Acfatmire and De Terra Commendata (Linguistic and Juridical Analyses)
Acfatmire and De Terra Commendata (Linguistic and Juridical Analyses)

Summary/Abstract: The Franks were divided into two large tribes, the Salian and the Ripuarian. Both of them compiled the laws - Pacius Legis Salicae / Lex Salica and Lex Ribuaria / Lex Ripuaria. Despite the existing belief that “the barbarian laws are not unadulterated Germanic custom” (Murray, 1983 : 117), they give us a glimpse of the early Germanic institutions rooted in the tribal past (Rivers, 1986: 1-2). Some scholars (Holmes, Holdsworth, Frankel, Helmholz, etc.) suppose that Pacius Legis Salicae influenced the development of British law. They put special accent on the three-party ceremony of adoption - acfatmire - and its obvious impact on the formation of the common law trust. The present paper discusses the juridical-linguistic peculiarities of the Salians’ acfatmire and the Ripuarians’ adfatimire as well as their similarity with the British entrusting relationships. Moreover, special attention is paid to Article 65c, which is differently numbered and entitled (De terra co (n) demnata, De terra commendata, De terra condempnata, De terra condamnata, De terra condemnata) in several manuscripts of Lex Salica. The study of the existing data, manuscript materials and appropriate word entries of the dictionaries reveals that the word commendata is a verbal realization of the concept of entrustment. Moreover, the transfer of ancestral land depicted in Article 65c is comparable with the earliest entrusting relationships that existed in the times of the Crusades. Accordingly, the research proposes the innovative attitude towards the origin of the common law trust via depicting the connection between the commendata and the trusted administration of property.

• Details
• Contents