Feudal law describes a political system which placed men and estates under the hierarchical distinctions of "lords" and "vassals". Feudalism refers to the relations and interdependence between lord and vassal, based on the fief, or ownership of land.
The principal feature of this system was:
The right to all lands was vested in the sovereign, or king.
These tenants or vassals were bound to perform services to the king, usually as members of the king's army. These great lords again granted parts of the lands they thus acquired, to other inferior vassals, who held under them and were bound to perform services to the lord.
The principle went all the way down from those great lords to the lowly knight, with any number of levels in between, depending on the local circumstances. In theory, nobody really owned the land, all being a vassal to a higher noble, with the king or the emperor holding the property in trust for the divinity.
The first law code in Roman history was the Law of the Twelve Tables, the prelude to the development of Roman law, a highly elaborate system that has had immeasurable influence on the growth of Western law.
Roman law, together with the Bible, was the basis of canon law, the legal system of the Roman Catholic Church, while Muslim law was derived from the Qur’an and the traditional sayings of Muhammad, and later Hebrew law was based on the Talmud.
Feudallaw also showed the effects of Roman law, although in theory it was based not upon any concept of the state but on personal relations (see feudalism).
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