Legal Remedy Quotes
There was much unrest caused by many evictions of poor tenant by landlords who were not recognizing any of their “duties”. This problem and the degree of government regulatory and legislative involvement have been on the political agenda for eons and continue to this day. The duties tend to change with times and places; the rights that the property owners assert seem to be constant and uniform.
This is one of the first attempts to decentralize the system of law and justice. Edgar was very supportive and tolerant of local differences and customs, including in the law.
This distinction is the basis for the Supreme Court Decision in New York Times v Sullivan where they ruled that the libel of a public figure is not to be punished unless it was malicious and not just defamatory. In England, a person can be sued for slandering a politician. Worse, truth is not an absolute defense in a libel suit in England as it is in the United States.
There are many who believe that this principle should operate today in America. We do not allow civil recovery from an errant or unscrupulous judge as there could be a very inhibiting factor on the willingness to serve. However the Visigoths, weighted down with religious and secular superstition still placed fairness as one of the most important elements of their legal system. This is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.
