Breakin' the Law
The Law of Nations
Also called customary law because it was law based upon the customs of a specific people, the law of nations was recognized to be variable. Each people could have its own laws and these were specific to that people, derived from experience. Both divine and natural law were universal and eternal; customary law was fallible. So, for example, both natural law ordains that some will be the lord over others. Divine law ordains that kings shall rule and subjects obey. But customary law authorizes the king of a particular people to raise troops under specific conditions.
Law was therefore the product not of general principles but of specific experience. English law was different from French law. The laws of Florence were different from the laws of Siena. This was right and proper, the natural order of things. And if a Sienese committed a crime against a foreigner, the first question was: in what court should he be tried? Or, to make it more interesting, if a Venetian should assault a Florentine while in a tavern in Milan, whose law prevails? This extended not only to the question of what specific law was violated, but also to the venue for the trial, the rules of evidence, and the types of punishment. The situation where this question was raised early and often was in commercial law, in the matter of disputes over bills and fraud. In Champagne in the 13th century, it was worked out that there would be special courts, in session only for the duration of the fair, and these would hear disputes. This was the early foundations of international commercial law.