Dombec

[Saxon, Judgment book.] The name given by the Saxons to the code of laws by which they lived.

Several Saxon kings published dombecs, also spelled dombocs. Dombecs were also known as dome-books or doom-books. The dombec compiled during the ninth-century reign of Alfred the Great was among the most important because it contained the law for the entire kingdom of England, encompassing the principal maxims of COMMON LAW, the penalties for crimes, and the forms of judicial proceedings.

A dombec is not the same as the Domesday Book, although the two are often confused.