The primordial origin of torts and crimes at common law was a system of compensation for wrongs, with no clear distinction between crimes and other wrongs.

From the Hellenic system onwards, the policy rationale for requiring the payment of monetary compensation for wrongs committed has involved the avoidance of feuding between clans and families.

The Edict makes no references to public life, the governance of trade, the duties of a citizen; instead it is minutely concerned with compensations for wrongs, a feature familiar from the wergeld of Anglo-Saxons, and the defence of property rights.