who had the primary responsibility of seeking justice in early germanic society
Ancient Germanic law Germanic law was codified in writing under the influence of Roman law; previously it was held in the memory of designated individuals who acted as judges in confrontations and meted out justice according to customary rote, based on careful memorization of precedent. Among the Franks they were called rachimburgs. "Living libraries, they were law incarnate, unpredictable and terrifying."[1] When justice is oral, the judicial act is personal and subjective.[according to whom?] Power, whose origins were at once said to be magical, divine and military was, according to Michel Rouche, exercised jointly by the "throne-worthy" elected king and his free warrior companions.[2] Oral law sufficed as long as the warband was not settled in one place. Germanic law made no provisions for the public welfare, the res publica of Romans.