Anglo-Saxon law (
Old English ǣ, later
lagu "law";
dōm "decree, judgement") is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the
Anglo-Saxon period in
England, before the
Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early
Scandinavian law and
Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought. However, Anglo-Saxon
law codes are distinct from other early Germanic legal statements - known as the
leges barbarorum - in part because they were written in
Anglo-Saxon, instead of in
Latin. The laws of the Anglo-Saxons were the second in
medieval Western Europe after those of the Irish to be expressed in a language other than Latin.