In considering the institutions of a comparatively crude state of society, such as existed in Europe in the early middle ages, it is misleading if not impossible to differentiate to any great extent the various functions and kinds of power which were commonly centered in the same individual.  Consequently the only safe way to give a clear idea of the position and the powers of the judex, is to give a description of the various offices to which judicial authority was attached, in degrees more or less complete, corresponding to the social and political importance of the person exercising this authority.

In the Lombard system, at the head of each civitas, as lord and as judge, was the dux, or duke.  His title and his office being but the relic of his original high position of leadership in the army of the invasion, when his command was only subject to that of the king, the leader-in-chief of the army-nation and head of the military constitution, he held directly from the king, attended the royal placita as the king’s vassal, and held placita of his own within his own jurisdiction, and over which he presided in person.  Beyond the duties of his own particular jurisdiction his chief office was to assist the king by his presence and his counsel, when the king gave his judgments at the annual assembly in March, at the capital Ticinum.  The importance of this concurrence of the judices in all the king’s decrees and official acts is illustrated by the fact that cases are rare in which this concurrence remains unmentioned.  The usual practice is to introduce in the prologue which is commonly attached to the laws given out during each year of the king’s reign, after the mention of the date “Kalendiis Martiarum,” some such expression as “cum nostris Judicibus";[17] or “ad nos conjungerentur Judices";[18] or “per suggestionem Judicum";[19] to which is sometimes added the formula “omniumque consensum,"[19] or “cum reliquis nostris Langobardis fidelis.”  That legislation was not considered valid until such consent and advice was obtained, we can see from the prologue to the laws issued in the thirteenth year of the reign of Liutprand, in which he refers to certain important “causae” which had come under his jurisdiction, and for which additional legislation was necessary, the laws already existing failing to reach them.  To meet the exigency new laws are enacted, but the king especially states that the cases must remain in abeyance until the new laws are confirmed by the judices at the next assembly in March.  In speaking of these “causae” in the above-mentioned prologue to the laws, he says:  “Proinde providimus eas usque ad suprascriptum diem Kalendii Martiarum suspendere dum usque nostri ad nos conjungerentur judices,” etc.[20] This attendance at the royal placita represents the most important of the legislative duties of the judex outside of his own jurisdiction.