THE GERMANIC NATIONAL LAWS

13 Before the invasions, the Germans were ruled by the primitive law of their tribes, which was based on immemorial customs handed down by a purely oral tradition. In their new kingdoms, these national laws were sometimes set down in writing, under the influence of ancient models: these were the leges nationum Germani­carum (or in German, Volksrechte) Λ Yet the compilations were no more than clumsy attempts to express in Latin a primitive law which was devoid of all general principle and consequently any analytical tradition.

Important compilations of Germanic laws outside the Frankish kingdom should also be mentioned, such as the Edict of King Rothari of ad 643 in the Italian lands conquered by the Lombards. In England the Anglo-Saxon kings from King Aethelberht of Kent (√. ad 616) also promulgated an important series of â€?statutes’ (dooms), but in contrast to other compilations these English ones were composed in the vernacular.

The Germanic kingdoms of the continent-Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Lombards - united peoples of Roman and of Germa­nic origin. The Romani remained subject to Roman vulgar law, the Germans to the law of their own tribe. This is the principle of the �personality’ of law: whatever his place of residence and whoever the sovereign of that place, an individual remains subject to the law of his own people of origin. So in the vast Frankish empire of Charlemagne, in addition to the Romani, there were several Germa­nic nations ruled by their own law. In order to overcome the inconvenience arising from this complexity, Charlemagne attempted to impose a kind of legal unity, but without success. It was not until a later period that the principle of personality of law was abandoned in favour of the principle of territoriality, under which the customary law of the region was applicable to all those living in it regardless of their ethnic origin. This development is to be connected both with the dwindling of old tribal loyalties and with the emergence of a new sense of political unity, which was now based not on ethnic ties but on adherence to the sovereign of the region.