French Coutumes

Medieval customary law was a mixture of Frankish law, Roman law, canon and feudal law, and royal legislation. In France customary law prevailed in the pays de coutume, the regions of central and northern France. In these areas the local parlements acted as independent sovereign judicial bodies, basing their decisions on local customs and privileges.

Local customs and usages began to be compiled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and in the fifteenth century some provinces sponsored compilations of their own coutumes. In 1453 Charles VII ordered the codification of all local and provincial customary law. This process was carried on in various forms until the eve of the Revolution, at which time there were 60 provincial coutumes and over 300 local ones. The Harvard Law Library's collection of French coutumes contains over 800 separate editions printed before the Revolution.