Germanic law  Germanic law, the law of the various Germanic
peoples from the time of their initial contact with the Romans
until the change from tribal to national territorial law. This
change occurred at different times with different peoples. Thus
some of the characteristics of Scandinavian legal collections of
the 12th century are similar to those in the Visigothic laws of
the 6th century.  Knowledge of the early Germanic period is
derived mainly from the observations of tribal life contained in
Julius Caesar’s Gallic War and Tacitus’ Germania. The first
written collections of Germanic law are the so-called Leges
Barbarorum, which date from the 5th century until the 9th
century. They are written in Latin and show Roman influence by
their use of the technical terms of Roman law. The Anglo-Saxon
laws and the laws of the North Germanic group, on the other
hand, are in the vernacular and owe their written form largely
to the advent of Christianity.  For all of the Germanic peoples,
law (West German, reht and ê