Roman Law (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what Roman Law is, its history and what periods it is divided into. Also, what are its sources and characteristics.

What is Roman Law?

It is called Roman Law legal system that governed the society of Ancient Rome from its foundation (in 753 BC) until the fall of the Empire in the 5th century AD. C., although it remained in use in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) until 1453.

It was compiled as a whole in the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, in a volume of laws known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”), and first printed by Dionysius of Godfrey in 1583, in Geneva.

Said text and The laws it contains are of utmost importance in the legal history of humanity since they served as the basis for the legal texts of multiple other cultures and civilizations. So much so, that there is still a branch of law specialized in its study, called Romance, with offices in the law schools of numerous countries.

To fully understand Roman Law, it is convenient to examine its characteristics and its history, but broadly speaking it can be understood from the concept of ius (“right”), contrasted with fas (“divine will”), thus separating for the first time the legal exercise of religion. This will allow the emergence of the various branches of law: ius civile (“civil law”), ius naturale (“natural law”), etc., many of which still exist today.

History of Roman law

The history of Roman law covers more than a thousand years of legislation and changes in the way we understand law and legality since the first appearance of the Law of the Twelve Tables in 439 BC. approximately, until the Code of Justinian of 529 AD. C. Its birth comes from custom (which would inspire customary law) and would emerge as a model of regulation of society that guaranteed social peace in the face of the desire for equality of the commoners and the hierarchy that supported the emperors, the praetors and to the Senate.

Let us remember that the Roman Republic oscillated between democracy and dictatorship constantly, ending up becoming an Empire that would conquer almost the entire Western world, bringing its law to every corner it colonized. So, Roman law became the support of the legality of the Roman colonies in Europe Asia and Africa, and this is reflected in the legal history of each kingdom into which the Roman Empire was divided after its collapse.

Periods of Roman law

The history of Roman law is normally divided into the following periods:

The monarchical period It extends from the middle of the 8th century BC. C., with the founding of Rome, until the year 509 BC. C. when King Tarquin the Proud was expelled from the city, whose despotic government was the last exercised by the Roman kings, thus giving rise to the Roman Republic.
The republican period It begins with the fall of the monarchy at the beginning of the 5th century BC. C and culminates with the granting by the Roman Senate of absolute powers to Octavian Augustus in the year 27 BC. C. During this period, the Law of the XII Tables was published, formally beginning Roman law, and building a State of balanced powers: a group of magistrates was democratically elected in popular assemblies, in charge of assigned functions; while the Senate was in charge of issuing Senate consultations with the force of law.
The period of the principality It begins in the year 27 BC. C. after the political crisis that affected the Republic and allowed the emergence of an authoritarian State, subject to the will of the auctoritas of the Prince or Emperor, such as Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), Caligula ( 37-41 AD), Nero (54-68 AD) among others. In this period, Rome reached its maximum territorial extension: 5 million square kilometers.
The dominated period Also known as the Absolute Empire, it began in the middle of the 2nd century AD. C. until the year 476, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed and disappeared. It is a time of absolute power by the State, in the hands of the Emperor, who governs through imperial constitutions. In the year 380, the Empire assumed Christianity as its official religion and subsequently divided into two parts, from which the Eastern Roman Empire would be born.
The period of Justinian Also called the Government of Justinian, it goes from 527 to 565 AD. C., and it is the time in which Justinian's compilation of Roman Law is published in the year 549, marking the final point of its history. After the death of Justinian, the Byzantine Empire was established, a rather medieval State, which would last until the 15th century, when it fell to the Turks.

Sources of Roman law

Emperor Justinian I - Roman Law — The Justinianean sources are in the work Corpus iuris civilis of Emperor Justinian I.

Like every aspect of law, Roman law has its sources, which we can study separately as follows:

The mos maiorum “The custom of the ancestors” is the first of the sources of Roman Law. It is made up of custom (Customary Law), through a set of rules inherited from ancestral tradition and that were venerated in Ancient Rome, that were transmitted family wise and that served to contrast the Roman with the Hellenizing or Asian traditions.
Justinianean Sources Those compiled by Emperor Justinian I in his work Corpus iuris civilis, which includes: The code or Codex (vetus) that compiled the imperial constitutions; The digest or Pandectas that contains a chronological arrangement of the various subjects, in chronological order throughout 50 different books; the Institutions or Institutes that contains a synthesis of doctrines and precepts in four books that make up an elementary treatise on law; The code of Justinian or “The New Code” which is the version commissioned by the Emperor to John of Cappadocia, inspired by all of the above; and finally the Novels that make up the definitive code promulgated by Justinian.
Extrajustinian Sources They cover two sets of texts unrelated to Justinian's work:
- Fragments of jurists from the classical period What are Gaius' institutions like? the Fragments of Paulo's Sententiarium libri V ad filium; the Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani whose author is unknown; very scarce parts of Papianiano's Responsa; an appendix to Dositheus's Ars grammatica; and the Scholia sinaitica discovered on Mount Sinai.
- The collection of other imperial constitutions Like the Vatican Fragmenta, which are the remains of a private collection of passages from classical jurists and imperial laws found in a palimpsest in the Vatican Library.

Characteristics of Roman law

Roman Law - Public Law — Public Law regulates the actions of the State and ensures the well-being of citizens.

Roman law, in very broad terms, distinguished between various ways of understanding the law. Not only, as has been said, between the ius (“right”) and the fas (“divine will”), but also between public law, which regulates the actions of the State and ensures the general well-being of citizens; and private law, which regulates agreements and transactions between them, in view of the idea of justice defended by the institutions.

Importance of Roman law

Roman law not only It is the basis of the constitutions of the countries of the West and the East (especially its civil and commercial law) that were part of the Roman colonial Empire, but also gave substance to the statutes of the Catholic Church that governed its operation even in the Middle Ages, when the Roman Empire had already dissolved.

Almost all the republican institutions that exist today have their origin in Roman Law, and many systems such as Anglo-Saxon common law as well.

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