The Visigothic Code
I have prided myself from time to time on introducing Slaw readers to fairly arcane resources, but this may take the cake of abstruseness. The Visigoths, famous for sacking Rome, spread throughout Western Europe in the second half of the first millennium, reaching as far as what is now Spain and Portugal in what is known as the Kingdom of Toulouse. I confess I’d always thought of Goths as folks who wouldn’t bother much with law. Turns out I was wrong.
You can examine the Visigothic Code (in an English translation) on the Library of Iberian Resources Online, an effort of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain and hosted by the University of Central Arkansas.
It can be interesting to see how other civilizations sliced up the legal pie. Thus, for example, when it comes to murder, the Visigoths had rules dealing differently with cases
- Where One Kills Another without Knowing It;
- Where One Kills Another without Seeing Him;
- Where One, being Pushed, Kills Another;
- Where One, Seeking to Strike Another, Kills a Third Person, and so forth.
Thank you Simon – this is where the internet shines – a most interesting resource.
Another source in the same view, mentioned on Larry Solum’s Legal Theory Blog, and that is now on SSRN
Bederman on International Law in the Ancient World
David J. Bederman (Emory University School of Law) has posted International Law in the Ancient World on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This brief contribution to THE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW assesses the historiographic literature about the idea that ancient State systems predicated their relations on the rule of law.
It examines ancient practices in relation to diplomatic privileges and immunities, treaty conclusion and observance, and the initiation and limitation of armed conflict. This contribution is based on the author’s previous volume, INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANTIQUITY (Cambridge University Press 2001).
Well speaking for the Eastern Goths, the idea that there are websites just for the Western Goths, under the guise of a crypto-Iberian ius communis, makes me wonder. The Ur Östgötalagen is available, with additional provisions in Svensk Lag, but sadly not in translation. Dieter Strauch‘s work and Ernst Levy’s West Roman Vulgar Law: The Law of Property is similarly unavailable on the web.
Reminds one that ultimately print-based libraries are indispensable.