Lex Salica and Common Law from the Historical Perspective
Lex Salica and Common Law from the Historical Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The Salic law (Lex Salica) is intensely treated as the old Germanic law, which has become the most famous of the so-called barbarian leges. It was created during the victorious reign of Clovis, a founder of the Salian Empire in northern Gaul (Kremer & Schwab, 2018 : 241). The Salic law clearly demonstrated the influence of the Visigothic and Burgundian models (McDaniel, 2012 : 132) and became very influential during the Carolingian regime. It is believed that one could find the most aspects of the Carolingian-style in tenth and eleventh-century England (Wormald, 2014 : 249-250). However, there is no direct evidence of the availability of Lex Salica in Britain before the 10th century. The paper presents an innovative attitude towards the study of the relation between the Salians’ legal code Lex Salica and English common law. The greatest attention is paid to the appropriate historical and juridical contexts, cross-national activities, linguistic and juridical contacts, contact-induced changes, etc. The results of the research reveal that Lex Salica could be available in Britain before the 10th century. Moreover, there was an evident inter-influence of the Frankish and British legal systems.

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