Pandect, Law of

(German, Pandektenrecht), a system of private law that was in effect in Germany from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The law of pandect was based on the reworking of Roman law by the glossators, with the addition of precepts from canon law and legal customs from German feudal practice. Unlike the systems of law of the individual German states, the law of pandect was viewed as the common law (Das Gemeine Recht) of Germany. It played a part in the development of uniform economic relationships and of capitalism in Germany as a whole.

The codifications of law that were carried out in certain German states during the 18th and 19th centuries largely reflected the needs of the developing German bourgeoisie. After this codification was completed, the law of pandect was relegated to a subsidiary role. With the introduction of the German Civil Code in 1900, it ceased to exist; many of its principles, however, were accepted by bourgeois civil law. The term “law of pandect” was sometimes used to signify the German theory of civil law.