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.

"Fact-filled as this book is, with its myriad names, dates and book titles, the author never allows the reader to lose sight of the trends, tensions, and debates that shped the use of Roman law down through the centuries, ending with the civil codes of the modern European nation states. This is a welcome treatment and guide to its subject." The Classical Bulletin

"In Roman Law in European History, a master gives his readers both an introduction to the law of ancient Rome and an account of how that law lives on, well after the demise of the ancient society." David V. Snyder, H-Net Reviews

"...immensely useful and pleasurable reading.... The entire book will be welcome across many disciplines, but especially to historians and those interested in European culture and its reception of the classical tradition." Religious Studies Review

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.

Part I. Introduction; Part II. Roman Law in Antiquity: 1. The law of the Twelve Tables; 2. Legal development by interpretation; 3. The praetor and the control of remedies; 4. The ius gentium and the advent of jurists; 5. The Empire and the law; 6. The jurists in the classical period; 7. The ordering of the law; 8. The culmination of classical jurisprudence; 9. The division of the empire; 10. Post-classical law and procedure; 11. The decline of legal science; 12. The end of the Western empire; 13. Justinian and the Corpus iuris; Part III. The Revival of Justinian's Law: 14. Roman law and Germanic law in the West; 15. Church and empire; 16. The rediscovery of the Digest; 17. The civil law glossolators; 18. Civil law and canon law; 19. The attraction of the Bologna studium; 20. The new learning outside Italy; 21. Applied civil law: legal procedure; 22. Applied civil law: legislative power; 23. Civil law and custom; 24. Civil law and local laws in the thirteenth century; 25. The studium of Orleans; Part IV. Roman Law and the Nation State: 26. The commentators; 27. The impact of humanism; 28. Humanism and the civil law; 29. The civil law becomes a science; 30. The ordering of the customary law; 31. The Bartolist reaction; 32. The reception of Roman law; 33. The reception in Germany; 34. Court practice as a source of law; 35. Civil law and natural law; 36. Civil law and international law; 37. Theory and practice in the Netherlands; Part V. Roman Law and Codification: 38. Roman law and national laws; 39. The mature natural law; 40. The codification movement; 41. Early codifications in Germany and Austria; 42. Pothier and the French Civil Code; 43. The German historical school; 44. Pandect-science and the German Civil Code; 45. Nineteenth-century legal science outside Germany; 46. Roman law in the twentieth century.