Medieval law

component of early Germanic culture

The scholars of the 11th- and 12th-century legal schools in Italy, France and Germany are identified as glossators in a specific sense. They studied Roman law based on the Digesta, the Codex of Justinian, the Authenticum (an abridged Latin translation of selected constitutions of Justinian, promulgated in Greek after the enactment of the Codex and therefore called Novellae), and his law manual, the Institutiones Iustiniani, compiled together in the Corpus Iuris Civilis. (This title is itself only a sixteenth-century printers' invention.) Their work transformed the inherited ancient texts into

thumb|Erling Skjalgsson sets his thralls to day-work ([[Erik Werenskiold, 1899)]]

Decretals () are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.

thumb|280px|Henry IV proclaims the 1103 Landfrieden in Mainz, painting by [[Hermann Wislicenus, Imperial Palace of Goslar ()]] Under the law of the Holy Roman Empire, a Landfrieden or Landfriede (Latin: constitutio pacis, pax instituta or pax jurata, variously translated as "land peace", or "public peace") was a contractual waiver of the use of legitimate force, by rulers of specified territories, to assert their own legal claims. This especially affected the right of feuding.

thumb|Jarlig of Temür Qutlugh khan (copy), 1397. A jarlig, also written yarlyk (from and ), is an edict, permission, license, or written commandant of Mongol and Chinggisid rulers' "formal diplomas." It was one of three non-fundamental law pronouncements that had the effect of regulation or ordinance, the other two being debter (a record of precedence cases for administration and judicial decisions) and billing (maxims or sayings attributed to Genghis Khan). The jarliq provides important information about the running of the Mongol Empire.

absence of feudalism in Frisia during the Middle Ages

historical administrative unit responsible for writing and notarizing official documents

practice of a husband selling his wife

legal document establishing a municipality

rights of a monarch in medieval Europe

Banalités or banalities (; from ban) were, until the end of the Ancien Régime in various parts of Europe, rights linked to the exercise of lordship or public authority that imposed the compulsory use of designated facilities. The institution is most extensively documented in France, but comparable forms existed elsewhere in Europe under different legal traditions and terminology.

Medieval Latin legal expression which may be translated as "in the Danish manner"

A Burgrecht (ius burgense, ius civile) was a medieval agreement, most commonly in southern Germany and northern German-speaking Switzerland. It came to refer to an agreement between a town and surrounding settlements or to include the specific rights held by a city or town.

law of the historical provinces of Scania

German saying

legal system of the Anglo-Saxon England

thumb|upright=1.5|The Upstalsboom by , 1921 During the Frisian freedom period, the Upstalsboom ( or ), also known as the Opstalsbam, was an assembly for emissaries of the Seven Sealands of medieval Frisia, located just outside the East Frisian town of Aurich () in modern-day Germany. The origins of the Upstalsboom, including its name, are unclear, but as far back as the 8th century the meeting place was used as a burial ground for the members of important Frisian families.

continuation of ancient Roman law in the late Middle Ages

The ' or ''''' was a German medieval term that referred to imposition of a state of truce within the jurisdiction of a castle, and sometimes its estate, under which feuds, i.e. conflicts between private individuals, were forbidden under threat of the imperial ban.

subset of Germanic law practiced by North Germanic peoples

Compurgation, also called trial by oath, wager of law, and oath-helping, was a defence used primarily in medieval law. A defendant could establish his innocence or nonliability by taking an oath and by getting a required number of persons, typically twelve, to swear they believed the defendant's oath. The wager of law was essentially a character reference, initially by kin and later by neighbours (from the same region as the defendant), often 11 or 12 men, and it was a way to give credibility to the oath of a defendant at a time when a person's oath had more credibility than a written record.

The term Extravagantes (from the Latin extra, outside; vagari, to wander) is applied to the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, to designate some papal decretals not contained in certain canonical collections which possess a special authority. More precisely, they are not found in Gratian's Decretum or the three official collections of the Corpus Juris Canonici (the Decretals of Gregory IX, the Sixth Book of the Decretals, and the Clementines).

ruler who held sovereignty over a territory

The Landstände (singular Landstand) or Landtage (singular Landtag) were the various territorial estates or diets in the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as opposed to their respective territorial lords (the Landesherrn).

thumb|The port and fleet of Genoa, early 14th century The commenda was a medieval contract which developed in Italy around the 13th century, and was an early form of limited partnership. The commenda was an agreement between an investing partner and a traveling partner to conduct a commercial enterprise, usually overseas. The terms of the partnership varied, and are usually categorized by modern historians as unilateral commenda and bilateral commenda, based on the share of contributions and profits between the partners. The bilateral commenda was known in Venice as collegantia or colleganza.

Seven coastal districts in Frisia

13th-century Swedish law

thumb|Replica of an escort revenue collection point (Geleitsgeldeinnahme) and a Saxon post half-milestone at a pub in Grumbach The Geleitrecht ("right of escort") in the Holy Roman Empire was the escorting of travellers or goods guaranteed by the right holder (Geleitherr or "escort lord") within a specified territory or on specific routes. It was a way of providing a form of safe passage for a fee.

right|upright=1.4|thumb|A body in its coffin starts to bleed in the presence of the murderer in an illustration of the laws of Hamburg in 1497 Cruentation ( 'law of bleeding' or 'law of the bier') was one of the medieval methods of finding proof against a suspected murderer. The common belief was that the body of the victim would spontaneously bleed in the presence of the murderer.

thumb|The Heerschildordnung of Eike von Repgow shows the estate structure of a medieval society, Heidelberg University Library, Cod. Pal. Germ. 164, fol. 1r The Heerschild (; ), also called the shield of knighthood, in the Early Middle Ages was the right to raise a feudal levy of troops. The call to do so was the Heerbann. The resulting importance of a system of military ranks, based on the ability to provide men for a campaign, became modified in the law books published in the 13th century. It finally ended up as being an important part of the structure of medieval society, as captured in the

thumb|The hammer and pick: symbol of mining

book on medieval French law by Philippe de Beaumanoir