salic law
Salic law (sal-ik orsay-lik). An influential early medieval Frankish code of law that originated with the Salian Franks and that deals with a variety of civil property and family issues but is primarily a penal code listing the punishments for various crimes. • Salic law is the principal compilation of the early Germanic laws known collectively as leges barbarorum (“laws of the barbarians”). Salic law also designated a rule barring females from the line of succession to the throne, as a result of which references to Salic law have sometimes referred only to the code provision excluding women from inheriting certain lands (which probably existed only because military duties were connected with the inheritance). In the late 19th century, Oliver Wendell Holmes revived scholarly interest in Salic law by referring to it throughout The Common Law (1881). — Also termed Salique law; law Salique (s[schwa]-leekorsal-ik); lex Salica (leks sal-[schwa]-k[schwa]).
