Legal Research

The Visigothic Code

By Simon Fodden

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.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).