The Lübeck Law: Common Law of the Hanseatic Cities
The Lübeck town law, the Lübisches Recht, was the common law of the Hanseatic cities and one of the most important legal codes of medieval Europe. The law was based on the customary law of the northern German towns, the Saxon Sachsenspiegel, and the Frisian and Flemish legal traditions that the Flemish and Dutch settlers of Lübeck had brought with them in the twelfth century. The law was first codified in the early thirteenth century, and the law was adopted, with local variations, by the great majority of the Hanseatic cities.
What the Lübeck law governed
The Lübeck law was, in the first instance, a town law: it governed the internal affairs of the city, including the rights of citizens, the powers of the council, the conduct of trade, the resolution of disputes, and the punishment of crimes. The law was, however, also a commercial law: it governed contracts, partnerships, agency, bankruptcy, and the resolution of commercial disputes. The law was, in this sense, one of the most important commercial law codes of the medieval period.
A useful background: the Lübisches Recht is one of the two great municipal-law families of northern Germany, the other being the Magdeburger Recht (Magdeburg law). The two systems competed in the borderlands between the Wendish and Saxon territories, and a city could sometimes switch allegiance from one law to the other over time. The Magdeburg law, slightly more conservative, was more common in the inland Saxon territories; the Lübeck law, more open to commercial innovation, dominated the Baltic coast and the Wendish towns.
The cities that adopted the Lübeck law
The Lübeck law was adopted, with local variations, by the great majority of the Hanseatic cities. The Wendish towns of the Baltic — Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald, Danzig, Elbing, Königsberg, and others — all adopted the Lübeck law, and the Lübeck law became the common law of the Wendish towns. The Westphalian cities had their own traditions (notably the Soest town law), but the Lübeck law was also influential in the Westphalian cities, and many of the smaller cities adopted the Lübeck law as their own.
A note on the form of adoption: the standard procedure was that Lübeck would grant a Freiheitsbrief (charter of liberties) to a new city, and the new city would adopt the Lübisches Recht with local modifications. The Rezeßbuch — the Hanseatisches Rezessbuch — preserved the standard form of the charter, and the principal versions are kept in the Lübecker Stadtarchiv. The Lübisches Recht in its most-codified form is the Lübisches Stadtrecht of 1226 (the Freibrief of Frederick II) and its 13th- and 14th-century revisions.
An international court system
The Lübeck law was, in many ways, a remarkable achievement. The law was applied in the courts of every member city, and the decisions of one city’s court were recognised and enforced by the courts of all the others. The system was, in effect, a sort of international court system, and the system was one of the most advanced legal institutions of the medieval period.
The Lübeck law was, in many ways, the foundation of the Hanseatic commercial system. The law gave the merchants of the League a common set of rules to govern their trade, and the law gave the merchants the confidence to do business with one another across the length and breadth of the League. The law was, in this sense, one of the principal reasons for the League’s commercial success.
A lasting legacy
The Lübeck law left a substantial legacy in the legal traditions of northern Europe. The law was adopted by so many cities that it became, in effect, the common law of the Baltic, and the law survived, in many places, until the nineteenth century, when it was replaced by the modern civil codes of the various German states. The law also influenced the development of the commercial law of modern Germany, and many of the principles of the Lübeck law are still part of the modern German commercial code.
A useful note on the survival: the Lübeck law was the active law of the Baltic cities until the 19th century, when the German states adopted the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB, 1900) and the Handelsgesetzbuch (HGB, 1897/1900). The HGB’s provisions on commercial partnerships and on the Prokura (commercial power of attorney) are still recognisably descended from the Lübeck law of the 13th century. The BGB’s neighbour law and property law are also partly Lübeck-derived.