EVALUATION
19 Each age has the law it deserves. It is therefore natural that the West in the early Middle Ages had a law adapted to the new political, economic and intellectual situation; and so a system of administering justice which was fragmented, but adequate for the needs of an agrarian and military society.
The law of the period wasAntecedents: the early Middle Ages, c. 500 - c. ιιoo 27 inevitably lacking in complexity, devoid of theory and general principles, imbued with irrational and sacred elements, and knew nothing of learned jurists or professional practitioners. It goes without saying that one of the great changes which took place in western society from about 1100 was the development of a new type of legal order. None the less the imprint of the great events of the early Middle Ages was not completely erased in the following centuries and can still sometimes be detected. The legal dualism characteristic of continental Europe — that is, the coexistence of Roman and Germanic laws - corresponds to the cultural dualism of the Roman-Germanic world of the early Middle Ages.1* In some countries such as England (where the legacy of Roman civilization was entirely lost) as well as in the regions east of the Rhine which escaped Romanization, canon law was the only Roman element in legal practice. On the other hand, in the Mediterranean countries, notably Italy, Roman law remained the foundation of the legal order (even though the contribution of the great Lombard nation should not be underestimated; in northern Italy the Lombarda for a long time exercised a considerable influence on legal practice). France is a special case: in the south, which corresponds roughly to what is now the Languedoc, Germanization was superficial (Herren- siedlung) and the main principles of Roman law were maintained; in the north, on the other hand, the territories which were later to become French-speaking, the invasions were followed by a massive occupation by Germanic tribes (Bauernsiedlung) and Roman law was lost. Consequently, until the end of the ancien regime France was divided.
In the north, the region of customary law, the law was based on Germanic and feudal oral custom; while Roman law remained in the south, the region of written law (�written’ because it was set down in the Corpus iuris and in the works of the learned jurists). The persistence of different matrimonial regimes illustrates this legal division: in the region of customary law, the Germanic regime of community of property was followed; in the south, the dotal system of Roman law was maintained.Some features of the archaic law of this period disappeared as a more advanced society developed, but have been appreciated again
,4 This is the basis of the expression �Roman-Germanic family’ proposed by the Comparatist R. David, Grands systemes de droit Conlemporain (Paris, 1969), to describe western European law (which is itself one of the major systems of law alongside the Common Law, the law of socialist states, and religious law).
in more recent times. The oral and public character of the administÂration of justice, for example, was suppressed to a large degree in early modern times. Yet nowadays importance is once again attached to the democratic and non-bureaucratic character of such principles.