Letter 41

From: The Austrasian Court To: [Administrative official] Date: ~583 AD Context: Austrasian letter 41; internal administrative letter on the management of royal justice in contested cases involving both Frankish and Roman law. To our faithful judge and administrator, The case you have referred to us — the dispute between the Frankish merchant and the Roman landowner over the contract for grain — raises a legal question that we want to address clearly. The merchant is subject to Frankish law; the landowner is subject to Roman law; the contract between them specifies neither. In this situation, our established practice is to apply the law under which the contract was performed — in this case, the transaction occurred in a town where Roman law governs commercial dealings, so Roman commercial law applies to the interpretation of the contract. This does not mean that the Frankish merchant is without protections; it means that the protections he has are those of Roman commercial law as it applies in that jurisdiction. If he has a case under that law — and from what you describe, he may — he should be allowed to make it. We want these cases handled consistently. The principle of applying the law of the place of performance is one that most of our judges have been following, but it is not being applied uniformly, and the inconsistency creates uncertainty that is bad for commerce. By order of the king