Historical Development of Civil Law

“The civil law tradition traces its origin to the Roman Republic, a city-state that emerged in the 6th century BC and became an important commercial and military power (see Ancient Rome). The early custom and laws of Rome were put in writing for the first time in 451 and 450 BC, when they were inscribed on 12 bronze tablets (see Roman Law). The principles contained within these Twelve Tables constituted the basis for all Roman civil law.

In the 4th century BC the leaders of the Roman Republic created a magistrate’s office, known as the praetorship, to hear cases involving civil (as opposed to criminal) matters. The sources of law applied by the praetors included the Twelve Tables, resolutions of the Roman Senate, edicts (proclamations) of the praetors, and, after Augustus (Octavian) declared himself emperor in the 1st century BC, pronouncements of the emperor.

In the 6th century Emperor Justinian I reunified the Roman Empire, which had been divided into eastern and western parts as a result of invasions during the 5th century. Justinian sought to restore the legal system throughout the empire and appointed a commission to collect and consolidate existing sources of Roman law. In 533 and 534 this commission published three books that were collectively known as the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), or the Justinian Code. The Corpus Juris Civilis embodied many generations of legal pronouncements as well as interpretations by great jurists (legal scholars).

In compiling the Corpus Juris Civilis, Justinian sought to rescue the Roman legal system from years of deterioration and to restore it to its former glory. The vast quantity of material written on the civil law convinced him that the code should eliminate error, resolve conflicts, and retain what was of value in a systematic way. In particular, Justinian was concerned about the large number of legal treatises written by jurists, and he sought to abolish the authority of all treatises except those by the most distinguished jurists. He also sought to make it unnecessary for more law to be written and to abolish all prior law that was not included in the Justinian Code.

Much of the western part of the Roman Empire was reconquered by various invaders in the last half of the 6th century. In the resulting chaos, the influence of the Corpus Juris Civilis in those areas diminished. The new rulers did not completely adopt Roman law or impose their own system. Instead, over the next several hundred years a partial fusion of local law and the law of the invaders occurred. For example, simple versions of Roman civil law heavily influenced by Germanic legal customs were brought by invaders to what is now Italy.

Toward the end of the 11th century, when wars subsided in Europe and trade flourished, scholarly interest in the law resurfaced, especially in Italy. The legal scholars who attempted to revive Roman law sought to establish the study of law as a science by interpreting and analyzing the Corpus Juris Civilis. Their method was known as the gloss, and the practitioners of this method became known as the Glossators. Beginning in the 13th century, a group known as the Commentators attempted to integrate the Glossators’ interpretations of the Corpus Juris Civilis with customary law and canon, or religious, law. The Commentators focused on the development of a comprehensive legal theory. At this same time, the Corpus Juris Civilis began to be more commonly enforced as legal authority in France and Italy. The revival of the Roman civil law tradition eventually formed the basis for a common legal language throughout Europe.

The rise of nationalism that began in the 18th century led to the adoption of distinct civil codes for each European country, of which the French Code Napoléon of 1804 is the most famous. In the early 1900s Switzerland and Germany adopted similar codes. The subject matter of all these codes is almost identical with the first three books of the Corpus Juris Civilis.”

Source: “Civil Law,”Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000

See Also

Characteristics of Civil Law
Annotated Justinian Code in PDF
About the Origins and Sources of International Law, Historical
Law Classification, Historical
Civil Law
Geographic Expansion of Civil Law