[en] The Hanse has long been supposed to have played a significant role in harmonising the trading customs and institutions across Northern Europe. Although recent research has questioned the existence of a process of legal harmonisation in the late Middle Ages, there remains one argument in favour of such a trend : the frequent mentions of a ‘Dudesche[s/n] recht’ in the sources about early Hanse trade. This paper demonstrates that such mentions cannot be considered as evidence of merchant militancy toward harmonisation. Most mentions of a Low German ‘Dudeschen recht’ refer to merchant jurisdictions rather than to a set of rules. Having this in mind, it becomes possible to study these jurisdictions as a network of independent but interconnected bodies, sources of a written and pluralistic body of law adapted to local contexts. The article finally explores to which extent this ‘Law of the Germans’ can be equated to the earliest mentions of the ‘Hanse’.