Anglo-Saxon law, the body of legal principles that prevailed in 

England from the 6th

century until the Norman Conquest (1066). In conjunction with Scandinavian law and the
so-called barbarian laws (leges barbarorum) of continental Europe, it made up the body of
law called Germanic law. Anglo-Saxon law was written in the vernacular and was relatively
free of the Roman influence found in continental laws that were written in Latin. Roman
influence on Anglo-Saxon law was indirect and exerted primarily through the church. There
was a definite Scandinavian influence upon Anglo-Saxon law as a result of the Viking
invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries. Only with the Norman Conquest did Roman law, as
embodied in Frankish law, make its influence felt on the laws of England.

Anglo-Saxon law was made up of three components: the laws and

collections promulgated by the king, authoritative statements of custom such as those found
in the Norman-instituted Domesday Book, and private compilations of legal rules and
enactments. The primary emphasis was on criminal law rather than on private law, although
certain material dealt with problems of public administration, public order,
and ecclesiastical matters.

Before the 10th century, the codes often merely presented lists of compositions—money
paid to an injured party or his family—but by the 10th century a new penal system had
evolved based on outlawry (declaring a criminal an outlaw), confiscation, and corporal
and capital punishment. By this time there also had been an increased development of the
law relating to administrative and police functions.

The Anglo-Saxon legal system rested on the fundamental opposition between folkright

and privilege. Folkright is the aggregate of rules, whether formulated or not, that can be
appealed to as an expression of the juridical consciousness of the people at large or of
the communities of which it is composed. It is tribal in origin and is differentiated on highly
localized bases. Thus, there was a folkright of East and West Saxons, Mercians,
Northumbrians, Danes, and Welshmen, and these main folkright divisions persisted even
after the tribal kingdoms disappeared in the 8th and 9th centuries. The responsibility for
the formulation and application of the folkright rested, in the 10th and 11th centuries, with
the local shire moots (assemblies); the national council of the realm, or witan, only
occasionally used folkright ideas. The older laws of real property, succession, contracts,
and compositions were mainly regulated by folkright; the law had to be declared and
applied by the people themselves in their communities.

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Folkright could, however, be broken or modified by special enactment or grant, and the
foundation of such privileges was royal power, especially once England became a single
kingdom in the 10th century. In this manner a privileged land tenure was created; the rules
pertaining to the succession of kinsmen were replaced by concessions of testamentary
power and confirmations of grants and wills, and special privileges as to levying fines were
conferred. In time, the rights originating in the royal grants of privilege came to outweigh
folkright in many respects and were the starting point for the feudal system.

Before the 10th century an individual’s actions were considered not as exertions of his own
will but as acts of his kinship group. Personal protection and revenge, oaths, marriage,
wardship, and succession were all regulated by the law of kinship. What began as a natural
alliance later became a means of enforcing responsibility and keeping lawless individuals in
order. As the associations proved insufficient, other collective bodies, such as guilds and
townships, assumed these functions. In the period before the Norman Conquest, much
regulation was formalized by the king’s legislation in order to protect the individual. In the
area of property, for example, witnesses were required at cattle sales, not to validate the sale
but as protection against later claims on the cattle. Some ordinances required the presence
of witnesses for all sales outside the town gate, and others simply prohibited sales except in
town, again for the buyer’s protection.

The preservation of peace was an important feature of Anglo-Saxon law. Peace was thought
of as the rule of an authority within a specific region. Because the ultimate authority was the
king, there was a gradual evolution of stringent rules and regulations against violating the
king’s peace.