They held up a shield against arbitrary violence from above and sedition from within.

They encouraged peace-makers, punished peace-breakers.

They guarded the fundamental principle, 'ut sua tanerent', to the verge of absurdity; forbidding a freeman, without a freehold, from testifying--a capacity not denied even to a country slave.
Certainly all this was better than fist-law and courts manorial.

For the commencement of the thirteenth century, it was progress.
The Schout and Schepens, or chief magistrate and aldermen, were originally appointed by the sovereign.

In process of time, the election of these municipal authorities was conceded to the communities.