The Prussian Code and Savigny

Their influence on doctrine and legislation

Abstract

The law that governed the peoples of Germania in the mid-sixteenth century and until the end of the eighteenth century was composed of two branches, currents or clearly defined trends: one of Roman origin from the Justinian pandectary law, received or accepted by resolutions and constitutions of the Germanic princes; imperial laws dictated under this inspiration and customary law that tried unconsciously to realize these principles, we must also add the canon law. All this body of norms was what was called common law. Correlative to this branch or tendency there was another branch of purely Germanic origin and characteristics that constituted the territorial law with the modalities proper to each state, nation or territory; this was called the territorial law or Landrecht. Both branches constituted the positive law.