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Concept
Medieval Roman law
Summary
Medieval Roman law is the continuation and development of ancient Roman law that developed in the European Late Middle Ages. Based on the ancient text of Roman law, Corpus iuris civilis, it added many new concepts, and formed the basis of the later civil law systems that prevail in the vast majority of countries.
Although some legal systems in western Europe in the Early Middle Ages, such as the Visigothic Code, retained some features of ancient Roman law, the main texts of Roman law were little known, except in the Byzantine Empire, where its Roman legal system, based on Justinian's Code, prevailed and was occasionally updated. That changed when the Digest was rediscovered in late 11th century Italy. It was soon apparent that the Digest was a massive intellectual achievement and that the assimilation of its contents would require much time and study. The first western European university, the University of Bologna, was set up in large part with the aim of studying it.
The ancient Roman law texts were not very explicit about matters of principle, and the commentators found it necessary to develop the scholastic method of comparing potentially conflicting texts and inferring principles that would explain the apparent contradictions. The commentators of the 12th and early 13th centuries, called glossators, such as Azo of Bologna and Accursius, produced large-scale harmonization of and commentary on the texts. They developed new concepts by reflecting on different related texts, such as the concept of half-proof in the law of evidence. Many of these glosses or interpretations, were compiled into one text around 1220 by Accursius. This text was known as the Glossa Ordinaria and was a compilation of the most important commentaries made by the glossators.
Initially the rediscovered Roman law was not the law of any particular country or institution, but as lawyers trained in the concepts of Roman law came to dominate the legal profession, Roman law came to have an immense effect on law as actually practiced.
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