Graeco-Roman Institutions, from Antievolutionist Points of View; Roman Law, Classical Slavery, Social Conditions. Four Lectures Delivered Before the University of Oxford (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... on radical reforms, why the XII. Tables continued to be considered living law eight centuries after their promulgation. The Jus civile never ceased to be a vital element of Roman Private Law as long as this law really existed; its rigour and " criminalistic " character was the very leaven of Praetorian legislation and scientific meditations. Roman Private Law means Civil and Praetorian Law; it did not " evolve " out of a victorious struggle of the latter against the former. Just as homo sui juris i 1. 36 D (de obligationibus et actionibus) XLIV., 7. and servus presuppose and inter-determine one another in indissoluble connection, even so jus civile and jus honorarium. Individual Roman jurists had subjective leanings to one division of law in preference to the other. This gave rise to the two famous schools of Roman jurists, the Pro-culeiani, and the Sabiniani. The point of difference between these two schools has been a matter of great and learned dispute in Germany and France. It would be uninteresting to rehearse the various opinions, which, as a rule, savor of the dust of learning rather than of the salt of common sense. The fundamental dichotomy of Roman Law seems to almost necessitate the rise of two schools, one ef which gravitates towards "Jus" the other towards " Factum." I said that the dichotomy of Roman Law was a natural product of the peculiar constitution of their commonwealth, and I called attention to the striking similarity between Roman private law and modern continental criminal law. In fact, to numerous concepts in Roman Law, and more especially in the Roman Law of Procedure, we find close analogies not in the civil but in the criminal law of modern continental nations. Thus the bifurcation of a Roman civil lawsuit in the...