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{{Short description|Legal system of Ancient Rome (c. 449 BC – AD 529)}}
{{For|Roman Catholic canon law|Canon law}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2023}}
{{Roman government}}
'''Roman law''' is the [[law|legal]] system of [[ancient Rome]], including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of [[jurisprudence]], from the [[Twelve Tables]] ({{Circa|449 BC}}), to the {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}} (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor [[Justinian I]].
Roman law also denoted the legal system applied in most of [[Western Europe]] until the end of the 18th century. In [[Germany]], Roman law practice remained in place longer under the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (963–1806). Roman law thus served as a basis for [[Civil law (legal system)|legal practice]] throughout Western continental Europe, as well as in most former colonies of these European nations, including Latin America, and also in Ethiopia.
English and [[Anglo-America]]n [[common law]] were influenced also by Roman law, notably in their Latinate legal glossary.<ref>In Germany, Art. 311 BGB</ref> Eastern Europe was also influenced by the jurisprudence of the {{lang|la|Corpus Juris Civilis}}, especially in countries such as medieval Romania, which created a new legal system comprising a mixture of Roman and local law.
After the dissolution of the [[Western Roman Empire]], the Roman law remained in effect in the [[Byzantine Empire]]. From the 7th century onward, the legal language in the East was Greek, with Eastern European law continuing to be influenced by [[Byzantine law]].
== Development ==
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".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Roman Law}}</ref>
Before the [[Twelve Tables]] (i.e between 754 and 449 BC), private law comprised the Roman civil law (''ius civile Quiritium'') that applied only to Roman citizens and was bonded to religion. The ''ius civile'' of the time was undeveloped, with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism, for example, as embodied in the ritual practice of ''[[mancipatio]]''. It is believed that Roman law is rooted in the [[Etruscan religion]], emphasizing ritual.<ref>Jenő Szmodis: [http://www.jogiforum.hu/publikaciok/231 ''The Reality of the Law – From the Etruscan Religion to the Postmodern Theories of Law'']; Ed. Kairosz, Budapest, 2005.</ref>
===Twelve Tables ===
{{Main|Twelve Tables}}
The first legal text of the Roman law is the [[Twelve Tables|Law of the Twelve Tables]], dating from the mid-fifth century BC. The [[plebeian]] [[tribune]], C. Terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily.<ref name=tellegen>"A Short History of Roman Law", Olga Tellegen-Couperus pp. 19–20.</ref> After eight years of political struggle, the plebeian social class convinced the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] to send a delegation to [[Athens]] to copy the [[Solonian Constitution|Laws of Solon]]; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for a like reason.<ref name=tellegen />
In 451 BC, according to the traditional story, according to [[Livy]], ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws, known as the ''[[decemviri]] legibus scribundis''. While they were performing this task, they were given supreme political power (''[[imperium]]''), whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted.<ref name="tellegen" /> In 450 BC, the ''decemviri'' produced the laws on ten tablets (''tabulae''), but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians. A second decemvirate is allegedly said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the people's assembly.<ref name="tellegen" />
Modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of [[Roman historiography|Latin historians]]. They generally do not believe that a second decemvirate ever took place. The decemvirate of 451 BC is believed to have assumed the leading functions in Rome and included the most controversial points of customary law.<ref name="tellegen" /> Questions concerning Greek influence on early Roman Law are still much discussed. Many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as the Latin historians believed. Rather, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of [[Magna Graecia]], the main portal between the Roman and Greek worlds.<ref name="tellegen" />
The original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the [[Gauls]] in 387 BC.<ref name="tellegen" /> The fragments which did survive show that it was not a law code in the modern sense. It did not provide a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules or give legal solutions for all possible cases. Rather, the tables contained specific provisions designed to change the then-existing [[customary law]]. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest part is dedicated to [[private law]] and [[civil procedure]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
===Early republican law===
{{Main|Lex Canuleia|Lex Hortensia|Lex Aquilia}}
Among the most consequential laws passed during the early [[Roman Republic|Republic]] were the ''[[Lex Canuleia]]'' (445 BC), which allowed marriage ''([[Marriage in ancient Rome|conubium]])'' between [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] and [[plebeian]]s; the ''[[Lex Licinia Sextia|Leges Liciinae Sextiae]]'' (367 BC), which restricted the amount of public land ''([[ager publicus]])'' that any citizen could occupy, and stipulated that one of the two annual consuls must be plebeian;<ref>''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', Third Edition. Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, Oxford University Press, 1996. Entry: ''Licinius Stolo, Gaius''</ref> the ''[[Lex Ogulnia]]'' (300 BC), which permitted plebeians to hold certain priestly offices as [[College of Pontiffs|pontiffs]] or [[Augur|augurs]]; and the ''[[Lex Hortensia]]'' (287 BC), which stated that the determinations of plebeian assemblies ''(plebiscita)'' would henceforth be binding on the entire ''populus Romanus'', both patricians and plebeians.<ref>''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', Third Edition. Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, Oxford University Press, 1996. Entry: ''Lex''</ref>
Another important statute from the Republican era is the ''[[Lex Aquilia]]'' of 286 BC, which may be regarded as the root of modern [[tort law]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
== Jurisprudence ==
Rome's most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a class of professional [[jurist]]s (''prudentes'' or ''jurisprudentes'', sing. ''prudens'') and of a [[legal science]]. This was achieved in a gradual process of applying the scientific methods of [[Greek philosophy]] to the subject of law, a subject which the Greeks themselves never treated as a science.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
Traditionally, the origins of Roman legal science are connected to [[Gnaeus Flavius (jurist)|Gnaeus Flavius]]. Around the year 300 BC, Flavius is said to have published the formularies containing the words which had to be spoken in court to begin a legal action. Before the time of Flavius, these formularies are said to have been secret and known only to the priests. Their publication made it possible for non-priests to explore the meaning of these legal texts. Whether or not this story is credible, jurists were active, and legal treatises were written in larger numbers before the 2nd century BC. Among the famous jurists of the republican period are [[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex|Quintus Mucius Scaevola]], who wrote an influential and voluminous treatise on all aspects of the law, and [[Servius Sulpicius Rufus]], a friend of [[Marcus Tullius Cicero]]. Thus, Rome had developed a very sophisticated legal system and a refined legal culture when the Roman republic was replaced by the monarchical system of the [[Principate]] in 27 BC.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Pre-classical period ===
In the period between about 201 to 27 BC, more flexible laws developed to match the needs of the time. In addition to the old and formal ''ius civile'', a new juridical class was created: the ''[[ius honorarium]]'': "The law introduced by the magistrates who had the right to promulgate edicts in order to support, supplement or correct the existing law."<ref>{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Adolf |title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=90–93 |year=1953 |jstor=291711 |doi=10.2307/297597 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oR0LAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA529|isbn=9780871694324 |s2cid=162540731 }}</ref> With this new law the old formalism was abandoned, and more flexible principles of ''[[ius gentium]]'' ("law of the nations") were used.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
The adaptation of law to new needs was given over to juridical practice, to [[Roman magistrate|magistrates]], and especially to the [[praetor]]s. Though the praetors were not legislators and did not technically create new law when he issued his [[Praetor's Edict|edicts]] (''magistratuum edicta''), the results of his rulings enjoyed legal protection (''actionem dare'') and were in effect often the source of new legal rules. A praetor's successor was not bound by the edicts of his predecessor. However, he did take rules from edicts of his predecessor that had proved to be useful. In this way a constant content was created that proceeded from edict to edict (''edictum traslatitium'').{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
Thus, over the course of time, parallel to the civil law and supplementing and correcting it, a new body of praetoric law emerged. In fact, praetoric law was so defined by the famous Roman jurist [[Papinian]] (142–212 AD): "''Ius praetorium est quod praetores introduxerunt adiuvandi vel supplendi vel corrigendi iuris civilis gratia propter utilitatem publicam''" ("praetoric law is that law introduced by praetors to supplement or correct civil law for public benefit"). Ultimately, civil law and praetoric law were fused in the {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}}.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Classical Roman law ===
{{Main|Gaius (jurist)|Ulpian|Papinian|Julius Paulus|Herennius Modestinus}}
The first 250 years of the current era are the period during which Roman law and Roman legal science reached its greatest degree of sophistication and influence. The law of this period is often referred to as the "classical period of Roman law".{{By whom
| date = September 2023
}} The Roman Republic had three different branches: the [[Legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic|Assemblies]], the [[Senate of the Roman Republic|Senate]], and the [[Roman consul|Consuls]]. The assemblies passed laws and made declarations of war; the Senate controlled the treasury; and the consuls had the highest juridical power.<ref>{{cite web |year=2002 |title=Consul |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/consul/ |access-date=19 June 2017 |work=[[Livius.org]]}}</ref>
The jurists worked in different functions, including giving legal opinions at the request of private parties; advising magistrates, especially the praetors; and helping the praetors draft their [[edict]]s, in which they publicly announced, at the beginning of their tenure, how they would handle their duties, and the formularies, according to which specific proceedings were conducted. Some jurists also held high judicial and administrative offices themselves.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
The jurists also produced various legal punishments. Around 130 AD, the jurist [[Salvius Iulianus]] drafted a standard form of the praetor's edict, which was used by all praetors from that time onwards. This edict contained detailed descriptions of all cases, in which the praetor would allow a legal action and in which he would grant a defense. The standard edict thus functioned like a comprehensive law code, even though it did not formally have the force of law. It indicated the requirements for a successful legal claim. The edict therefore became the basis for extensive legal commentaries by later classical jurists like [[Paul (jurist)|Paulus]] and [[Ulpian]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
During the pre-classical and classical period, such laws emerged as the separation of ownership and possession; contract and tort as distinct sources of obligations; standard types of contracts (sale, contract for work, hire, contract for services) regulated in most continental codes; the [[Institutes (Gaius)|Institutes of Gaius]], which invented a system of private law based on the division of all material into ''personae'' (persons), ''res'' (things) and ''actiones'' (legal actions). [[Gaius (jurist)|Gaius's]] system was used for many centuries, and has been recognized in legal treatises like [[William Blackstone]]'s ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' and enactments like the [[France|French]] [[Napoleonic Code|Code civil]] and the [[Germany|German]] [[Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch|BGB]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Post-classical law ===
By the middle of the 3rd century, the conditions for the flourishing of a refined legal culture had become less favourable. The general political and economic situation deteriorated as the emperors assumed more direct control of all aspects of political life. The political system of the [[Principate]], which had retained some features of the republican constitution, began to transform itself into the absolute monarchy of the [[Dominate]]. The existence of legal science and of jurists who regarded law as a science, not as an instrument to achieve the political goals set by the absolute monarch, did not fit well into the new order of things. Jurisprudential literary production all but ended. Few jurists after the mid-3rd century are known by name. While legal science and legal education persisted to some extent in the eastern part of the Empire, most of the subtleties of classical law came to be disregarded and finally forgotten in the west. Classical law was replaced by the so-called [[vulgar law]] of the late [[Roman Empire]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Byzantine law ===
{{Main|Corpus Juris Civilis|Byzantine law}}
[[File:Digesto 02.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Title page of a late 16th-century edition of the ''Digesta'', part of Emperor [[Justinian]]'s {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}}]]When the centre of the Empire was moved to the [[Greek East]] in the 4th century, many legal concepts of Greek origin appeared in the official Roman legislation.<ref name="coupers">{{cite book |last=Tellegen-Couperus |first=Olga Eveline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9-kvagJ_7sC |title=A Short History of Roman Law |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=9780415072502 |pages=174}}</ref> The influence is visible even in the law of persons or of the family, traditionally the part of the law that changes least. For example, [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] started putting restrictions on the ancient Roman concept of ''patria potestas'', the power held by the male head of a family over his descendants, by acknowledging that persons ''in potestate'', the descendants, could have proprietary rights. He was apparently making concessions to the much stricter concept of paternal authority under Greek-Hellenistic law.<ref name="coupers" /> The ''[[Codex Theodosianus]]'' (438 AD) was a [[codification (law)|codification]] of Constantian laws. Later emperors went even further, until Justinian finally decreed that a child ''in potestate'' became owner of everything it acquired, except when it acquired something from its father.<ref name="coupers" />
The codes of Justinian, particularly the {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}} (529–534) continued to be the basis of legal practice in the Empire throughout its so-called ''[[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]]'' history. [[Leo III the Isaurian]] issued a new code, the ''Ecloga'',<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ecloga |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ecloga |access-date=6 October 2018 |date=20 July 1998}}</ref> in the early 8th century. In the 9th century, the emperors [[Basil I]] and [[Leo VI the Wise]] commissioned a combined translation of the Code and the Digest, parts of Justinian's codes, into Greek, which became known as the [[Basilika|''Basilica'']]. Roman law as preserved in the codes of Justinian and in the Basilica remained the basis of legal practice in Greece and in the courts of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] even after the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the conquest by the Turks, and, along with the [[Syro-Roman law book]], also formed the basis for much of the ''[[Fetha Negest]]'', which remained in force in Ethiopia until 1931.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
== Substance ==
[[File:Wie die Römer Recht gesprochen haben(CC BY 4.0).webm|thumb|The basics of Roman law (in German with English captioning)]]
=== Concept of laws ===
The 2nd-century Roman [[jurist]] [[Ulpian]], however, divided law into three branches: natural law, which existed in nature and governed animals as well as humans; the law of nations, which was distinctively human; and, civil law, which was the body of laws specific to a people.<ref>''Digest'' 1.1.1.4; Tierney, ''The Idea of Natural Rights'', p. 136.</ref>
''[[Civil law (legal system)|Ius civile]]'' ("citizen law", originally ius civile Quiritium) was the body of common laws that applied to Roman citizens and the [[Praetor#Praetor urbanus|''Praetores Urbani'']], the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens. ''[[Ius gentium]]'' ("law of peoples") was the body of common laws that applied to foreigners, and their dealings with Roman citizens. The [[Praetor#Praetor peregrinus|''Praetores Peregrini'']] were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners. ''[[Ius naturale]]'' ("natural law") was the concept that all persons had a kind of common sense, which the jurists developed to explain why all people seemed to obey some laws.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
''[[Ius scriptum]]'' ("written law") was the body of statute laws made by the legislature, known as ''leges'' ({{lit|laws}}) and ''plebiscita'' ({{lit|plebiscites}}, originating in the [[Plebeian Council]]). Roman lawyers would also include in the ''ius scriptum'' the edicts of magistrates (''magistratuum edicta''), the advice of the Senate ({{lang|la|Senatus consulta}}), the responses and thoughts of jurists (''[[responsa]] prudentium''), and the proclamations and beliefs of the emperor (''principum placita''). ''[[Ius non scriptum]]'' ("unwritten law") was the body of common laws that arose from customary practice and had become binding over time.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
''[[Ius singulare]]'' ("singular law") was the special law for certain groups of people, things, or legal relations, as exceptional from the general rules of the legal system. For example, the ius singulare about wills written by people in the military during a campaign exempted them from the solemnities generally required for citizens when writing wills in normal circumstances. {{lang|la|[[Ius commune]]}} ("common law") was the general, ordinary, law, as distinct from ''ius singulare''.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
''[[Ius publicum]]'' ("public law") was the law that protected the interests of the Roman state. Roman criminal law was mostly private, with only the most severe crimes prosecuted by the state. ''Ius publicum'' was also used to describe obligatory legal regulations (today called ''[[Peremptory norm|ius cogens]]''). ''[[Ius privatum]]'' ("private law") was the law that protected individuals, which included personal, property, civil and criminal law as well as the procedural law of judicial proceedings (''iudicium privatum'').{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Public law ===
{{See also|Res publica}}[[File:Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate by Cesare Maccari.png|thumb|right|[[Cicero]], author of the classic book ''The Laws,'' attacks [[Catiline]] for attempting a coup in the [[Roman Senate]].]]
The [[Constitution of the Roman Republic|Roman Republic's constitution]] or ''[[mos maiorum]]'' ("custom of the ancestors") was an unwritten, informal, and unofficial set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent, constantly evolving throughout the life of the Republic.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
Throughout the 1st century BC, the power and legitimacy of the Roman constitution progressively eroded. Even Roman constitutionalists, such as the senator [[Cicero]], lost a willingness to remain faithful to it towards the end of the Republic. When the [[Roman Republic]] ultimately [[Augustus#First settlement|fell]] in the years following the [[Battle of Actium]] and [[Mark Antony]]'s suicide, what was left of the Roman constitution died along with the Republic. The first [[Roman emperor]], [[Augustus]], attempted to manufacture the appearance of a constitution that still governed the Empire, by utilising that constitution's institutions to lend legitimacy to the [[Principate]], e.g., reusing prior grants of greater ''[[imperium]]'' to substantiate Augustus' greater ''imperium'' over the [[imperial province]]s and the prorogation of different magistracies to justify Augustus' receipt of tribunician power. The belief in a surviving constitution lasted well into the life of the [[Roman Empire]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
Concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in constitutions to this day. Examples include [[Separation of powers#Checks_and_balances|checks and balances]], [[separation of powers|the separation of powers]], [[veto]]es, [[filibuster]]s, [[quorum]] requirements, [[term limits]], [[impeachment]]s, [[power of the purse|the powers of the purse]], and regularly scheduled [[elections]]. Even some lesser used modern constitutional concepts, such as the block voting found in the [[United States Electoral College|electoral college of the United States]], originate from ideas found in the Roman constitution.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Private law ===
''[[Stipulatio]]'' was the basic form of [[contract]] in Roman law. It was made in the format of question and answer. The precise nature of the contract is disputed.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
''[[Rei vindicatio]]'' is a legal action by which the [[plaintiff]] demands that the [[defendant]] return a thing that belongs to the plaintiff. It was only used when the plaintiff owns the thing, and the defendant somehow impeded the plaintiff's possession of the thing. The plaintiff could also institute an ''[[Furtum|actio furti]]'', a personal [[Cause of action|action]], to punish the defendant. If the thing could not be recovered, the plaintiff could also claim damages from the defendant with the aid of the ''condictio furtiva'', another personal action. With the aid of the ''actio legis Aquiliae'', another personal action, the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant. ''Rei vindicatio'' was derived from the ''[[roman law#Ius Civile, Ius Gentium, and Ius Naturale|ius civile]]'', and was only available to Roman citizens.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
=== Status ===
{{Main|Status in Roman legal system}}
A person's abilities and duties within the Roman legal system depended on their legal ''status''. The individual could have been a Roman citizen (''status civitatis''), unlike a foreigner; been free (''status libertatis''), unlike slaves; or had a certain position in a Roman family (''status familiae'') either as the head of the family (''[[pater familias]]'') or some lower member (''alieni iuris'' "one who lives under someone else's law").{{cn|date=February 2023}}
=== Litigation ===
{{Main|Roman litigation}}
The history of Roman Law can be divided into three systems of procedure: ''legis actiones'', the ''formulary system'', and ''cognitio extra ordinem''. The periods in which these systems were in use overlapped and did not have definitive breaks. Roughly, ''legis actio'' system prevailed from the time of the XII Tables (c. 450 BC) until about the end of the 2nd century BC; the formulary procedure was primarily used from the last century of the Republic until the end of the classical period (c. AD 200); and ''cognitio extra ordinem'' was used in post-classical times.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jolowicz |first1=Herbert Felix |first2=Barry |last2=Nicholas |author2-link=Barry Nicholas |title=Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law. |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nwg9AAAAIAAJ |pages=528 |isbn=9780521082532}}</ref>
During the republic and until the bureaucratization of Roman judicial procedure, the judge was usually a private person (''[[Privatus#Iudex privatus|iudex privatus]]''). He had to be a Roman male citizen. The parties could agree on a judge, or they could appoint one from a list of judges known as the ''album iudicum''. They went down the list until they found a judge agreeable to both parties, or if none could be found they had to take the last one on the list.
No one had a legal obligation to judge a case. Judges had great latitude in the way they conducted litigation. He considered all the evidence and ruled in the way that seemed just. Because the judge was not a jurist or a legal technician, he often consulted a jurist about the technical aspects of the case, but he was not bound by the jurist's reply. At the end of the litigation, if things were not clear to him, he could refuse to give a judgment, by swearing that it wasn't clear. Also, there was a maximum time to issue a judgment, which depended on some technical issues of law.
Later on, with the bureaucratization, this procedure disappeared, and was substituted by the so-called ''extra ordinem'' procedure, also known as the cognitory system. The whole case was reviewed before a magistrate in a single phase. The magistrate had obligation to judge and to issue a decision, and the decision could be appealed to a higher magistrate.
== Legacy ==
{{Blockquote|text=German legal theorist [[Rudolf von Jhering]] famously remarked that [[ancient Rome]] had conquered the world three times: the first through its armies, the second through its religion, the third through its laws. He might have added: each time more thoroughly.
|author=[[David Graeber]]
|source=''[[Debt: The First 5,000 Years]]''}}
=== In the West ===
{{Main|Early Germanic law|Anglo-Saxon law|Medieval Roman law}}
In the west, Justinian's political authority never went any farther than certain portions of the Italian and Hispanic peninsulas. In [[Early Germanic law|Law codes]] issued by the Germanic kings, however, the influence of early Eastern Roman codes on some of these is discernible. In many early Germanic states, Roman citizens continued to be governed by Roman laws for quite some time, even while members of the various Germanic tribes were governed by their own respective codes.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
The ''[[Codex Justinianus]],'' [[Institutes of Justinian]], and the earlier code of [[Theodosius II]] were well-known in Western Europe and served as models for a few of the Germanic law codes. However, the ''[[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]]'' portion was largely ignored for several centuries until around 1070, when a manuscript of the ''Digest'' was rediscovered in Italy. This was done mainly through the works of glossars who wrote their comments between lines (''glossa interlinearis''), or in the form of [[marginal note]]s (''glossa marginalis''). From that time, scholars began to study the ancient Roman legal texts, and to teach others what they learned from their studies. The center of these studies was [[Bologna]]. The law school there gradually developed into Europe's first university.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
There are several reasons that Roman law was favored in the [[Middle Ages]]. Roman law regulated the legal protection of property and the equality of legal subjects and their wills, and it prescribed the possibility that the legal subjects could dispose their property through testament. The students who were taught Roman law in Bologna (and later in many other places) found that many rules of Roman law were better suited to regulate complex economic transactions than the customary rules applicable throughout Europe. For this reason, Roman law, or at least some provisions borrowed from it, began to be re-introduced into legal practice, centuries after the end of the Roman empire. This process was actively supported by many kings and princes who employed university-trained jurists as counselors and court officials and sought to benefit from rules like ''princeps legibus solutus est'' ("The sovereign is not bound by the laws", a phrase initially coined by [[Ulpian]], a Roman jurist).{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
By the middle of the 16th century, the rediscovered Roman law dominated the legal practice of many European countries. A legal system, in which Roman law was mixed with elements of [[canon law]] and of Germanic custom, especially [[feudal law]], had emerged. This legal system, which was common to all of continental Europe (and [[Scots law|Scotland]]) was known as {{lang|la|[[Ius Commune]]}}. This ''Ius Commune'' and the legal systems based on it are usually referred to as [[civil law (legal system)|civil law]] in English-speaking countries.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
Only [[Kingdom of England|England]] and the Nordic countries did not take part in the wholesale reception of Roman law. One reason for this is that the [[Common law#History|English legal system]] was more developed than its continental counterparts by the time Roman law was rediscovered. Therefore, the practical advantages of Roman law were less obvious to English practitioners than to continental lawyers. As a result, the English system of [[common law]] developed in parallel to Roman-based civil law, with its practitioners being trained at the [[Inns of Court]] in London rather than receiving degrees in Canon or Civil Law at the Universities of [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] or [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]. Elements of Romano-canon law were present in England in the [[ecclesiastical courts]] and, less directly, through the development of the [[equity (law)|equity]] system. In addition, some concepts from Roman law made their way into the common law. Especially in the early 19th century, English lawyers and judges were willing to borrow rules and ideas from continental jurists and directly from Roman law.
The practical application of Roman law, and the era of the European ''Ius Commune'', came to an end when national codifications were made. In 1804, the [[Napoleonic code|French civil code]] came into force. In the course of the 19th century, many European states either adopted the French model or drafted their own codes. In Germany, the political situation made the creation of a national code of laws impossible. From the 17th century, Roman law in Germany had been heavily influenced by domestic (customary) law, and it was called ''usus modernus Pandectarum''. In some parts of Germany, Roman law continued to be applied until the German [[civil code]] ([[Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch]], BGB) went into effect in 1900.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Roman law : an historical introduction|last=Wolff, Hans Julius, 1902-1983.|date=1951|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0585116784|___location=Norman|pages=208|oclc=44953814}}</ref>
Colonial expansion spread the civil law system.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/119271/civil-law |title=Civil law (Romano-Germanic) |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |first1=Max |last1=Rheinstein |author-link=Max Rheinstein |first2=Mary Ann |last2=Glendon |first3=Paolo |last3=Carozza |access-date=6 October 2018 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]]}}</ref>
=== Today ===
[[File:Map of the Legal systems of the world (en).png|thumb|250px|Legal systems of the world. Blue is based on Roman law.]]
Today, Roman law is no longer applied in legal practice, even though the legal systems of some countries like [[South Africa]] and [[San Marino]] are still based on the old ''[[jus commune]]''. However, even where the legal practice is based on a code, many rules deriving from Roman law apply: no code completely broke with the Roman tradition. Rather, the provisions of the Roman law were fitted into a more coherent system and expressed in the national language. For this reason, knowledge of the Roman law is indispensable to understand the legal systems of today. Thus, Roman law is often still a mandatory subject for law students in [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law jurisdictions]]. In this context, the annual [[International Roman Law Moot Court]] was developed in order to better educate the students and to network with one another internationally.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.irlm.law.cam.ac.uk/| title = International Roman Law Moot}}</ref><ref>Paolo De Luca "Quattro studenti della Federico II in gara a Oxford inscenano un antico processo romano" In: La Repubblica, 05.04.2013.</ref><ref>Areti Kotseli "Greek Law Students Finish Second in the 2012 International Roman Law Moot Court Competition" In: Greek Reporter 13.04.2012.</ref>
As steps towards a unification of the private law in the member states of the [[European Union]] are being taken, the old ''jus commune'', which was the common basis of legal practice everywhere in Europe, but allowed for many local variants, is seen by many as a model.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}
== See also ==
* [[Abalienatio]] (legal transfer of property)
* [[Auctoritas]] (power of the sovereign)
* [[Capitis deminutio]]
* [[Cessio bonorum]] (surrender of goods to a creditor)
* [[Compascuus]] (common pasture)
* [[Constitution (Roman law)]]
* [[Homo sacer]]
* [[Inheritance law in ancient Rome]]
* [[Justitium]] (akin to modern [[state of emergency|state of exception]])
* [[List of Roman laws]]
* [[
* [[Ancient Greek law]]
* [[Roman-Dutch law]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Sources==
* Berger, Adolf, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oR0LAAAAIAAJ "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law"], ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', Vol. 43, Part 2., pp. 476. Philadelphia : [[American Philosophical Society]], 1953. (reprinted 1980, 1991, 2002). {{ISBN|1-58477-142-9}}
== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Bablitz |first=Leanne E. |year=2007 |title=Actors and Audience in the Roman Courtroom |___location=London |doi=10.4324/9780203946770 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-94677-0 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Bauman |first=Richard A. |year=1989 |isbn=9783406337734 |title=Lawyers and Politics in the Early Roman Empire |___location=Munich |publisher=C. H. Beck}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Borkowski |first1=Andrew |last2=Du Plessis |first2=Paul |year=2020 |title=Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law |edition=6 |___location= |doi=10.1093/he/9780198848011.001.0001 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-884801-1 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Buckland |first=William Warwick |author-link=William Warwick Buckland |year=1963 |title=A Textbook of Roman Law from Augustus to Justinian |edition=3rd |___location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |others=Revised by P. G. Stein}}
* {{Cite book |last=Daube |first=David |year=1969 |isbn=9780852240519 |title=Roman Law: Linguistic, Social and Philosophical Aspects |___location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh Univ. Press}}
* {{Cite journal |last=De Ligt |first=Luuk |year=2007 |title=Roman Law and the Roman Economy: Three Case Studies |journal=Latomus |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=10–25 |jstor=41545348}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Du Plessis |first=Paul |year=2006 |title=Janus in the Roman Law of Urban Lease |journal=Historia |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=48–63 |doi=10.25162/historia-2006-0004 |jstor=4436798}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gardner |first=Jane F. |author-link=Jane F. Gardner |year=1986 |title=Women in Roman Law and Society |___location=London |doi=10.4324/9780203134603 |publisher=Croom Helm|isbn=978-0-203-13460-3 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Gardner |first=Jane F. |author-link=Jane F. Gardner |year=1998 |title=Family and Familia in Roman Law and Life |___location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198152170.001.0001 |publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-815217-0 }}
* {{Cite book | last = Harries | first = Jill | year = 1999 | title = Law and Empire in Late Antiquity | ___location = | publisher = Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511482809| isbn = 978-0-521-41087-8 |author-link=Jill Harries}}
* {{Cite book | last = Nicholas | first = Barry | year = 1962 | title = An Introduction to Roman Law | ___location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Nicholas |first1=Barry |last2=Birks |first2=Peter |year=1989 |isbn=9780198256144 |title=New Perspectives in the Roman Law of Property |___location= |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{Cite book |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |year=2004 |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=Jonathan |title=Cicero the Advocate |___location= |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152804.001.0001 |editor-last2=Paterson |editor-first2=Jeremy |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn= 0-19-815280-9}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Rives |first=James B. |year=2003 |title=Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime |journal=Classical Antiquity |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=313–39 |doi=10.1525/ca.2003.22.2.313}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schulz |first=Fritz |author-link=Fritz Schulz (jurist) |year=1946 |title=History of Roman Legal Science |___location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}
* {{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Peter |year=1999 |title=Roman Law in European History |___location=New York |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511814723 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-64372-6 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Tellegen-Couperus |first=Olga E. |year=1993 |title=A Short History of Roman Law |___location=London |doi=10.4324/9780203416464 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-41646-4 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Wenger |first=Leopold |author-link=Leopold Wenger |year=1953 |title=Die Quellen des römischen Rechts |___location=Vienna |language=de |publisher=Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften}}
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Roman law}}
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Roman law |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* [http://www.iuscivile.com/ A collection of resources maintained by professor Ernest Metzger]
* [https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/ ''The Roman Law Library'' by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev]
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA/Law/home.html The Roman Law Articles of Smith's Dictionary]
* [http://www.romanlegaltradition.org/ ''Roman Legal Tradition'': open access journal devoted to Roman law]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Roman Law|short=x}}
{{Roman Constitution}}
{{Ancient Rome topics}}
{{Law}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Roman law| ]]
[[Category:Italian inventions]]
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