Editing Roman Empire (section)

===Law===
{{Main|Roman law}}
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Roman courts held [[original jurisdiction]] over cases involving Roman citizens throughout the empire, but there were too few judicial functionaries to impose Roman law uniformly in the provinces. Most parts of the Eastern Empire already had well-established law codes and juridical procedures.<ref name=Garnsey/> Generally, it was Roman policy to respect the ''mos regionis'' ("regional tradition" or "law of the land") and to regard local laws as a source of legal precedent and social stability.<ref name=Garnsey/>{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|pp=184–185}} The compatibility of Roman and local law was thought to reflect an underlying ''[[ius gentium]]'', the "law of nations" or [[international law]] regarded as common and customary.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bozeman |first=Adda B. |title=Politics and Culture in International History from the Ancient Near East to the Opening of the Modern Age |date=2010 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |edition=2nd |pages=208–220}}</ref> If provincial law conflicted with Roman law or custom, Roman courts heard [[Appellate court|appeals]], and the emperor held final decision-making authority.<ref name=Garnsey/>{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|pp=184–185}}{{Efn|This practice was established in the Republic; see for instance the case of [[Gaius Valerius Flaccus#Contrebian water rights|Contrebian water rights]] heard by G. Valerius Flaccus as governor of [[Hispania]] in the 90s–80s BC.}}

In the West, law had been administered on a highly localized or tribal basis, and [[private property rights]] may have been a novelty of the Roman era, particularly among [[Celts]]. Roman law facilitated the acquisition of wealth by a pro-Roman elite.<ref name=Garnsey/> The extension of universal citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire in 212 required the uniform application of Roman law, replacing local law codes that had applied to non-citizens. Diocletian's efforts to stabilize the Empire after the [[Crisis of the Third Century]] included two major compilations of law in four years, the ''[[Codex Gregorianus]]'' and the ''[[Codex Hermogenianus]]'', to guide provincial administrators in setting consistent legal standards.<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Elizabeth DePalma Digeser|Digeser, Elizabeth DePalma]] |date=2000 |title=The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius and Rome |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=53}}</ref>

The pervasiveness of Roman law throughout Western Europe enormously influenced the Western legal tradition, reflected by continued use of [[List of Latin legal terms|Latin legal terminology]] in modern law.