Editing Roman law (section)

== Jurisprudence ==
Rome's most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a class of professional [[jurist]]s (''prudentes'' or ''jurisprudentes'', sing. ''prudens'') and of a [[legal science]]. This was achieved in a gradual 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.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

Traditionally, the origins of Roman legal science are connected to [[Gnaeus Flavius (jurist)|Gnaeus Flavius]]. Around the year 300 BC, Flavius is said to have published 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 known only to the priests. Their publication made it possible for non-priests to explore the meaning of these legal texts. Whether or not this story is credible, jurists were active, and legal treatises were written in larger numbers before the 2nd century BC. Among the famous jurists of the republican period are [[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex|Quintus Mucius Scaevola]], who wrote an influential and voluminous treatise on all aspects of the law, 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.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

=== Pre-classical period ===
In the period between about 201 to 27 BC, more flexible laws developed to match the needs of the time. In addition to the old and formal ''ius civile'', a new juridical class was created: the ''[[ius honorarium]]'': "The law introduced by the magistrates who had the right to promulgate edicts in order to support, supplement or correct the existing law."<ref>{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Adolf |title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=90–93 |year=1953 |jstor=291711 |doi=10.2307/297597 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oR0LAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA529|isbn=9780871694324 |s2cid=162540731 }}</ref> With this new law the old formalism was abandoned, and more flexible principles of ''[[ius gentium]]'' ("law of the nations") were used.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

The adaptation of law to new needs was given over to juridical practice, to [[Roman magistrate|magistrates]], and especially to the [[praetor]]s. Though the praetors were not legislators and did not technically create new law when he issued his [[Praetor's Edict|edicts]] (''magistratuum edicta''), the results of his rulings enjoyed legal protection (''actionem dare'') and were in effect often the source 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'').{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

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 {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}}.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

=== Classical Roman law ===
{{Main|Gaius (jurist)|Ulpian|Papinian|Julius Paulus|Herennius Modestinus}}
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 and influence. The law of this period is often referred to as the "classical period of Roman law".{{By whom
| date = September 2023
}} The Roman Republic had three different branches: the [[Legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic|Assemblies]], the [[Senate of the Roman Republic|Senate]], and the [[Roman consul|Consuls]]. The assemblies passed laws and made declarations of war; the Senate controlled the treasury; and the consuls had the highest juridical power.<ref>{{cite web |year=2002 |title=Consul |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/consul/ |access-date=19 June 2017 |work=[[Livius.org]]}}</ref>

The jurists worked in different functions, including giving legal opinions at the request of private parties; advising magistrates, especially the praetors; and helping the praetors draft their [[edict]]s, 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.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

The jurists also produced various legal punishments. Around 130 AD, the jurist [[Salvius Iulianus]] drafted a standard 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 allow a legal action and in which he would grant a defense. The standard 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 [[Paul (jurist)|Paulus]] and [[Ulpian]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}} 

During the pre-classical and classical period, such laws emerged as the separation of ownership and possession; contract and tort as distinct sources of obligations; standard types of contracts (sale, contract for work, hire, contract for services) regulated in most continental codes; the [[Institutes (Gaius)|Institutes of Gaius]], which invented a system of private law based on the division of all material into ''personae'' (persons), ''res'' (things) and ''actiones'' (legal actions). [[Gaius (jurist)|Gaius's]] system was used for many centuries, and has been recognized in legal treatises like [[William Blackstone]]'s ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' and enactments like the [[France|French]] [[Napoleonic Code|Code civil]] and the [[Germany|German]] [[Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch|BGB]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

=== Post-classical law ===
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 control of all aspects of political life. The political system of the [[Principate]], which had retained some features of the republican constitution, began to transform itself into the absolute monarchy of the [[Dominate]]. The existence of legal science and of jurists who regarded law as a science, not as an instrument to achieve the political goals set by the absolute monarch, did not fit well into the new order of things. Jurisprudential literary production all but ended. Few jurists after the mid-3rd century are known by name. While legal science and legal education persisted to some extent in the eastern part of the Empire, most of the subtleties of classical law came to be disregarded and finally forgotten in the west. Classical law was replaced by the so-called [[vulgar law]] of the late [[Roman Empire]].{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

=== Byzantine law ===
{{Main|Corpus Juris Civilis|Byzantine law}}
[[File:Digesto 02.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Title page of a late 16th-century edition of the ''Digesta'', part of Emperor [[Justinian]]'s {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}}]]When the centre of the Empire was moved to the [[Greek East]] in the 4th century, many legal concepts of Greek origin appeared in the official Roman legislation.<ref name="coupers">{{cite book |last=Tellegen-Couperus |first=Olga Eveline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9-kvagJ_7sC |title=A Short History of Roman Law |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=9780415072502 |pages=174}}</ref> The influence is visible even in the law of persons or of the family, traditionally the part of the law that changes least. For example, [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] started putting restrictions on the ancient Roman concept of ''patria potestas'', the power held by the male head of a family over his descendants, by acknowledging that persons ''in potestate'', the descendants, could have proprietary rights. He was apparently making concessions to the much stricter concept of paternal authority under Greek-Hellenistic law.<ref name="coupers" /> The ''[[Codex Theodosianus]]'' (438 AD) was a [[codification (law)|codification]] of Constantian laws. Later emperors went even further, until Justinian finally decreed that a child ''in potestate'' became owner of everything it acquired, except when it acquired something from its father.<ref name="coupers" />

The codes of Justinian, particularly the {{Lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}} (529–534) continued to be the basis of legal practice in the Empire throughout its so-called ''[[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]]'' history. [[Leo III the Isaurian]] issued a new code, the ''Ecloga'',<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ecloga |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ecloga |access-date=6 October 2018 |date=20 July 1998}}</ref> in the early 8th century. In the 9th century, the emperors [[Basil I]] and [[Leo VI the Wise]] commissioned a combined translation of the Code and the Digest, parts of Justinian's codes, into Greek, which became known as the [[Basilika|''Basilica'']]. Roman law as preserved in the codes of Justinian and in the Basilica remained the basis of legal practice in Greece and in the courts of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] even after the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the conquest by the Turks, and, along with the [[Syro-Roman law book]], also formed the basis for much of the ''[[Fetha Negest]]'', which remained in force in Ethiopia until 1931.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}