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Roman Law |
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Ancient legal texts, literature, papyri, wax tablets and inscriptions, show that ancient Roman law covered areas of everyday Roman life such as crime and punishment, land and property possession, commerce, the maritime and agricultural industries, citizenship, sexuality and prostitution, slavery, local and state politics, liability and damage to property, and the preservation of peace. There were various ways the Romans established these laws, for example, statutes, magisterial decisions, emperor's edicts, senatorial decrees, assembly votes, plebiscites and the deliberations of expert legal counsel were all forms in which Romans laid out the law to be flexible in the ever changing Roman World. The legal system covered both civilian and Roman Soldiers matters and was a foundation for Western legal codes. |
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Roman law was conducted in an open air forum. A notable facet of Roman Law was the use of precise language. |
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History of Roman LawBeginning of Law The Corpus Iuris Civilis, one of the most important sources of Roman law, was compiled under the guidance of Justinian I and covered civil law, as its name suggests. One of its four books, the Digest, handles all aspects of public and private law. The Digest was created in 533 CE under the supervision of Tribonian and is an overview of around 2000 separate legal volumes. Jurists, or legal experts, such as Gaius, Ulpian and Paul, were some of the notable sources of the original sources for the Digest and they make it one of the richest texts from the past, historical information lies incidentally within the Digest as accounts were used for specific examples, ranging from life expectancy to tax figures. The Codex Gregorianus (292 CE) and the Codex Hermogenianus (295 CE) are other collections of Roman laws. Both are named after prominent jurists during the reign of Diocletian and include over 2,500 texts collectively. Also, there is the Theodosian Code, a collection of over 2,700 laws compiled in the 430s CE and added to in subsequent years and, finally, the Codex Iustinianus (528-534 CE), which summarizes and extends the older codices. Some legal documents have survived the years such as documents that disclose business transactions of all kinds, from rents and lease agreements to contracts outlining the transfer of property. The Romans also publicized new laws, or gave thanks for court victories to those who had aided the party involved, through inscriptions on public monuments. In the Roman military, centurions carried a cudgel, that was there symbol of authority. This was because they had the right to beat soldiers with it for disobedience. However, the citizens were given many protections from abuse by the military, at least during the Republic. However, Emperors often overlooked these rights.
Roman law was cumulative in nature; a new law could be added to the legal corpus or supersede a previous law. Statutes, plebiscites, senatorial decrees, decided cases, customs and edicts from the Emperor, magistrates or other high officials could all be sources of Roman law. The Twelve Tables, was the first source of Roman law, which survives only as citations in later sources. Following an initiative to collect in one place the civil laws of the early Republic and end the exclusive domination of matters of law by the priestly and patrician class, laws governing relationships between citizens were codified and separated from sacred law. The Twelve Tables did not cover everything and was useless at times, for example, as commercial activity grew it became necessary to provide legal coverage for transactions and business deals between citizens and non-citizens Also, it was important to incorporate laws that considered the behavior and intent of the parties involved. Over time the emphasis became more in the adapting of existing laws rather than the creation of an entire new legislation. This was handled partially in the annual Praetor's Edict when the types of permissible cases, defense and exceptions were outlined and a review of the previous year's legal policy, making any necessary legal changes. With this procedure the application of laws that could be adapted, while the law itself remained the same. A very important element of Roman law was the jurists, legal experts who interpreted written laws, rules and institutions in order to understand the basic legal matters that the law applies to and then tested those principles on hypothetical cases in order to apply them to new legislation. Jurists largely came from the upper echelons of society and they were concerned with matters of most relevance to that elite. There were two basic principles that the jurists went by: fairness and equality. Interestingly, Roman weapons could be charged with crimes as well, although this odd practice was discontinued after the earliest periods. Apparently, the argument that a sword or knife in itself can insight violence was over ruled by common sense. Roman Law Conclusions As the empire grew and the population became more diverse one of the greatest benefits of Roman law was that the law and its protection from abuse for citizens was a binding force on communities and created an expectation that a citizen's rights would be upheld and a system was in place for wrong doings to be addressed. Not only did the Romans leave us many legal terms we still use today in our law system, but also their passion for precise legal terminology in order to avoid ambiguity and misinterpretation of the law, an approach that all modern legal documents attempt to accomplish.
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