Some dynasties have codified house laws, which then form a distinct section of the laws of the realm, e.g., Monaco, Japan, Liechtenstein and, formerly, most of Germany's monarchies, as well as Austria and Russia. Other monarchies had few laws regulating royal life. In still others, whatever laws existed were not gathered in any particular section of the nation's laws. In Germany where many dynasties reigned as more or less independent sovereigns, laws governing dynastic rights constituted a distinct branch of jurisprudence called private princely law ("Privatfürstenrecht").