ROMAN INTERNATIONAL LAW

What had caused the success of Roman hegemony over the empire? It was her foreign policies that insured her domination of the Empire. It is popular to believe that the history of her policies towards her neighbors is a history of military domination. But it is also a history of a recognition of international law and binding treaties on sovereign states.

The history of Rome may have been a long series of wars and conquests. Notwithstanding this, she evolved and practiced a large body of principles which have furnished the basis of international law for all time; "the Roman genius law in conquest, imperial expansion, in the practical sphere of political organization and juridical development."

To the extent to which international law was binding on the Romans, there must be an understanding of the time periods in Roman history. In the latter periods of the empire, where there was rapid extension of the empire and absorption of foreign countries, equality under the law of nations and reciprocity of treaty rights gave way to dictatorial insistence of stated conditions. "Imperial Rome had no great need of international conventions.ö

But in the earlier periods as being covered in this paper, there was

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o the opponent by a state A special group of priests, the fetiales were entrusted with the administration of the religious ceremonials pertaining to treaties and war. It was for them to decide whether a foreign nation had violated its duties toward the Romans. In case the foreign nation wanted time for deliberation, thirty to thirty-three days would be granted. If the period terminated without result, the fetiales would certify to the senate the existence of a just cause of war; the ultimate political decision was left to the senate and the people. This war would then be "just" as well as "pious," belum justum et pium. "In fact, the invention of the `just war` doctrine constitutes the foremost Roman contributor to the history of international law." War could be ended two ways: First, through a treaty of peace, which was then always a treaty of friendship. Second, war could be ended by surrender, known as deditio. Deditio legally placed those who had performed the act (dediticii) in the same status as those whose cities had been taken by storm. Although theoretically the "dediticius" was at the absolute disposal of the Roman state, a power which had placed itself voluntarily in this status could expect relatively lenient
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Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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