From the point of view of external form and function, there are two basic types of legilslation in the European history of law: the first one is labelled here “legis- lation of government”, the second one, “legislation of codification”. This paper describes the function and characteristics of both types of legislation. The first one serves political aims: it serves for the implementation and enforcement of political goals and system sconceptions. Therefore, the legislation of government originates from specific policy targets that should be materialized with its help. On the contrary, the legislation of codification is embedded with objectives of legal policy: the legal norm cosmos itself or a part of it has got to be brought to a methodical order that enforces its control and therefore increases the legal security. Thus, contrary to the legislation of government, the legislation of codification is retrospective oriented, because it gathers the outcomes of an old academic system and the systematization of a particular field of the law, putting it down, at the same time, in writing. Whenever both types of legislation coincide in a specific statute, the “legislation of government” is, clearly, the oldest one:the tradition of that kind of legislation reaches back to the high middle ages, whereas the legislation of codification is a product of the era of Natural Justice.