Legal Systems

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_wireless.danet.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:46:25 EST


One of the things that seem to hold in most ancient legal systems is that they don't handle disputed facts very well. That is probably why secret murder is a capital offense in Norse law, while public killing is usually mediated. In the back of one of my Penguin editions of the Icelandic sagas it claims that most of the work in a legal battle was establishing which court had the juristiction, but that the facts were seldom in dispute. When they were, I expect that they appealed to the ultimate judge (ie, trial by combat).

More often, they probably voted to reconsider at the next Thing, to see if more evidence had turned up. Being caught destroying evidence was probably sufficient grounds to prove the other side's claims.


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