Landrecht (medieval)

The Landrecht (German: [ˈlantˌʁɛçt], "customary law of the region", plural: Landrechte) was the law applying within an individual state in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and Early Modern times. The state laws that emerged in the territories of the empire from the 12th century onwards had been developed from the older tribal laws of the Saxons, Swabians, Bavarians and Bohemians. Through privileges and laws passed by the territorial princes as well as the jurisprudence of the Landgerichte or state courts, these ancient rights were supplemented and developed. Later Roman law was also accepted and incorporated into the Landrechte. The Landrecht was only applied to the burghers of a town in a secondary way, because they came primarily under municipal law and the autonomous jurisdiction of their communities.

The Landrechte contained regulations for all possible branches of law: criminal law, private law, policing, feudal law and constitutional law. However these areas were not necessarily comprehensively covered. Often they operated alongside Saxon Law (Sachsenrecht), Roman law and more recent, imperial, legal regulations.

The various Landrechte were written down at very different times. The Austrian Landrecht had already been developed by the Babenberg period and was recorded around 1278 by King Rudolph I and in 1298 under Albert I. Based on the customary law (Gewohnheitsrecht) of the state of Styria, it was probably written down in the 2nd half of the 14th century and also applied to Carinthia. The Tyrolean Landrecht emerged in the late 13th century and, in 1328, Archbishop Frederick III consolidated it and made it the law of Salzburg by passing an ordinance (Landesordnung). In the Palatinate, the Landrecht was not recorded until the 16th century. The Bohemian Landrecht developed primarily as a result of the aggregation of judgments by the regional court (Landgericht), which were compiled into the so-called Landtafeln. The Bohemian development also influenced Moravian Landrecht and the law in parts of Silesia.

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