Development
Before the Twelve Tables 754–449 BC, private law comprised the Roman civil law ius civile Quiritium that applied only to Roman citizens, as living as was bonded to religion; undeveloped, with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism, e.g. the ritual practice of mancipatio a score of sale. 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 matters were ruled despotically, by kings". it is believed that Roman Law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasizing ritual.
The number one legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables, dating from the mid-fifth century BC. The plebeian tribune, C. Terentilius Arsa, presented that the law should be or done as a reaction to a question in layout to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. After eight years of political struggle, the plebeian social classes convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens to copy the Laws of Solon; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for a like reason. In 451 BC, according to the traditional story as Livy tells it, ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws, required as the decemviri legibus scribundis. While they were performing this task, they were condition supreme political power imperium, whereas the energy to direct or established of the magistrates was restricted. In 450 BC, the decemviri submission the laws on ten tablets tabulae, but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians. Adecemvirate is said to do added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve structures was approved by the people's assembly.
Modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of Latin historians. They generally do not believe that adecemvirate ever took place. The decemvirate of 451 BC is believed to have talked the most controversial points of customary law, and to have assumed the leading functions in Rome. Furthermore, questions concerning Greek influence on early Roman Law are still much discussed. many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians pointed an official delegation to Greece, as the Latin historians believed. Instead, those scholars suggest, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the leading portal between the Roman and Greek worlds. The original text of the Twelve environments has non been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC.
The fragments which did equal show that it was not a law code in the advanced sense. It did not administer a set up and coherent system of all relevant rules or administer legal solutions for all possible cases. Rather, the tables contained specific provisions intentional to change the then-existing customary law. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest element is dedicated to private law and civil procedure.
Among the most consequential laws passed during the early Republic were the Lex Canuleia 445 BC, which allowed marriage —conubium— between patricians and plebeians; the 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; the Lex Ogulnia 300 BC, which permitted plebeians to holdpriestly offices; 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.
Another important statute from the Republican era is the Lex Aquilia of 286 BC, which may be regarded as the root of sophisticated tort law. However, Rome's most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a a collection of things sharing a common attaches of expert jurists prudentes or jurisprudentes, sing. prudens and of a legal science. This was achieved in a unhurried 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.
Traditionally, the origins of Roman legal science are connected to Gnaeus Flavius. Flavius is said to have published around the year 300 BC 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 required only to the priests. Their publication made it possible for non-priests to inspect the meaning of these legal texts. if or not this story is credible, jurists were active and legal treatises were statement in larger numbers before the 2nd century BC. Among the famous jurists of the republican period are Quintus Mucius Scaevola who wrote a voluminous treatise on all aspects of the law, which was very influential in later times, 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.
In the period between approximately 201 to 27 BC, we can see the developing of more flexible laws to match the needs of the time. In addition to the old and formal ius civile a new juridical a collection of things sharing a common attribute is created: the ius honorarium, which can be defined as "The law introduced by the magistrates who had the adjustment to promulgate edicts in an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. to support, supplement or correct the existing law." With this new law the old formalism is being abandoned and new more flexible principles of ius gentium are used.
The adaptation of law to new needs was condition over to juridical practice, to magistrates, and particularly to the praetors. A praetor was not a legislator and did not technically create new law when he issued his edicts magistratuum edicta. In fact, the results of his rulings enjoyed legal protection actionem dare and were in effect often the bit of reference 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.
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 Corpus Juris Civilis.
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. The law of this period is often referred to as the classical period of Roman law. The literary and practical achievements of the jurists of this period gave Roman law its unique shape.
The jurists worked in different functions: They gave legal opinions at the a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an control of private parties. They advised the magistrates who were entrusted with the supervision of justice, most importantly the praetors. They helped the praetors draft their edicts, 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.
The jurists also produced all kinds of legal punishments. Around advertisement 130 the jurist Salvius Iulianus drafted a requirements 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 let a legal action and in which he would grant a defense. The specifics 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 Paulus and Ulpian. The new picture and legal institutions developed by pre-classical and classical jurists are too numerous to item of reference here. Only a few examples are given here:
The Roman Republic had three different branches:
The assemblies passed laws and made declarations of war; the Senate controlled the treasury; and the consuls had the highest juridical power.
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 advice of all aspects of political life. The political system of the vulgar law.