Laws and Customs

Laws and Customs of the peoples living in the Seven Kingdoms are based on their feudal system of government.

The King’s Peace
Lords have judicial power over cases that occur on their lands. A lord will hear petitions at his local castle-court, sit in judgment at trials, and pass sentence based on the evidence. In theory, justice derives from the authority of the King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, who sits on the Iron Throne in the capital city of King’s Landing. The King’s power is delegated out to other great lords of the realm. This extends in a hierarchy from the king, to the rulers of the Great Houses (such as House Lannister), to major Houses (such as House Tarth), to minor Houses (such as House Cassel).

The King’s Peace is supposed to extend over the whole realm, and though small scale feuds or succession wars happen now and again, the constant wars between the independent Seven Kingdoms were put to an end when they were unified in the Targaryen Conquest three hundred years ago. The King’s peace also extends to protection from outlaws and pirates. The Targaryen Conquest specifically forced the ironborn to abandon their Old Way of preying on the commercial shipping of Westeros itself (though it is tacitly acknowledged that they instead raid the shipping and shores of other lands in Essos for plunder).

The Seven Kingdoms do have a “Master of Laws”, suggesting some sort of statutory written laws exist, but their legal system still appears to be primarily based on customary laws, prior precedent, and the wisdom of the lord presiding over a decision.

Individual lords are supposed to enforce the laws and carry out punishment on their own lands. Only the major cities (and possibly a few of the large towns) have dedicated “police forces”, such as the City Watch of King’s Landing.