MUNICIPAL LAW. In England and America municipal law means the national law or the law of the land, both public and private, in contradistinction to external or international law. The municipal law of America is de rived from that of England, which has had a continual development extending over 13 cen turies. Largely influenced at times by Roman law, both civil and canon, it has retained some what the character of the Teutonic system in which it had its origin. By English colonists it reached all quarters of the earth and in the modern world it is the great rival of Roman law. For the first five centuries after Christ Britain was ruled by Roman imperial law after which it was banished by the invading hordes from the coast of the North Sea. With these came their tribal customs, which we find formu lated in the °dooms" promulgated by the Eng lish kings from the 7th to the 11th century and by the Danish ruler of England, Canute. These laws, more properly °folk-laws," are largely made up of provisions for punishing breaches of the peace and setting fines as penalties for private wrongs. In the 8th and 9th centuries many of the Roman Church laws were introduced, especially the laws of mar riage, deeds and wills, but even these were largely modified to conform to local usages and custom.
With William the Conqueror the law of the Franks, also Teutonic in origin, but highly de veloped in Normandy, was introduced to Saxon England. The two systems were now in prac tice— the Anglo-Saxon for the English and the Norman for the conquerors— while special en actments after the Norman spirit governed the interrelations of the two races. The two sys tems were gradually merged with the Norman law taking precedence because of its technical superiority. Down to the days of the Tudors the language of the laws was Norman-French. The common law was developed partly by legis lation (royal charters, provisions, ass:Les, stat utes), but mainly by judicial decisions. Eccle
siastical law still exerted considerable influence, having received independent jurisdiction from the Conqueror. This jurisdiction churchmen sought to extend, but were checked by several statutes. In family law, however, they re mained supreme as also in the administration of estates, and from the canon law are mainly derived these branches of modern English law. Judicial law-making sprang up toward the close of the Middle Ages, some judges boldly over riding the common law by virtue of the powers they believed as inherent in the Crown. Since the 18th century, both in England and America, the courts have practically confined themselves to administering the law as established by pre vious decisions. On the Continent of Europe the term municipal law has been often employed to designate a local law, as of a city or prov ince, in contrast to the national body of law; at present the term usually designates a city law in contrast to the national law. In the United States within recent decades a great body of legislation concerning cities has grown up, and the term municipal law has come to be the usual designation of such legislation.
See EQUITY; COMMON LAW ; CANON LAW;
MUNICIPALITY; CITIES, GOVERNMENT OF; and tonsnit Brunner, Heinrich, (Quellen des Eng lisehan Rechts' (Eng. trans. by Hastie Edin burgh 1888) ; Maitland,