Posts: 1,313
Threads: 193
Joined: Apr 2006
Reputation:
4
Roman law is often cited as the main enduring legacy of the Imperium Romanum. I would like to know what elements in Roman law were so modern and progressive?
Was there equality before the law, for peasant and aristocrat alike, like the Athenian isonomy? Did they have next to the judge jury, state prosecutor and defender? Did they accept only witnesses or also evidence? Were they really the first to develop an international law (ius gentium)? Etc.
Literary references are welcomed.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
Posts: 800
Threads: 30
Joined: Feb 2006
Reputation:
0
Ave Stefan,
perhaps ‚ius civile’ is the most important connection to the past. While studying German law 20 year ago, I had still much to learn about the Roman roots of civil law in continental Europe. The Romans were the first to make law a discipline of science, developing some very theoretical and abstract ways of thinking…
Ownership, property, achievement of contracts, declarations of intentions, law of successions… For example simply to buy something means in theory two separated kinds of contracts: the purchase contract and the transition of ownership, with lots of problems, if only one part is judged ‘okay’…
Roman law was forgotten for centuries after the Empire was gone. But in later medieval times, their civil law had a come back and dominated the continental legal system, mostly basing on East Roman emperor Iustinian’s ‘Corpus Iuris Civilis’ (6th century A.D.) England, off course :wink: , was going it’s own way, being only partially influenced by Roman law, later causing effects to the US-system of law).
In some Regions of Germany, Roman civil law was still in force until 1900. So even today German lawyers and judges have to learn some basic Latin…and lots of 'dusty' technical terms :wink:
Greetings from germania incognita
Heiko (Cornelius Quintus)
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
