The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization.Lord, John
History
The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization.
Lord, John
Rome -- Civilization
The Code, Pandects, Institutes, and Novels of Justinian, comprise the
Roman law, as received in Europe, in the form given by the school of
Bologna, and is called the "_Corpus Juris Civilis_." "It was in
that form," says Savigny, "that the Roman law became the common law of
Europe; and when, four centuries later, other sources came to be added
to it, the _Corpus Juris_ of the school of Bologna had been so
universally received, and so long established as a basis of practice,
that the new discoveries remained in the domain of science, and served
only for the theory of the law. For the same reason, the Anti-Justinian
law is excluded from practice." [Footnote: Savigny, _Droit Romani_,
vol. i. p. 68.] After Justinian, the old texts were left to moulder as
useless though venerable, and they have nearly all disappeared. The
Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, were declared to be the only
legitimate authority and alone were admitted to the tribunals or taught
in the schools. The rescripts of the early emperors recognized too many
popular rights to suit the despotic character of Justinian, and the
older jurists, like the Scaevolas, Sulpicius, and Labeo, were distasteful
from their sympathy with free institutions. Different opinions have been
expressed by the jurisconsults as to the merits of the Justinian
collection. By some it is regarded as a vast mass of legal lumber; by
others, as a beautiful monument of human labor. After the lapse of so
many centuries, it is certain that a large portion of it is of no
practical utility, since it is not applicable to modern wants. But
again, no one doubts that it has exercised a great and good influence on
moral and political science, and introduced many enlightened views
concerning the administration of justice, as well as the nature of civil
government, and thus has modified the codes of the Teutonic nations,
which sprang up on the ruins of the old Roman world. It was used in the
Greek empire until the fall of Constantinople. It never entirely lost
authority in Italy, although it remained buried till the discovery of
the Florentine copy of the Pandects at the siege of Amalfi in 1135.
Peter Valence, in the eleventh century, made use of it in a law-book
which he published. With the rise of the Italian cities, the study of
Roman law revived, and Bologna became the seat from which it spread over
Europe. In the sixteenth century, the science of theoretical law passed
from Italy to France, under the auspices of Francis I., when Cujas or
Cujacius became the great ornament of the school of Bourges, and the
greatest commentator on Roman law until Dumoulin appeared. Grotius, in
Holland, excited the same interest in civil law that Dumoulin did in
France, followed by eminent professors in Leyden and the German
universities. It was reserved for Pothier, in the middle of the
eighteenth century, to reduce the Roman law to systematic order--one of
the most gigantic tasks which ever taxed the industry of man. The recent
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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