? 1. From Customary Law to Statutory Law: In the 6th century before the birth of Roman law, Rome entered the era of * * * and Republic (from 509 to 27 years ago). * * * And at that time, the nobles oppressed the civilians with their privileges. Politically, the nobility mastered the state power; Economically, the nobles annexed a lot of land and reduced a large number of civilians into debt slaves through usury; In terms of legal system, nobles monopolize legislative power and judicial power. At that time, there was only customary law in Rome, and the so-called customary law was the customs and rules passed down from clan and tribe times. Because there is no written law, nobles can interpret the law at will, and the interests of civilians are not protected.
In this context, the struggle between nobles and civilians is becoming increasingly fierce. In the first half of the 5th century, Rome often fought wars with the surrounding Idarians, Gauls, Aquinas, Volschi and others. And Roman civilians left Rome when foreign enemies attacked Rome, leaving the nobles in a state of life and death. This struggle is called "evacuation movement". Through the "evacuation movement", the Roman nobles had to compromise with the civilians. Roman civilians won many legitimate rights and interests in the evacuation movement, as shown in the table.
Under the pressure of ordinary people, Roman nobles began to make statute laws, but Rome at that time had no experience in making laws. So, in the first 460 years, Rome sent a legislative committee to Athens to study and collect codes. Three years later, legislators returned to China, and they drafted a written law according to the actual situation in Rome. In the first 449 years, after being passed by the Senate and the Congress of Hundred Members, the code was published on the twelve boards of Rome Square, so it was called the twelve bronze tables law, and the written law of Rome was born.
The publication of the Law of Twelve Bronze Tables is a landmark event in the history of Roman legal development, which is of great significance. First, Rome's trial and sentencing have laws to follow, which has changed the phenomenon that nobles interpret the law at will, and some provisions have emerged to protect the interests of civilians; Second, its content is extensive, including religious law and secular law, public law and private law, substantive law and procedural law, which is the embryonic form of the future development of Roman law. Third, Roman law has since become an important tool for rulers to rule stably, and Rome has opened a historical tradition of formulating and perfecting written laws.
However, because the Law of Twelve Copper Tables is the first written law, there are also many defects. The fundamental purpose of law is to safeguard the interests of the nobility. For example, it is forbidden for civilians to marry nobles, and the punishment for civilian crimes is far more cruel than that for aristocratic crimes. In addition, the bronze watch method has also continued many barbaric customs in the clan era, such as the "similar revenge" of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and creditors can dispose of debtors who fail to pay their debts at will. However, with the continuous development of Roman society, Roman law is also constantly improving and modifying. For example, the Calinas Law passed 445 years ago abolished the restriction of intermarriage between civilians and nobles.
Second, from civil law to civil law, Roman law went from city-state to the world. From the middle of the 3rd century, Rome began to expand on a large scale. After the Punic and Macedonian wars, Rome has turned the Mediterranean into an "inner lake". In the first 27 years, the Roman Empire was formally established. With the expansion of Rome, more and more nationalities in the Mediterranean world were brought under the rule of Rome. In this case, the "citizen law" that once applied to the Roman city-state is no longer applicable.
The expansion of Rome
The so-called civil law, that is, all the codes promulgated in the past that are applicable to Roman city-States, has great defects. First of all, civil law only applies to Roman citizens, and cannot solve the relationship between nationals and foreigners, foreigners and foreigners; Secondly, in the era when civil law came into being, Romasan was in a self-sufficient agricultural society. Civil law also paid attention to the construction of public law, emphasizing the rights and obligations of citizens, but lacked the construction of private law. In the late Republic of China, the Roman commodity economy developed unprecedentedly, and private law was needed to solve the increasingly complex economic disputes and contradictions. Third, civil law pays more attention to formalism and lacks flexibility. As a result, the Roman Empire began to have a law applicable to the whole empire, called the Law of Nations.
The emergence of the law of nations has a certain social and legal basis. First of all, in the Hellenistic era, Stoicism spread widely. In the imperial era, Stoic thought became the official thought of the empire, and their legislative thought was also accepted by the empire. Stoicism advocates natural law and cosmopolitanism. Natural law means that legislation should follow nature and conform to its basic principles, such as rationality and equality, which became the basic connotation of Roman law later.
Cicero, the advocate of natural law
Secondly, in the process of conquering the Mediterranean, officials sent by Rome to various provinces issued "administrative orders" at the local level, attaching importance to both public law and private law. In this movement, the "Chief Executive's Order" made up for the deficiency of civil law. In addition, scholars in the late Republic of China began to explain and impart legal knowledge, and these people later became "jurists." After the establishment of the empire, Octavian often granted the prestigious jurist the right to "answer publicly", which made the jurist's explanation have certain legal effect. The activities of "jurists" have played an important role in promoting the revision and development of laws.
After the establishment of the empire, Rome began to implement the universal laws formulated by the state. However, for a long time, civil law and civil law were parallel. It was not until AD 2 12 that Emperor caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all freemen in the empire, and the difference between civil law and civil law disappeared and the two merged.
Third, Roman law was compiled and went to the world. From the late Roman Empire, the development of Roman law declined with the decline of the Roman Empire. The emperors and jurists of this era devoted themselves to the systematic compilation of various codes since the promulgation of Rome, and Roman law entered the assembly stage. The compilation of Roman law systematically sorted out the past laws, clarified the confusion and formed a perfect system, which was conducive to the spread of Roman law. Due to the early demise of the Western Roman Empire, only a few manuscripts or fragments were left in Glegg's Rinus Code and the law edited by Moses and Roman law, and what really passed down was the Complete Book of Eastern Roman Civil Law.
corpus of the civil law
In the 6th century A.D., Justinian, the emperor of the Eastern Rome, organized a large number of jurists to carry out comprehensive legal arrangement, and compiled the Revised Code of Justinian I, The Collection of Justinian I's Theories, and Justinian's Outline of Jurisprudence. This is a huge volume. People collectively refer to these codes as Justinian Code or Civil Code. Due to the long-term stability and prosperity of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Complete Book of Civil Law has been preserved to this day.
Justinian
1453, the Eastern Roman Empire finally perished, but Roman law began to have an impact on the whole world. As early as the Middle Ages in Europe, due to the recovery of commodity economy, European monarchs had to adopt Roman law, which led to the introduction of Roman law into Germanic western European countries. /kloc-in the 0/2nd century, Byzantium was captured by the "Crusaders" in Western Europe, and a large number of Roman classics were introduced to Western Europe, including many codes. That is, in the12nd century, Italian jurists founded the earliest university in Europe, the University of Bologna, specializing in civil law and becoming the legal research center in Europe.
In modern times, Roman law and Roman law began to be fully revived in Europe, and the civil law system based on Roman law came into being. The civil law system emphasizes the construction of civil law and private law, so it is also called civil law system. Modern private law in Britain refers to the principles of Roman law, and Napoleon's civil code in France is based on Roman law. Later, the French Civil Code became the basis of codification in Europe and America. Therefore, it can be said that the civil law of modern western countries was formed on the basis of Roman law.
In eastern countries, Chinese legal system, Indian legal system and Arabic legal system appeared in ancient times, but these legal systems basically attached importance to the construction of criminal law and ignored the construction of civil law. With the expansion of western civilization, Roman civil law was brought to the whole world, which is what Yelin said: "Roman law conquered the world." During the Meiji Restoration, the study of Roman law in Japan was all the rage. Since then, the study of Roman law has been introduced into China from Japan. A series of laws promulgated during the Republic of China referred to Roman law and the laws of European and American countries. The General Principles of Civil Law, Inheritance Law and Civil Code promulgated after the founding of New China were also greatly influenced by the principles of Roman law.
Conclusion On this day in 2020, China began to implement the Civil Code, which is a great progress in the legal history of China. The implementation of China's Civil Code shows that Roman law has far-reaching influence in the world, and it also proves the inclusiveness of China culture. In the history of development, any country and nation should absorb the advanced civilization achievements of other countries and avoid building a car behind closed doors and sighing at the sky. Only in this way can it maintain its vitality in the turbulent world development.