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Which crimes could lead to outlawry in Germanic law?
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Germanic law
Euric, statue in the Plaza de Oriente, Madrid.
In Germanic law, outlawry was a severe sanction pronounced by the tribal assembly against individuals who committed offenses deemed harmful to the community as a whole.
Specifically, the crimes that could lead to a sentence of outlawry included:
- Treason
- Secret killing
- Secret theft
Once an individual was declared an outlaw by the assembly, they were stripped of all legal protection, meaning they could be killed by anyone without legal consequence. This stood in contrast to offenses against individuals, such as open killing or open robbery, which were typically handled through private feuds or the payment of compensation (such as wergild or bot), rather than by the community-wide sanction of outlawry.1