I think I'm actually going to put a pin into my research for now. I have some things I would like to achieve in a certain time-frame and I think researching this topic is part of a ``death by a thousand cuts'' which is slowing my progress. Thanks for the conversation, especially sincere reply anon.
Once the state writes down whatever it thinks custom dictates and starts to enforce it systematically through state agents as "customary law", there's nothing customary about it. It's just law that the state justifies as custom.
I agree with this. Regarding study of early codifications my hope was that they would reflected the thinking of customary law which they derived from even though they categorically were not. Supposedly Iceland maintained a partial written law at the same time as largely customary derivation and enforcement so their law is probably the best place to start.
I'm not sure if you've come across the concept of mos maiorum in your travels
I hadn't stumbled across this idea before, no. Thanks for sharing. I may try to read more about this in the near future.
What's the big problem with laws?
That's not really the issue under discussion actually. I'm just struggle to understand the justification similarly to as I was struggling to understand morality as mentioned in >>1. A poorly written exposition was given in >>4. The fact that I'm earnestly looking for justification hints at my valuing law despite their lack of sound foundations.