. When rural lords, lay and ecclesiastical, levied exactions on the rest of the population without clear legal authority, they justified them as being “customary.” These customary dues, or coutumes (Lat. consuetudines), ranged from payments...

In law, custom can be described as the established patterns of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law." Generally, customary...