Transcript Comparative Law Class 4

Comparative Law
Spring 2002
Professor Susanna Fischer
CLASS FOUR
HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE
CIVIL LAW: ROMAN LAW
REMINDER
The French and German books have
come into the bookstore and are now
available for purchase.
Please make sure that you buy them
ASAP
WRAP-UP OF CLASS THREE: COMPARATISTS
AND LEGAL HISTORIANS IN THE U.S.
Comparatists generally make basic
use of legal history, while legal
historians rarely take a
comparative approach
This difference in approach has 3
reasons: (1) the difference in the
scholars shaping each discipline;
(2) geographical,cultural, and
common law insularity; (3) the
nature of the subject –
comparative law requires at least
some historical outlook while
OPENING YOUR MIND TO
COMPARATIVE LAW
Try to take a scholarly, objective
perspective to other legal systems,
putting cultural stereotypes and
preconceptions out of your mind
Few legal systems are absolutely bad or are
so good as not to be able to benefit from
other ideas
Try not to assume that any law that
differs from that of the United States is
inherently inferior
Never close your mind to new ideas
JUSTINIAN AND THE CORPUS
JURIS CIVILIS
When and where did
the Roman emperor
Justinian live?
JUSTINIAN AND THE CORPUS
JURIS CIVILIS
When and where did
the Roman emperor
Justinian live?
In Constantinople
between 527 and
565 with his wife,
the actress
Theodora
Justinian’s Empire
Military actions
Architecture
Law
Map of Justinian’s Empire: ca
565
CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS
What is this?
Why was it created?
Who drafted it?
CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS
Justinian ordered the preparation of the
Corpus Juris Civilis under the
supervision of the jurist Tribonian.
Justinian believed that the Roman law
of his time was decadent. He wanted
to restore past glories, remove
obscurities, errors, conflicts, and
doubts, and create a systematic whole.
CONTENTS OF CORPUS JURIS
CIVILIS
What are the 4 different parts of
Justinian’s compilation, which came to
be called the corpus juris civilis, called?
Describe each part
CONTENTS OF CORPUS JURIS
CIVILIS
What are the 4 different parts of Justinian’s
compilation, which came to be called the
corpus juris civilis, called?
Code (update of Theodosian code) Digest
(anthology of extracts from great jurists),
Institutes (textbooks for students), Novels
(constitutions)
Digest/Institutes became law in 533, and
revised Code in 534.
JURISCONSULTS
Who were the jurisconsults?
What approach did Justinian take
toward legal commentaries?
LASTING SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS
What is the significance for civil law
systems of Justinian’s corpus juris
civilis?
LASTING SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS
John Henry Merryman has stated: “Roman
law is often said to be the greatest
contribution that Rome has made to Western
civilization and Roman ways of thinking have
certainly percolated into every Western legal
system. All Western lawyers are in this sense
Roman lawyers. In civil law nations, however,
the influence of Roman civil law is much more
pervasive, direct and concrete than it is in the
common law world. We have had no
reception of Roman law.”