Concept

Lübeck law

Summary
The Lübeck law (Lübisches (Stadt)Recht) was the family of codified municipal law developed at Lübeck, which became a free imperial city in 1226 and is located in present-day Schleswig-Holstein. It was the second most prevalent form of municipal law in medieval and early modern Germany next to the Magdeburg Law. Lübeck Law provided for municipal self-government and self-administration yet did not negate dependence upon a lord, be it a bishop, duke, king or, in Lübeck's case, an emperor. Instead, it allowed the cities a certain degree of autonomy and self-reliance in legislative, judicial and executive matters. While these authorities were vested in the city council (Rat), the members of which could be elected by co-option, the Lübeck Law represents a significant modernization of governance in that a class of burghers, as opposed to nobles, were responsible for the day-to-day affairs of governing. The Lübeck Law is not analogous to Hanseatic law. Hanseatic cities adopted either Lübeck or Magdeburg law. Lübeck set about spreading its form of government to other cities around the Baltic Sea. Eventually about 100 adopted a government based on the law. It still serves as a foundation for German town laws in many of those cities. Later in the 13th century, cities predominantly governed by the Lübeck Law formed into a powerful trade association, the Hanseatic League, which amounted to a quasi-confederacy with headquarters at Lübeck. However, by the 15th century, major kontore and smaller trading posts of the Hanse, which was then at the high point of its influence, spread throughout northern Central Europe and the British Isles, from London to Veliky Novgorod and from Trondheim to Frankfurt, dominating trade far beyond German-speaking regions and also far beyond the cities where Lübeck law was in force. The earliest Latin manuscript transmitting the Lubeck law dates to 1226, the oldest Middle Low German manuscript to 1270. The earliest reference to a Lübeck law manuscript is attributed to 1188.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.