Law of Denmark

Danish law follows a civil law system, but one that developed from regional legal traditions rather than from Roman law, whose influence on Danish law is described as minimal. Its earliest major source was the Jyske Lov, the Law of Jutland, from 1241, and legal unity across the kingdom was later advanced by the Danske Lov, the Danish Code, of 1683; the system has continued to evolve through judicial decisions and royal decrees. Danish law divides into private law, covering areas such as labor, vacation, consumer protection and landlord tenant relations, and public law, covering the criminal code, urban planning and social programs, and includes specific legislation on subjects such as abortion and nationality. It also carries the distinctive principle of danefae, under which valuable objects discovered with no traceable owner become the property of the state.