116 NOMOLOGY. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MUNICIPAL LAW. 



THE branch of Municipal Law, includes the rules of civil conduct, 

 prescribed by the competent authorities of the various nations, for 

 protecting the ordinary rights, and defining the duties, of their citi- 

 zens. The name is from the Latin, municipia, or corporate towns ; 

 which, in ancient Rome, had their own peculiar codes of laws, dis- 

 tinct from those of the empire. It applies, therefore, with great 

 propriety, to the laws of the different states, and of their corporate 

 cities, in our own country ; as distinguished from those of the United 

 States. The Laws which govern the ordinary courts of justice in 

 Great Britain, France, and other nations, must, in the present classi- 

 fication of knowledge, be placed under this head. Municipal Law, 

 it will be seen, is that branch of Nomology which relates most im- 

 mediately to the rights and obligations of individuals, in their 

 private capacity. Hence, a knowledge of its provisions is more or 

 less important to every citizen, as a guide to the discharge of his 

 civil duties. 



The earliest municipal code of laws on record, is that of the Jews, 

 promulgated by Moses, under divine authority; 1491 to 1451, B. C. 

 Its morals are still obligatory ; though its ceremonials have passed 

 away. The Laws of Lycurgus, established in Sparta, 884 B. C. 

 were adapted to a nation of warriors, supported by their slaves. Those 

 of Draco, imposed on Athens, 623 B. C., famous only for their 

 severity, were succeeded by the milder code of Solon, 594 B. C., 

 which favored an aristocratic and commercial system of administra- 

 tion. Under these laws, public offences were tried before the Areo- 

 pagus, and higher courts ; but private suits were prosecuted before 

 new tribunals, the members of which were chosen by lot from among 

 the whole people. The Areopagus was also empowered to punish 

 vagabonds, and to watch over the public morals, and the rigorous 

 observance of the laws. 



The first Roman Laws which we can here notice, were those of 

 the Twelve Tables, compiled by the Decemviri, 450 B. C. They 

 were amended, and extended, by the successive Praters, acting as 

 judges; whose edicts, collected by Julianus, under Adrian, A. D. 131, 

 were pronounced perpetual. The imperial constitutions, or ordi- 

 nances, were first digested and codified under Theodosius II., A. D. 

 438 ; and finally at Byzantium, by Tribonian and others, under Jus- 

 tinian, A. D. 533. Tribonian prepared the Institutes, or element- 

 ary laws ; the Pandects, or digests of the opinions of eminent law- 

 yers ; and the Codex, or new code, of revised imperial constitutions ; 

 to which were afterwards added the Novels, or new constitutions, 

 partly subsequent to the time of Justinian : the whole constituting the 

 corpus juris civilis, or Roman Civil Law. This system of laws 

 was for a time lost, in the confusion of the dark ages ; but a copy of 

 the pandects, found at Amalfi, in Italy, in 1137, led to the codification 



