Roman law - Definition


Roman law - Definition

Roman law is the legal system of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from its earliest days to the time of the Eastern Roman Empire, even to the time of the Emperor Justinian I after the fall of Rome itself.

Roman law is the foundation of many legal systems of the world.

So-called Civil law systems are based on Roman law. The legal systems of most countries in continental Europe and South America fall into this category, frequently through the Napoleonic Code. These are sometimes called Latin systems (or "operating jure latino").

In the Common law the influence of Roman law was less important. The Common Law developed into a tradition of its own in England, from where it expanded to the United Kingdom (apart from Scotland), to the United States (apart from Louisiana), and to most former British colonies.

Roman law has its beginnings in the code known as the Twelve Tables (449 BC). From there Roman law became highly advanced for its time, developing over the centuries many of the legal institutions that are taken for granted today.

For example, Roman law developed the differentiation between contract and tort. Previously (as in ancient Greek law), contract violations were simply a kind of tort. Also, the differentiation between possession (which is a factual state: someone has something) and property (which is a right; later formulated as the right to do whatever one wishes with something) was developed in Roman law, most visible in the rei vindicatio, the action of the owner against the possessor to release a piece of property. Finally, the origins of today's concept that contracts are valid when there is a meeting of the minds can be found in the Roman rules about credits, which could be freely agreed on and were called stipulatio.

Roman law also developed the concepts of one law for the citizens and another law for foreigners – the beginnings of private international law.

Roman law also speaks volumes of the Roman mindset in general. Praetorial intervention ensured that the law could adapt to the changing needs of a rapidly expanding empire. This was achieved, however, under the guise of consistency and attachment to traditional values. The Praetor "changed" the law not by rewriting it but by offering new remedies to cope with new problems. This attachment to the past and suspicion of change is arguably characteristic of Roman thinking.

Roman law was compiled in the Codex Theodosianus on 438, and in the next century, the Emperor Justinian arranged for the re-organisation of most of Roman law in his Codex and his Pandectae, a fifty book set that took three years to compile and was completed in 533. The Emperor also ordered the production of a textbook, Iustiniani Institutiones (the Justinian teaching manual), during the early 530s. It was intended as an overview of Roman law for legal students and consisted of just four books. They were granted the force of law, an unusual distinction for a textbook. Justinian's work was completed by Pandectae (or Digesta), Institutiones and Codex are part of the Corpus Juris Civilis. This has been called the most influential law work ever written as it has been on the reading list for legal students in countries using Civil law for nearly 1500 years so far.

Roman law methods are divided three types of process that refers to the govermental periods of Rome (Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire (the principate and dominate)). The "legis actiones"-period during the kingdom and the first part of the republic. In the 3rd century BC the Roman law process had evolved into the "formulas"-period which continued until the first part of the principate. And finally the "cognition"-period during until the end of the dominate.

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Further reading