The Influence of Roman Law in Medieval Europe

This paper will discuss how law in medieval Western Europe was influenced by Roman law. The first part of the paper will briefly discuss the Roman legal system. The second part of the paper will discuss the overall impact Roman law had on medieval Europe. The third part of the paper will examine the effects Roman law had on particular countries.

Roman law is important in European history for several reasons. First, it was the only ancient system of law to consist of a fairly complete, and elaborate, body of law which governed all aspects of Roman life. Legal principles evolved which dealt with commercial transactions, the transfer of property upon marriage and death, the treatment of slaves, and even international relationships, as well as the traditional subjects of injury to person and property and criminal acts. Second, its development can be traced from rather primitive beginnings to the point where it was an elaborate system of justice, practiced by learned and skilled professionals. Third, Roman law is important because Rome controlled most of the geographic area which now makes up Western Europe. As will be explained below, the demise of the Roman Empire did not occur quickly and the Roman institutions did not completely disappear from Europe along with the legions. European society continued to function through the use of some Roman institutions, although they were modified in their forms. Consequently, Europ

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lassifications but from the economic and social conditions of the time. The masses simply fell back into some greater form of dependency and the nobles did not. The Roman idea of the inequality of persons reasserted itself in this early medieval period and laid the foundation for the feudal caste system which took hold in the later years. The main difference between the Roman and feudal systems, however, was that the Roman system of inequality was based upon the belief in natural inequality, that some groups of persons were inherently inferior and some were inherently superior. The feudal system based inequality on contract, rather than status. This allowed for the eventual development of the idea of personal liberties which were inherent in all individuals. Thus, Roman public law was never lost in Europe; in fact, it had to be gradually overcome in medieval Europe. It has also been suggested that Roman public law bequeathed an important principle to European public law, especially concerning the idea of authority and the state. This idea was that the state was the natural holder of the only true public authority and that this authority was imposed upon the people by the very transcendence of the state, needing no consen
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Christian Church, Western Europe, Consequently European, Western European, Twelfth Century, German German, roman law, Europe Germanic, Century France, Sixteenth Century, Code Justinian, private law, common law, public law, medieval europe, roman private law, middle ages, german law, roman empire, roman private, european law, influenced roman law, roman public law, law roman law, journal legal history,
Approximate Word count = 2436
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)