The Digest was the work of not one, but several Roman jurists, three of whom were Ulpian, Paul, and Gaius. Although the Digest is arguably the most famous of all Roman legal textbooks, others have also contributed to the formulation of many modern laws. For example, the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus were both published in the second half of the third century AD, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Two later manuals, namely the Theodosian Codex of the early fifth century AD and the Codex Iustinianus of the sixth century AD, were later added to the rich literature of Roman law. The decline of the Roman Empire also led to a decline in interest in Roman law in Western Europe. The corpus was unknown to Western scholars for centuries. During the twelfth century, however, Roman jurisprudence was revived in Western Europe. In the late eleventh century, a manuscript containing part of the corpus was discovered in Pisa, Italy. The rest of the compilation was quickly restored, and schools where Roman law could be studied were established in Bologna, Italy, and then elsewhere in Europe. In the twelfth century, commentaries on the Corpus juris civilis appeared, and over time men trained in Roman law found positions in secular and ecclesiastical bureaucracies throughout Europe. Roman law has been used to support various, even contradictory, ideas. For example, his maxims could support both absolutism and popular government: while the maxim “What pleases the prince has the power of law” (Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem) has been used in various countries as an argument for royal absolutism, on the other hand, “What affects everyone must be decided by all” (Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbetur) has been used to justify representative governments and even rebellions against oppressive regimes.
The influence of Roman law persisted beyond the late modern period, as it served as the main model for Napoleon Bonaparte`s Civil Code (1804). New approaches to Roman law developed with Renaissance humanism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Humanists applied philological techniques to the study of Roman law to determine what it was supposed to say, and they also studied laws and their meaning in the original context of Rome. Although this movement began in Italy with the work of Andrea Alciato, it reached its peak in the French historical law school in the sixteenth century. Thanks to their humanistic approach, these researchers were able to see the Corpus Juris Civilis in its historical context, as a product of its time and place. They considered it useful, but not infallible, and their work identified many problems in the law itself and in medieval studies of it. Guillaume Budé, Jacques Cujas, Hugues Doneau and François Hotman, among others, contributed to this movement in France, as did Ulrich Zasius in Germany. Hotman`s Anti-Tribonian (1567) was particularly critical of Justinian`s compilation and raised French law instead.
These scholars established the historicity of Roman law and suppressed its claim to authority over contemporary societies, although it can still be considered a “written reason” to some extent. The constitution of the Roman Republic, or mos maiorum (“custom of the ancestors”), was an unwritten set of directives and principles transmitted mainly by precedents. The terms that have their origins in the Roman constitution live on in the constitutions to this day. Examples include separation of powers, separation of powers, vetoes, obstructions, quorum requirements, term limits, impeachments, scholarship powers, and regular elections. Even some less common modern constitutional concepts, such as block voting in the U.S. Electoral College, stem from ideas found in the Roman Constitution. The history of Roman law can be divided into three procedural systems: that of legis actiones, the system of form and cognitio extra ordinem. The periods in which these systems were used overlapped and had no definitive breaks, but it can be noted that the legis actio system prevailed from the time of the twelfth tables (about 450 BC) until the end of the 2nd century BC, that the formula method was mainly used from the last century of the Republic to the end of the classical period (about 200 AD). and that of the Cognitio extra ordinem was in use in the post-classical period.
Again, this data is designed as a tool to understand the types of procedures used, not as a rigid boundary where one system ended and another began. [7] Modern scholars tend to question the accuracy of Latin historians. They generally do not believe that a second decemirate ever took place. It is believed that the Decemvirate of 451 contained the most controversial points of customary law and assumed the leading functions in Rome. [4] In addition, questions of Greek influence on early Roman law are still much debated. Many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as Latin historians believed. Instead, these scholars suspect that the Romans acquired Greek legislation from the Greek cities of the Magna Graecia, the main portal between the Roman and Greek worlds. [4] The original text of the Twelve Tablets has not been preserved.