Formation of principles of justice and good faith in Roman private law

Abstract

In addition to the traditional methods of analogy of law and analogy of lex, the application of the recommended clarifications of higher specialized courts, the role of the principles of justice, good faith and reasonableness, which by their properties can serve as a fundamental, universal and optimal basis for modeling a decision based on specific civil case.
 Roman law is the formation source of the Romano-Germanic type`s legal system, including the basis for the creation of tort liability. Tort obligations to compensate victims of property losses caused by a committed offense (delict), the very first type of obligations since their origin, were introduced by Roman lawyers.
 The purpose of the study was to carry out a retrospective analysis of the genesis and development of the principles of justice and good faith in Roman private law.
 The article provides a retrospective analysis of the essence of tort liability in Roman law, taking into account the periodization of its development: the archaic period, the republican period, the imperial period. It was established that the formation and application of evaluative principles: justice and good faith in law enforcement activities, — have firstly appeared in Roman law. It was noted that the principle of justice (aequitas) was most often applied when it was necessary to resolve the contradiction between the established application of the law and a specific non-standard case, through a reasonable reconciliation of justified opposing interests in the spirit of this legal institution and an innate sense of justice (aequitas naturalis).
 There is no integral consolidation of the concept of good faith in sources of Roman law. The existence of such an evaluation principle is confirmed only in law enforcement practice, most often when solving casual cases. It was established that the principle of reasonableness in the meaningful manifestation in which it exists today was not finally formed in Roman law. This principle was formed in the subsequent reception of Roman private law.