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( Roman law)
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Politics and government of
Ancient Rome Roman law in a broad sense refers not only to the legal system of ancient Rome, but also to the law that was applied throughout most of Western Europe until the end of the 18th century. In some countries like Germany the practical application of Roman law lasted even longer. For these reasons, many modern civil law systems in Europe and elsewhere are heavily influenced by Roman law. This is especially true in the field of private law. Even the English and North American Common law owes some debt to Roman law although Roman law exercised much less influence on the English legal system than on the legal systems of the continent. The influence of Roman law is shown by the wealth of legal terminology, retained by all legal systems, like stare decisis, culpa in contrahendo[1] or pacta sunt servanda. Interestingly the Eastern European countries, though heavily influenced by the Byzantine Empire from which the Corpus Juris Civilis came, were not significantly influenced by the Corpus. They were, however, influenced to some degree by the Roman Farmer's Law. Before the Twelve Tables (754–201 BC), private law consisted of the old Roman civil law (ius civile Quiritium), which applied only to Roman citizens. It was closely bonded to religion and it was undeveloped with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism and conservatism, such as the highly-ritualised practice of Mancipatio, a form of sale. The jurist Sextus Pomponius said, "At the beginning of our city, the people began their first activities without any fixed law and without any fixed rights all things were ruled despotically by kings".[2] It has been suggested that the ancient roots of the Roman Law derive directly from the Etruscan religion, which puts great emphasis on the rituality and is rather formality-centred concerning its nature. [3]
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