The Historical and Constitutional Context of Roman Law: A Brief Overview

Abstract

The history of Roman law in antiquity spans a period of more than eleven centuries. Initially the law of a small rural community, then that of a powerful city-state, Roman law became in the course of time the law of a multinational empire that embraced a large part of the civilized world. During its long history Roman law progressed through a remarkable process of evolution. It advanced through different stages of development and underwent important transformations, both in substance and in scope, adapting to the changes in society, especially those derived from Rome’s expansion in the ancient world. During this long process the interaction between custom, enacted law and case law led to the formation of a highly sophisticated system, gradually developed from layers of different elements. But the great bulk of Roman law, especially Roman private law, was not a result of legislation but of jurisprudence. This unenacted law was not a confusing mass of shifting customs, but a steady tradition developed and transmitted by specialists, initially members of the Roman priestly class and later secular jurists. In the final phases of this process when law-making was increasingly centralized, jurisprudence together with statutory law was compiled and ‘codified’. The codification of the law both completed the development of Roman law and evolved as the means by which Roman law was subsequently transmitted to the modern world.