Introduction
Laws govern people. These laws are constituted by the leaders of a country and are meant to ensure that the people live in harmony and respect one another. The Roman Law is similar to any other law that exists. It consists of a set of rules and regulations that are geared towards ensuring that the people are at peace and respect each other and their property. However, Roman Law refers to the ancient legal system that existed thousands of years ago. The law was in existence around 449 BC. The Roman law was written on the twelve tables, as the order of the Emperor, Justinian I. However, the Roman Law can be traced in some parts of the modern European Laws. This legal system has formed the basis of all current legal systems that are in use.
Discussions
The Roman law was mainly based on the twelve tables. However, it was based on the Civil Law before the emergence of the twelve tables. The civil law only applied to the Roman citizens. Also, the legal system was attached to religion. Before the existence of the Roman law, the people of Rome went about their daily duties without any fixed laws or rights. Kings who used their personal decisions to run the country ruled the people (Rives, 2003). Any law did not govern their decisions. The twelve tables represent the first legal text that was ever written. It was proposed that the law should be written down, to enable the magistrates in the legal courts to refer to them when making decisions on dispute cases presented before them.
The law applied by the judges mainly consisted of three elements. They included:
The existing Mercantile law used by the Mediterranean traders
The institutions of the Roman law that could be applied universally
The magistrates own sense of what was fair and just.
The Roman law was divided into two parts. The written law and the unwritten law. The unwritten law referred to the customs law. On the other hand, the written law referred to the laws that were derived from legislation.
Application
The Roman law has a significant impact on the modern law. The Roman law is no longer in practice today. However, the South African law and San Marino law were developed based on the Roman law. This provides an illustration of the significance of the Roman law to the modern laws that are currently in force. The modern society is governed by the current legal system. The current laws were derived based on the concept that existed in the Roman law (Holland, 2010). The Roman law was the first law to apply. For this reason, all modern laws used the Roman law to devise their laws. The Roman law worked well, but as the modern laws were derived, some adjustments were made to them. This made it more favourable and gave people their rights.
Conclusion
Laws vary from one region to another. The legal system in any country is developed based on the problems that are face in that country. However, the general idea of the legal system is the same across the board. The modern scholars have challenged the accuracy of the Roman law, thereby making it inappropriate for use in the modern society. The modern society is focussed on exercising their rights and values. This prompted the development of the modern legal system that is in use today.
References
Holland, B. (2010). Sovereignty as Dominium? Reconstructing the Constructivist Roman
Law Thesis. International Studies Quarterly, 54 (2), 449–480. Wiley Press.
Rives, J. B. (2003). Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime. Classical
Antiquity, 22 (2), 313–339. University of California Press.
