History of Roman law
The earliest history of Roman law is lost forever. Rome existed
already as an Etruscan town in the eight century B.C. The first
known source of Roman law are the Laws of the Twelve Tables
from the mid-fifth century B.C., written in early Latin. After the
period of the kings two consuls and the Senate governed
Rome. Only few people knew something of the law before the
Twelve Tables were erected to provide some legal security.
Members of well-to-do families, most of them patricians and
senators, gave juridical advice when asked for. The Senate it-
self proposed laws or voted on proposals of the consuls. More
is known about the period of the Late Republic (200-30 B.C.).
The praetor, one of the Roman magistrates, published each
year his edict in which he announced how he would apply the
laws. The censors had a legal task, too, the upholding of mores.
From Cicero’s pleas and letters one gets a vivid picture of ac-
tual jurisdiction during the Late Republic. Legal experts started
to write books. In this period Rome had grown from a tiny city
state into a vast reign.
During the Principate great jurists were active, who were some-
times employed by the emperor. Famous among them were
Ulpian, Papinian, Paul and Julian. The mysterious Gaius wrote
an introductory law book, the Institutes, almost the only com-
pletely surviving manual. The letters of governor Pliny show
some of the legal questions he posed to the emperor. The prae-
torial edict became fixed. Emperor Theodosian tried to impose
some legal order with his code of law. During the confusing
times of the Late Imperium Justinian (early sixth century) tried
to unify law by creating official collections on all levels. Imperial
decrees were collected and edited into a new Code, followed by
later decrees, the Novellae. Justinian also charged a committee
with making an anthology of the classical Roman lawyers, the
Digestae or Pandectae. To crown his achievement, Justinian
decreed a manual of law compulsory for all legal education. His
Institutes were written using Gaius’ Institutes. The Justinian
compilation was the starting point for the new study, renewal
and revival of Roman law during the Middle Ages.
The structure, character and content of Roman law
Roman law is first and foremost private law, law of and between
citizens. In relation to it public law and the law of nations are
less important. Roman law is concerned with the relationships
between people, their legal actions, and the right they have on
goods. Legal persons were in particular the fathers of families,
the proverbial pater familias. They held great power over their
wives, children and slaves. An important element is the law of
procedure. The archaic Roman law was characterized by a lot
of ritualized legal formulae to which one had to stick as close as
possible. In a later phase one is able to choose one or more le-
gal actions, a matter which called for interpretation: which ac-
tion? Parties ruled their conflicts themselves. A judge only ap-
peared in a final phase of the case. For centuries there were no
courts. In the great public trials, like the ones in which Cicero
became famous, his role was more akin to that of an orator than
to the role of a modern solicitor.
Roman law is remarkable for the detailed yet succinct way one
treated cases. One looked principally at things by dealing with
concrete or imaginary cases (see the examples). This casuistic
aspect is more important than any systematic view. One did not
write a theory of damage, but about a car hitting someone on
the Capitol (see D. 9.2.52.2). Of course one has tried to sys-
tematize Roman law. The great Roman lawyers treated all kind
of cases when writing on several subjects or commenting the
edict of the praetor. The real heart of Roman law was hereditary
law. Apart from legal procedure, family law, the law of goods,
and the law of obligations are the other main areas. The juridi-
cal content and level of Roman law has such quality that it has
deeply influenced directly and indirectly lawyers of all times and
places. It brought with it great prestige because of Roman his-
tory.
Sources of Roman law
During the ages many sources have been lost forever. Scholars
divide the sources into pre-Justinian and Justinian, edited in the
sixth century. One has reconstructed the Twelve Tables from
the works of later lawyers. The praetorial edict has been trans-
mitted in the same way, and could therefore be reconstructed.
The Code of Justinian preserves decrees of earlier emperors.
Thanks to their inscriptions we know which emperor pro-
nounced which decree. The Digest was made from a large col-
lection of legal works into an anthology centered mostly around
some of the great classical lawyers. The inscription at every lex
or law give a clue to its origin, and thus we know many of these
authors and a number of their works. The laws have been or-
ganised around particular subjects in tituli. These tituli have
been gathered into 50 libri. In some modern languages, includ-
ing English, exist modern translations of the sources within the
Corpus Iuris Civilis.
