16. The End of Roman Law
The collapse of centralized authority led to the fragmentation of Roman legal codes across Western Europe. Regions that once operated under a unified system of Roman law now reverted to diverse customary or tribal laws, administered by local chieftains. Legal consistency vanished, making justice unpredictable and often dependent on tradition or the will of the powerful. As the Oxford Classical Dictionary explains, this transformation dramatically altered the nature of law and order in the post-Roman world.
