Английская Википедия:Germanic law

Opening of the Edictum Rothari in an 11th- or 12th-century manuscript

Germanic law is a scholarly term used to describe a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the Leges Barbarorum, 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges) of the early Germanic peoples. These were compared with statements in Tacitus and Caesar as well as with high and late medieval law codes from Germany and Scandinavia. Until the 1950s, these commonalities were held to be the result of a distinct Germanic legal culture. Scholarship since then has questioned this premise and argued that many "Germanic" features instead derive from provincial Roman law. Although most scholars no longer hold that Germanic law was a distinct legal system, some still argue for the retention of the term and for the potential that some aspects of the Leges in particular derive from a Germanic culture.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Scholarly consensus as of 2023 is that Germanic law is best understood in opposition to Roman law, in that it was not "learned" and incorporated regional pecularities.Шаблон:Sfn

While the Leges Barbarorum were written in Latin and not in any Germanic vernacular, codes of Anglo-Saxon law were produced in Old English. The study of Anglo-Saxon and continental Germanic law codes has never been fully integrated.Шаблон:Sfn

Definition and controversy

As of 2023, scholarly consensus is that Germanic law is best understood in contrast with Roman law, in that whereas Roman law was "learned" and the same across regions, Germanic law was not learned and incorporated regional peculiarities.Шаблон:Sfn This consensus has replaced an older one as a result of a reevaluation of notions of Germanic beginnings and the associated nationalist ideologies to which they were attached.Шаблон:Sfn Earlier scholars, inspired by Tacitus and Julius Caesar, often conceived of the Germanic peoples as a unified entity, which they were not.Шаблон:Sfn Because of this, Germanic law was not a single legal system, but a group of related systems.Шаблон:Sfn

Although Germanic law never appears to have been a competing, unified system to Roman law, commonalities in the Germanic laws can still be described as "Germanic" when contrasted with Roman law.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn These include emphases on orality, gesture, formulaic language, legal symbolism, and ritual.Шаблон:Sfn Some items in the Leges, such as the use of vernacular words, may reveal aspects of originally Germanic, or at least non-Roman, law. Legal historian Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand writes that this vernacular, often in the form of Latinized words, belongs to "the oldest layers of a Germanic legal language" and shows some similarities to Gothic.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Philologist and historian, D.H. Green, stated that the introduction of Germanic "vernacular legal terms, even in partly Latinized form" does not occur until the early Middle Ages and that only "vernacular" terminology was "legally precise enough to convey what barbarian practice meant".Шаблон:Sfn

Old Consensus and criticism

The study of "Germanic Law" arose in the modern period, at a time when scholars thought that the written and unwritten principles of the ancient Germanic peoples could be reconstructed in a reasonably coherent form.Шаблон:Sfn Beginning in the Reformation, the study of "Germanic law" was typically conflated with "German law", a tradition continued by influential scholars Jacob Grimm, Karl von Amira, and Heinrich Brunner. This law supposedly revealed the national character of the Germans.Шаблон:Sfn Until the middle of the 20th century, the majority of scholars assumed the existence of a distinct Germanic legal culture and law. This law was seen as an essential element in the formation of modern European law and identity, alongside Roman and canon law.Шаблон:Sfn Scholars reconstructed Germanic law on the basis of antique (Caesar and Tacitus), early medieval (mainly the so-called Leges Barbarorum, laws written by various continental Germanic peoples from the fifth to eighth centuries),Шаблон:Sfn and late medieval sources (mostly Scandinavian).Шаблон:Sfn According to these scholars, Germanic law was based on a society ruled by assemblies of free farmers (the things), policing themselves in clan groups (Sippes), and engaging in the blood feud outside of clan groups, which were settled via compensation in the form of (wergild). This reconstructed legal system also excluded certain criminals by outlawry, and administratively contained a degree of sacral kingship; retinues formed around the kings bound by oaths of loyalty.Шаблон:Sfn

Early ideas about Germanic law have come under intense scholarly scrutiny since the 1950s and specific aspects of it such as the legal importance of kinship groups, retinues, and loyalty, and the concept of outlawry, can no longer be justified.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Besides the assumption of a common Germanic legal tradition and the use of sources of different types from different places and time periods,Шаблон:Sfn there are no known native sources for early Germanic law. Caesar and Tacitus do mention some aspects of Germanic legal culture that reappear in later sources, however their texts are not objective reports of facts and there are no other antique sources to corroborate whether there were common Germanic institutions.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Reinhard Wenskus has shown that one important "Germanic" element, the use of popular assemblies, displays marked similarities to developments among the Gauls and Romans, and was therefore likely the result of external influence rather than specifically Germanic.Шаблон:Sfn Even the Leges Barbarorum were all written under Roman and Christian influence and often with the help of Roman jurists.Шаблон:Sfn Beginning with Walter Goffart, scholars have argued the Leges contain large amounts of "Vulgar Latin law", an unofficial legal system that they argue functioned in the Roman provinces.Шаблон:Sfn This makes it difficult to determine whether commonalities between them derive from a common Germanic legal conception or not.Шаблон:Sfn

The Leges barbarorum

The term leges barbarorum, 'laws of the barbarians', used by editor Шаблон:Ill as early as 1781, reflects a negative value judgement on the actual law codes produced by these Germanic peoples. It was retained by the editors of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in the 19th century.Шаблон:Sfn The law codes are written in Latin, often using many Latinized Germanic terms, with the exception of the Anglo-Saxon law codes, which were written in the vernacular as early as the sixth century.Шаблон:Sfn The Germanic peoples associated with the laws were not homogenous ethnic or linguistic groups in the modern sense.Шаблон:Sfn The Leges share features such as orality, the importance of court procedure, and a reliance on compensatory justice to settle disputes.Шаблон:Sfn

The Leges are the product of a mixture of Germanic, late Roman, and early Christian legal cultures.Шаблон:Sfn Generally speaking, the further on the periphery of the Roman Empire these law codes were issued, the less influence they appear to show from Roman jurisprudence.Шаблон:Sfn Thus, Dusil, Kannowski, and Schwedler argue that the Visigothic law codes show a great deal of Roman influence, whereas the Lex Salica shows basically none.Шаблон:Sfn

History

The earliest of the Leges dealt with Germanic groups living either as foederati or conquerors among Roman people and regulating their relationship to them.Шаблон:Sfn These earliest codes, written by Visigoths in Spain (475),Шаблон:Efn were probably not intended to be valid solely for the Germanic inhabitants of these kingdoms, but for the Roman ones as well.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn These earliest law codes influenced those that followed, such as the Burgundian Lex Burgundionum (between 480 and 501) issued by king Gundobad, and the Frankish Lex Salica (between 507 and 511), possibly issued by Clovis I. The final law code of this earliest series of codifications was the Edictus Rothari, issued in 643 by the Lombard King Rothari.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn

The next set of law codes to be composed, the Lex and Pactus Alemannorum and the Lex Bajuvariorum, were written in the 8th century, probably at the behest of the Catholic Church.Шаблон:Sfn The final set of law codes issued on the continent, the Ewa ad Amorem, Lex Frisonum, Lex Saxonum, and Lex Thuringorum, were written under the patronage of Charlemagne in the 9th century; these codes all show marked similarities to the early codes.Шаблон:Sfn

Law code	People	Issuer	Year of completion/ approval
Code of Euric	Visigoths	Euric	c. 480
Lex Burgundionum	Burgundians	Gundobad	c. 500
Lex Salica	Salian Franks	Clovis I	c. 500
Law of Æthelberht	Kingdom of Kent	Æthelberht of Kent	early 7th century
Pactus Alamannorum	Alamanni		c. 620
Lex Ripuaria	Ripuarian Franks		630s
Edictum Rothari	Lombards	Rothari	643
Lex Visigothorum	Visigoths	Recceswinth	654
Law of Hlothhere and Eadric	Kingdom of Kent	Hlothhere and Eadric of Kent	late 7th century
Law of Wihtred	Kingdom of Kent	Wihtred of Kent	after 690
Lex Alamannorum	Alamanni		730
Lex Bajuvariorum	Bavarians		c. 745
Lex Frisionum	Frisians	Charlemagne	c. 785
Lex Saxonum	Saxons	Charlemagne	803
Lex Thuringorum	Thuringians	Charlemagne	9th century
Ewa ad Amorem	Part of the Low Countries	Unknown	9th century

Common elements

Sources and nature of the law

In contrast to Roman Law, which was generally created by the emperors, Germanic legal culture regarded the law as unchanging, and it was thus necessary to find the law in any individual case. Laws existed because they were traditional and because similar cases had been decided before.Шаблон:Sfn This is clearly displayed in the prologue of the Lex Salica, in which four men are described as having ascertained what the law was rather than creating it.Шаблон:Sfn Most of the Leges refer to having been composed through a meeting of the great men of the kingdom, of its army, or of its people; whereas the southern Leges mention the role of the king, the northern ones do not.Шаблон:Sfn

A word attested meaning "law" as well as "religion" in West Germanic languages is represented by Old High German Шаблон:Lang;Шаблон:Efn there is some evidence for the word's existence from names preserved in Old Norse and Gothic.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Lang is used in the Latin texts of the Leges barbaroum to mean the unwritten laws and customs of the people, but comes also to refer to the codified written laws as well.Шаблон:Sfn Jacob Grimm argued that Шаблон:Lang's use to also mean "religion" meant there was also a religious dimension to pre-Christian Germanic law;Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Ill argues instead that the legal term Шаблон:Lang was given a Christian religious significance by Christian missionaries, in common with other legal terms that lacked any pagan religious significance that acquired Christian meanings.Шаблон:Sfn

Orality and literacy

The Germanic peoples had an originally entirely oral legal culture, which involved a great deal of legal significant ritual, gesture, language, and symbolism, in order to create a specific legal procedure.Шаблон:Sfn Because oral law can never be fixed in the same way as written law, the use of correct procedure was in fact more important than the ultimate legal decision reached and the law was ultimately whatever the community decided was valid at a given time.Шаблон:Sfn

Due to the originally oral nature of Germanic law, the act of putting the Leges into writing was already an act of synthesis with the Roman legal culture.Шаблон:Sfn The development of the different law codes shows a general trend away from an oral legal culture toward a text-based writing culture.Шаблон:Sfn It is unclear to what extent the written legal texts were used in court: whereas Patrick Wormald and many German scholars have argued that the Leges texts mostly existed for reasons of representation and prestige, other scholars, such as Rosamund McKitterick, have argued that the number of surviving manuscripts and physical indications of their frequent use means that they were in fact employed in practice.Шаблон:Sfn

The Assembly

Шаблон:See In common with many archaic societies without a strong monarchy,Шаблон:Sfn early Germanic law appears to have had a form of popular assembly.Шаблон:Sfn The earliest attested term for these assemblies in Germanic is the thing.Шаблон:Efn According to Tacitus, during the Roman period, such assemblies were called at the new or full moon and were where important decisions were made (Tacitus, Germania 11–13).Шаблон:Sfn Germanic assemblies functioned both to make important political decisions—or to legitimate decisions taken by rulers—as well as functioning as courts of law.Шаблон:Sfn In their earliest function as courts, the assemblies do not appear to have had presiding judges. Rather, the members collectively came to judgments based on consensus and acted more as arbiters than as courts in the modern sense.Шаблон:Sfn

The assembly stood under the protection of the gods, and feuding parties could visit it without fear of violence.Шаблон:Sfn The use of thing as an epithet in an 3rd-century AD inscription dedicated to "Mars Thingsus", apparently referring to the Germanic god Tyr, as well as the translation of the Roman Шаблон:Lang ("day of Mars", Tuesday) as Шаблон:Lang ("day of the thing", modern German Шаблон:Lang) as a variant of Шаблон:Lang ("day of Tyr"), has led to the theory that the thing stood under the protection of Tyr in pagan times.Шаблон:Sfn

The Leges Alamannorum specified that all free men were required to appear at a popular assembly, but such a specification is otherwise absent for the Frankish Merovingian period.Шаблон:Sfn In later periods outside Scandinavia, the assemblies were composed of important persons rather than the entire free population.Шаблон:Sfn The Visigothic laws lack any mention of a popular assembly,Шаблон:Sfn while the Anglo-Saxon laws and history show no evidence of any kingdom-wide popular assemblies, only smaller local or regional assemblies held under various names.Шаблон:Sfn

Germanic legal language

Germanic legal vocabulary is reconstructed from multiple sources, including early loanwords in Finnic languages, supposed translations of Germanic terms in Tacitus, apparently legal terms in the Gothic Bible, elements in Germanic names, Germanic words found in the Leges barbarorum, as well as in later vernacular legal texts, beginning with Old English (7th–9th centuries).Шаблон:Sfn There is no evidence for a universal Proto-Germanic legal terminology; rather the individual languages show a diversity of legal terminologies, with the earliest examples lacking even a common Germanic word for "law".Шаблон:Sfn There are, however, many examples of Germanic legal terms shared across the diffent early codes which point to shared legal traditions.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn

Marriage

Modern scholarship no longer posits a common Germanic marriage practice,Шаблон:Sfn and there is no common Germanic term for "marriage".Шаблон:Sfn Until the latter 20th century, legal historians, using the Leges and later Norse narrative and legal sources, divided Germanic marriages into three types:

Шаблон:Lang, characterized by a marriage treaty, the granting of a bride gift or morning gift to the bride, and the acquisition of munt (Шаблон:Lang in the Lombard Laws, meaning "protection", originally "hand"),Шаблон:Sfn or legal power, of the husband over the wife;Шаблон:Sfn
Шаблон:Lang, (from Шаблон:Lang-goh, Шаблон:Lang-non "beloved"), a form of marriage lacking a bride or morning gift and in which the husband did not have munt over his wife (this remained with her family);Шаблон:Sfn
Шаблон:Lang (concubinage), the marriage of a free man to an unfree woman.Шаблон:Sfn

According to this theory, in the course of the early Middle Ages, the Friedelehe, Kebsehe, and polygamy were abolished in favor of the Muntehe through the attacks of the Church.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn

None of the three forms of marriage posited by older scholarship appear as such in medieval sources.Шаблон:Sfn Academic works in the 1990s and 2000s rejected the notion of Friedelehe as a construct for which no evidence is found in the sources,Шаблон:Sfn while Kebsehe has been explained as not being a form of marriage at all.Шаблон:Sfn

Legal proceedings

Feuding

Шаблон:See The feud (in the Leges, Шаблон:Lang)Шаблон:Efn refers to a form of violent self-help whereby a wronged party sought to address a wrong by exacting violence or vengeance themselves.Шаблон:Sfn German scholars tend to understand the feud as a legal institution based on individual liberty, the lack of a powerful public authority, and the need for local conflict resolution, whereas Francophone scholarship has instead emphasized feuding as illegal activity.Шаблон:Sfn Whereas Roman law did not allow feuding, the Leges generally treated any legal matter as something that might be settled privately.Шаблон:Sfn

While some scholars have argued that the feud may have originated in "vulgar Latin law," the feud is ubiquitous in the Leges and of later Germanic literature, making a non-Roman origin fairly certain.Шаблон:Sfn However, the different Leges make different assumptions about feuds and do provide a uniform picture of how they looked or functioned.Шаблон:Sfn The existence of feuds between kindred groups among the earlier Germanic peoples is mentioned by Tacitus in Germania chap. 12 and 21, including the various steps taken for conflict resolution.Шаблон:Sfn The post-Roman Barbarian kingdoms appear to have seen an increase in non-state violence and violent deaths with the decline in central authority.Шаблон:Sfn The various Leges show attempts to limit the practice in feuding, without, however, ultimately preventing it.Шаблон:Sfn

Compensatory justice

Файл:Cpg164 0035 wergild.jpg

Image of the murder of a minor and the subsequent paying of wergild, Heidelberger Sachsenspiegel Cgm 165 fol. 11r. This is one of the only images of wergild payment from the Middle Ages.Шаблон:Sfn

Шаблон:See All of the Leges contain catalogues of compensation prices to be paid by the perpetrator to his victims or the victim's relatives for committing a personal offense.Шаблон:Sfn In the West Germanic languages, this payment is known by the term Шаблон:Lang-goh, Шаблон:Lang-oe.Шаблон:Sfn This form of legal reconciliation aimed to prevent the erupting of feuds by offering a peaceful way to end disputes between groups.Шаблон:Sfn The codification of these catalogues was encouraged by the kings of the individual Germanic kingdoms, who had an interest in preventing bloodshed. Some of the laws, such as the Lex Salica and the Lex Thuringiorum, require that part of the compensation for theft be paid to the king. Later, some kings attempted to replace the compensation system with other forms of justice, such as the death penalty.Шаблон:Sfn

Previous scholarship had emphasized the variety of compensations for various offenses and taken this as an indication of the absence of uniformity across the codes.Шаблон:Sfn More recent work has shown that the range of enumerated offenses for personal injury is generally uniform across the codes and that the compositions mirror one another closely if calculated as a percentage of an individual's Wergild value, indications of a shared tradition.Шаблон:Sfn

In the event that a person was killed or wounded, an animal was stolen, or other offenses committed the compensation is referred to as wergild.Шаблон:Efn Scholars debate if wergild was a traditional Germanic legal concept, or if it developed from a Roman predecessor.Шаблон:Sfn The various codes uniformly gradate compensations according to whether an individual was fully free, half free, or enslaved. Some also make distinctions by status among free persons, as with the Lex Burgundonum, while the Lex Salica shows no gradation among free males.Шаблон:Sfn The prices were sometimes higher than could readily be paid, which could result in a compromise.Шаблон:Sfn In other cases, social networks were enlisted to help a defendant, or the church lent money to end the feud.Шаблон:Sfn Payment could be taken in kind rather than in currency.Шаблон:Sfn When compensations could not be paid, the plaintiff had the option to enslave the defendant Шаблон:Sfn

Judicial ordeal

Шаблон:Main

Файл:Ordeal of boiling water.jpg

Ordeal of boiling water, from manuscript HAB Cod. Guelf. 3.1 Aug. 2° of the Sachsenspiegel, fol. 19v.

The ordeal (Шаблон:Lang "judgment of God") was a method used to cause God to reveal the guilt or innocence of a person accused of a crime. It relied on the notion that God would intervene in the world to prevent the condemnation of an innocent person.Шаблон:Sfn Similar practices are attested in other cultures around the world, including in the Code of Hammurabi.Шаблон:Sfn Methods found in the Leges and in later medieval laws included the trial by hot water, in which a person dipped their hand into a boiling cauldron, of hot iron, in which a person carried a burning hot iron, and trial by combat, in which two fighters fought to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused party.Шаблон:Sfn The most important of these was the trial by combat.Шаблон:Sfn

A Germanic origin for the trial by combat is generally accepted.Шаблон:Sfn It appears early and widely among many Germanic peoples.Шаблон:Sfn Dusil, Kannowski, and Schwedler write that it is an important difference between Germanic and Roman law, and derive it from the time prior to Germanic contact with the Romans.Шаблон:Sfn

Unlike for the trial by combat, scholars debate whether the trials by fire and water were inspired by Christianity or derive from pre-Christian Germanic tradition.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Robert Bartlett argues for a Frankish origin of the practice of trial by fire and water, with Frankish influence spreading it around Europe. He argues that the practice is absent in the early Burgundian, Alemannic, Bavarian, and Kentish law codes and therefore cannot have a pan-Germanic origin.Шаблон:Sfn Heinz Holzhauer instead argues that ordeal by fire and water was a common Germanic, pre-Christian method of trial, which he connects to the casting of lots found in Tacitus.Шаблон:Sfn

Notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Sources

Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend

External links

Leges Romanae barbarorum
Volterra Project at UCL
Information on the leges Barbarorum and the respective manuscript tradition on the Шаблон:Lang website, A database on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl, Cologne University, Germany, 2012).

Шаблон:Germanic peoples

Шаблон:Authority control

Партнерские ресурсы
Криптовалюты	Обмен криптовалют - www.bestchange.ru Криптовалютная биржа CoinEx Криптовалютная биржа Binance HIVE OS - операционная система для майнинга e4pool - Мультивалютный пул для майнинга.
Магазины	AliExpress — глобальная виртуальная (в Интернете) торговая площадка, предоставляющая возможность покупать товары производителей из КНР; computeruniverse.net - Интернет-магазин компьютеров(Промо код 5 Евро на первую покупку:FWWC3ZKQ);
Хостинг	DigitalOcean - американский провайдер облачных инфраструктур, с главным офисом в Нью-Йорке и с центрами обработки данных по всему миру;
Разное	Викиум - Онлайн-тренажер для мозга Like Центр - Центр поддержки и развития предпринимательства. Gamersbay - лучший магазин по бустингу для World of Warcraft. Ноотропы OmniMind N°1 - Усиливает мозговую активность. Повышает мотивацию. Улучшает память. Санкт-Петербургская школа телевидения - это федеральная сеть образовательных центров, которая имеет филиалы в 37 городах России. Lingualeo.com — интерактивный онлайн-сервис для изучения и практики английского языка в увлекательной игровой форме. Junyschool (Джунискул) – международная школа программирования и дизайна для детей и подростков от 5 до 17 лет, где ученики осваивают компьютерную грамотность, развивают алгоритмическое и креативное мышление, изучают основы программирования и компьютерной графики, создают собственные проекты: игры, сайты, программы, приложения, анимации, 3D-модели, монтируют видео. Умназия - Интерактивные онлайн-курсы и тренажеры для развития мышления детей 6-13 лет SkillBox - это один из лидеров российского рынка онлайн-образования. Среди партнеров Skillbox ведущий разработчик сервисного дизайна AIC, медиа-компания Yoola, первое и самое крупное русскоязычное аналитическое агентство Tagline, онлайн-школа дизайна и иллюстрации Bang! Bang! Education, оператор PR-рынка PACO, студия рисования Draw&Go, агентство performance-маркетинга Ingate, scrum-студия Sibirix, имидж-лаборатория Персона. «Нетология» — это университет по подготовке и дополнительному обучению специалистов в области интернет-маркетинга, управления проектами и продуктами, дизайна, Data Science и разработки. В рамках Нетологии студенты получают ценные теоретические знания от лучших экспертов Рунета, выполняют практические задания на отработку полученных навыков, общаются с экспертами и единомышленниками. Познакомиться со всеми продуктами подробнее можно на сайте https://netology.ru, линейка курсов и профессий постоянно обновляется. StudyBay Brazil – это онлайн биржа для португалоговорящих студентов и авторов! Студент получает уникальную работу любого уровня сложности и больше свободного времени, в то время как у автора появляется дополнительный заработок и бесценный опыт. Автор24 — самая большая в России площадка по написанию учебных работ: контрольные и курсовые работы, дипломы, рефераты, решение задач, отчеты по практике, а так же любой другой вид работы. Сервис сотрудничает с более 70 000 авторов. Более 1 000 000 работ уже выполнено. StudyBay – это онлайн биржа для англоязычных студентов и авторов! Студент получает уникальную работу любого уровня сложности и больше свободного времени, в то время как у автора появляется дополнительный заработок и бесценный опыт.