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Roman Law in European History
Roman law has had a huge impact on European legal and political thought. Peter Stein, one of the world's leading legal historians, explains in this masterly short study how this came to be. He assesses the impact of Roman law in the ancient world, and its continued unifying influence throughout medieval and modern Europe. Roman Law in European History is unparalleled in depth, lucidity and authority, and should prove of enormous utility for teachers and students (at all levels) of legal history, comparative law and European Studies.
137 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 1999
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About the author
Peter G. Stein
12 books1 followerPeter G. Stein was Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queen’s College. He wrote on legal history, Roman law, legal evolution, and was an editor of the Glasgow edition of Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence.
Peter Stein was born on May 29th, 1926, and grew up in Liverpool. He entered Liverpool College for his secondary education in 1938.
The delay in Stein’s formal education caused by the War years had two affects on his later career. It provided time to convince him that the classics were not, after all, to be his chosen field, and once he had opted for law, it shortened his legal training.
Stein was twenty one by the time he resumed academic studies in 1947, and his return to Caius was accompanied by a fundamental change in his academic aspirations. He chose the Roman Law option when he tackled Law Qualifying II, and inevitably he fell under the spell of the charismatic Roman Law tutor David Daube. This was probably the most crucial of all his professional relationships.
During the years 1951 to 1953 Peter Stein pondered his career options, one of which took him to high scholastic achievement. In the first year, rather than become a solicitor, he took a scholarship studying Roman Law and learning Italian at Borromeo College in the University of Pavia. The second year at the University of Nottingham as Assistant Lecturer, gave him his first taste of formal teaching, while in 1953 he re-formed his partnership with David Daube. By then, Daube was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Aberdeen, and Peter’s move to the “Granite City” initiated his interest in Scots law and the relationship between it and Roman Law.
One of the main pillars on which Peter Stein’s reputation rests, was his realisation that Roman Law, as conventionally taught, at least in the English speaking world (and Italy, apparently), was considered, somehow, to have stopped developing with the production of Justinian’s Corpus iuris (Digest, Institutes and revised Code) in 533AD. Stein’s thesis is that to understand their own legal regimes, students need to study the influence of Roman law on them as they matured over the centuries. It was during his early years at Aberdeen, while still under the influence of Daube, that such notions impressed themselves on him, and led him to write what he considered his most original work (Regulae Iuris: From Juristic Rules to Legal Maxims). In this he traced the evolution of the rules that underpinned Roman law through mediaeval and renaissance civil law into modern European jurisdictions. It was a theme he developed in a series of books over the years, culminating, in his retirement, in what he admitted was his best seller “the only one I’ve made any money out of!”, currently (2007) in its tenth printing. This is his beautifully crafted Roman Law in European History, wherein he presented the conclusions he had developed during his years of teaching LLB classes on the legacy Rome has passed on to modern European legal codes. He finishes this survey with a comment that “..the institutions of European Community law are frequently described as forming the beginning of a new ius commune”. He concludes however (p. 130) that whereas the mediaeval ius commune was adopted voluntarily because of its innate superiority, this new ius commune is imposed from above in the interests of uniformity.
Finally, in 1968, two years before Daube moved to the University of California at Berkeley, together with Professor Patrick Duff (the retiring incumbent), he recommended Peter’s name to the Patronage Secretary of Prime Minister Harold Wilson for appointment to the Regius chair of Civil Law at Cambridge.
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/emine...
Peter Stein was born on May 29th, 1926, and grew up in Liverpool. He entered Liverpool College for his secondary education in 1938.
The delay in Stein’s formal education caused by the War years had two affects on his later career. It provided time to convince him that the classics were not, after all, to be his chosen field, and once he had opted for law, it shortened his legal training.
Stein was twenty one by the time he resumed academic studies in 1947, and his return to Caius was accompanied by a fundamental change in his academic aspirations. He chose the Roman Law option when he tackled Law Qualifying II, and inevitably he fell under the spell of the charismatic Roman Law tutor David Daube. This was probably the most crucial of all his professional relationships.
During the years 1951 to 1953 Peter Stein pondered his career options, one of which took him to high scholastic achievement. In the first year, rather than become a solicitor, he took a scholarship studying Roman Law and learning Italian at Borromeo College in the University of Pavia. The second year at the University of Nottingham as Assistant Lecturer, gave him his first taste of formal teaching, while in 1953 he re-formed his partnership with David Daube. By then, Daube was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Aberdeen, and Peter’s move to the “Granite City” initiated his interest in Scots law and the relationship between it and Roman Law.
One of the main pillars on which Peter Stein’s reputation rests, was his realisation that Roman Law, as conventionally taught, at least in the English speaking world (and Italy, apparently), was considered, somehow, to have stopped developing with the production of Justinian’s Corpus iuris (Digest, Institutes and revised Code) in 533AD. Stein’s thesis is that to understand their own legal regimes, students need to study the influence of Roman law on them as they matured over the centuries. It was during his early years at Aberdeen, while still under the influence of Daube, that such notions impressed themselves on him, and led him to write what he considered his most original work (Regulae Iuris: From Juristic Rules to Legal Maxims). In this he traced the evolution of the rules that underpinned Roman law through mediaeval and renaissance civil law into modern European jurisdictions. It was a theme he developed in a series of books over the years, culminating, in his retirement, in what he admitted was his best seller “the only one I’ve made any money out of!”, currently (2007) in its tenth printing. This is his beautifully crafted Roman Law in European History, wherein he presented the conclusions he had developed during his years of teaching LLB classes on the legacy Rome has passed on to modern European legal codes. He finishes this survey with a comment that “..the institutions of European Community law are frequently described as forming the beginning of a new ius commune”. He concludes however (p. 130) that whereas the mediaeval ius commune was adopted voluntarily because of its innate superiority, this new ius commune is imposed from above in the interests of uniformity.
Finally, in 1968, two years before Daube moved to the University of California at Berkeley, together with Professor Patrick Duff (the retiring incumbent), he recommended Peter’s name to the Patronage Secretary of Prime Minister Harold Wilson for appointment to the Regius chair of Civil Law at Cambridge.
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/emine...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 6, 2021
If a doctor ever gives me two days to live, I will reread this book because a) it only takes two days and b) it will make those two days feel like an eternity.
Other than that there is really nothing wrong with this short history of Roman law in European history. The book deals with the development of Roman law in both the republic and then the empire, through Justinian and the Middle Ages into the various branches of French and German 19th century constitutionalism and ends just before the European constitution in the early 21st century. Professor Stein takes special care to dispel the notion that European law is uniquely a product of rational reflection first inspired in Greece, developed in Rome, later universalized in the Renaissance and Germanized in the 19th century.
Rather he notes the important continuous development, particularly in the Middle Ages, and is at pains to demonstrate that ius commune is not some universal Euclidian axioms but rather the product of particular cultural traits. I was glad that he avoids the idolatry of the law, something that to me is parallel to KJV-only-ism.
That said, the book is as dry as a mouthful of cinnamon. If you are interested in Roman law, this is the book for you. If you are interested in the development of law itself in Europe, such as the German comitatus, British constitutionalism (Magna Carta) and civil law, the Inquisition (Medieval and Spanish) and canon law, the dissolution of slavery in Europe, the transition from Feudal law to centralized monarchies (even Absolute Monarchies), the French Revolution etc...well, sorry, those topics are too interesting to be included in the book.
Other than that there is really nothing wrong with this short history of Roman law in European history. The book deals with the development of Roman law in both the republic and then the empire, through Justinian and the Middle Ages into the various branches of French and German 19th century constitutionalism and ends just before the European constitution in the early 21st century. Professor Stein takes special care to dispel the notion that European law is uniquely a product of rational reflection first inspired in Greece, developed in Rome, later universalized in the Renaissance and Germanized in the 19th century.
Rather he notes the important continuous development, particularly in the Middle Ages, and is at pains to demonstrate that ius commune is not some universal Euclidian axioms but rather the product of particular cultural traits. I was glad that he avoids the idolatry of the law, something that to me is parallel to KJV-only-ism.
That said, the book is as dry as a mouthful of cinnamon. If you are interested in Roman law, this is the book for you. If you are interested in the development of law itself in Europe, such as the German comitatus, British constitutionalism (Magna Carta) and civil law, the Inquisition (Medieval and Spanish) and canon law, the dissolution of slavery in Europe, the transition from Feudal law to centralized monarchies (even Absolute Monarchies), the French Revolution etc...well, sorry, those topics are too interesting to be included in the book.
January 31, 2018
Stein's work is a concise, yet fairly thorough introduction to the influence of Roman Law on European Legal History. It begins by tracing the roots of Roman Law (The Twelve Tables), and shows how it developed through the Republican, and then later, the Imperial ages (Code of Justinian). The influence of this legal system was not based on the force of government, but by quality (to adopt Sabbatani "Non ratione imperii, sed imperio rationis.")
It then shows the reception of Roman law in the nation state, and brings it into the modern era with the codification movement, and finally notes how the study of Roman Law is becoming more relevant as a result of the European Community movement, although now it is less of a source of common law based on reason and more as an aspiration to a unified law by enactment.
Well worth a read for canonists, Romanists, and legal scholars. Everyone else should probably give it a pass.
It then shows the reception of Roman law in the nation state, and brings it into the modern era with the codification movement, and finally notes how the study of Roman Law is becoming more relevant as a result of the European Community movement, although now it is less of a source of common law based on reason and more as an aspiration to a unified law by enactment.
Well worth a read for canonists, Romanists, and legal scholars. Everyone else should probably give it a pass.
February 24, 2021
Especially theory about the rediscovery of the Justinian Code was interesting although with barely 35 pages a bit short. Would like to read a bit more in-depth historical work of this important re-discovery as quite a bit of history depends on it.
July 5, 2007
Read for HIST 498D: Law and Society in Medieval Europe
June 3, 2012
Good, brief outline on Roman Law and its influence on the European legal thought.
August 20, 2013
Good at what it sets out to do: concise and helpful overview of the reception and legacy of Roman law in western Europe.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews