Salic law provided written codification of both civil law, such as the statutes governing inheritance, and criminal law, such as the punishment for murder. Although it was originally intended as the law of the Salians or Western Franks, it has had a formative influence on the tradition of statute law that extended to modern history in Western and Central Europe, especially in the German states, the Netherlands, parts of Italy and Spain, Austria-Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans. Its use of agnatic succession governed the succession of kings in kingdoms such as France and Italy.