Historical Formation of Romanistic and Common Law Systems

212: Roman citizenship given to all inhabitants of the Empire, creating ius civilae, or the foundation of Roman law476: The Roman Empire falls in the East - Barbarian invasion allow new customary laws to rub shoulders with the remains of Roman law - customary law reigns supreme in Northern Europe1088: University of Bologna starts elaborating law by using ancient Roman texts and annotating them, then adding to them slowly1100s: Thomas Aquinus illustrates the connection and compatibility between Roman law and natural law, which was part of lex divinus - Roman law formed the basis of canon law1215: 4th Catholic Council states that church courts must apply the law in their judgements - these judges had been trained at universities, so they obviously applied Roman law - this led to the slow but powerful Romanisation of customary law

400s: Barbarian invasions also occur in England, where the Roman imprint was not as strong. The most important invaders were the ANGLES and the SAXONS1066: William the Conqueror installs the first real monarchy - at this time there was no common basis to the law, and to preserve his power William I declared all disputes should be settled at courts 1200s: Royal courts were tasked with solving problems, not adhering to general principles - the judge became a creator of law, despite pretending to be discovering "immemorial customs of the realm" - the rule of precedent allowed consistency and coherence to appear in case law - practitioners were trained at court

16th century = renaissance, a return to antiquity17th century = classical age, a golden age for all18th century = Enlightenment, new philosophical era

A new school of "natural law" developed Universities taught Roman law - gradually they turned towards the systematisation of law through "reason" Natural law became secular, removed from theology and centred around mankind and human rights Greater emphasis was placed on "voluntarism" or law as a wilful creation expressing the "spirit of the people" Systematisation allowed codification to emerge as a new legal methodology Principles on "rule of law" and reigning in public bodies to prevent abuses of power developed to bring the State under control National law also developed Prior to this period, ius communae had ruled throughout Europe as universities taught canon and Roman law Universities were the first to shift towards national legislation - NB in England law was not studied at university, therefore a focus on national legislation came much later Law-making bodies began to change (ie. parlements de Paris with their own arrets de reglement; German principality courts created a loose rule of precedent that could not really be backed up by dismembered case law) In the Latin countries, the influence of Roman law had been much stronger. It was therefore applied as customary law: this was, of course, a distorted version of the principles once taught in great European universities. In some countries, political powers eventually forbade the use of customary law.

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