Comparative Law Spring 2002Professor Susanna Fischer

CLASS FOURHISTORICAL 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 approachThis 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 history does not require a comparative approach

OPENING YOUR MIND TO COMPARATIVE LAWTry 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 actionsArchitectureLaw

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.”