Lombard conception of justice

Though it is very little known of the item details of Lombard life, the Lombard legal codes have been preserved for a modern multiplication in a Latin document known as the Lombard Laws. The throng of editors has arranged a wide collection of readings, related to the progress of Hesperian civilization, from various historic epochs and all regions of Europe under the title Perspectives from the ago Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. In this book in Chapter 8 called Romes Three Heirs The Byzantine, Islamic, and Early Medieval Worlds we can incur a reliable source of information on Lombard legislation concept.The Lombard Laws were presented in a codification of the prevailing German customs relating to family, kingship, marriage, social obligation, possessions, and resoluteness conflicts. These Laws were written down between the middle of the seventh and the middle of the one-eighth centuries under the direction of several Lombard kings. The earlier laws were issued by Kin g Rothair in 643.The Lombard Laws partially were aimed at avoiding the blood feud or vendetta. This was a potpourri of traditional form of redress in society at that time. If a member of the clan was wronged, his family would often injure or kill the pique caller, launching a blood feud that could last for generations. However, during the transformation to market-gardening life and living in fixed communities, traditional methods of violence and revenge could have disturbed the population too much.Thus the Lombard Kings sought to fill in violent blood feuds with a monetary penalty called composition that was paying directly to the person harmed by a crime (or their family). These penalties were expressed in solidi (a monetary unit), and they were closely related to the wergeld (personal worth) of an individual in society. Also the laws served for stringent protection of the property and produce of a family.For example crime of selling another mans property without permission entailed very serious consequences for the infringer the guilty party is required to return the stolen property eightfold, unless they can proclaim their innocence in front of witnesses. The use of witnesses testifies the increasing sophistication of the Lombard society.These laws are important from historical point of view as far as they present the explanation of the values and beliefs of early medieval Italians and give the picture of how a refreshed empire is founded (that is a Germanic, illiterate culture merges with a Roman, literate one).References Brophy, James, et al. Perspectives from the bypast Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. 2nd ed. 2 vols. W.W. Norton and Company, 2002.