General State Laws for the Prussian States

Frederick's idea was not only to create a unified set of laws, but to make them clear and eliminate possible manipulations by different interpretation.

A previous attempt, Project eines Corporis Juris Fridericiani (1749–51), by Samuel von Cocceji, proved unsuccessful.

The first version was called the General Code for the Prussian states (German: Allgemeines Gesetzbuch für die Preußischen Staaten, AGB, 1792).

point out that while the code was written in German, it used an incredibly casuistic and imprecise language, making it hard to properly understand and use in practice.

After the second partition of Poland, it was promulgated on the annexed territories as subsidiary law, intended to accelerate the process of their integration with Prussia.