanent international court per se in the late Middle Ages, but there were different opportunities for any injured party to seek legal redress from court against an enemy, under the law of arms.1 Such legal actions, however, were much more likely to be initiated ‘after the war’ rather than during it, and therefore concerned matters which kept on their relevance outside the heat of the action, such as, for instance, the ownership of a prisoner or the payment of a ransom.2 Treaties of surrender of fortresses or urban communities, on the other hand, which belonged to the heat of the action, had to rely on different forms of enforcement.
