Differences And Contributions Of The Ancient Roman Judicial System

Roman law in the republic was often based on custom (Paul-Louis). During the Roman Empire, however, the emperor became the final source of law. Roman law was one of the original products of the Roman mind. They created the Twelve Tables, which was the first Roman code of law developed during the early republic. Roman civil law allowed great flexibility in adopting new ideas or extending principles in the complex environment of the empire. This was to establish laws that allowed greater fairness. Early Roman law

The government from ancient Rome had a big impact on our modern government. Our senate is modeled after the Ancient Roman government. Although there are some similarities there are many differences between the Roman government and the U.S government.

Both Romans and Americans are known for allowing their conquered to enjoy a certain amount of liberty. A less glorious similarity is the Roman and American social welfare systems. Straying from using the imagination and classical problem solving, both civilizations have expended their resources to quiet the cries of the hopeless, without building any hope for their unfortunate citizens. Roman law influenced much of the American legal system, especially in the area of criminal justice. America has followed in the footsteps of the Romans in many ways, for better or for worse.

where created. The bases of Roman life where that of law and order and this only took place with

The Roman Law was created in 100 C.E it was the basic legal system of ancient Rome. It was a basic set of commands which of all there citizens must follow or will face the consequences. This law greatly helped the development of law in many other eastern and western civilizations. This law can still be seen today as it is a basic set of rules which all must properly comply with in our civilization now in

The Roman lives were based on the Twelve Tables, which were their written laws enforced by the government. The Twelve Tables were stable for over a millennium until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. The Romans were able to keep control through fair legal rights basically saying any crime was intolerable, but could be solved in a court case to determine the fate of the criminal. The Romans were half democratic and gave the people some voice by selecting representatives. This ruling helped decimate any crime and prevent murder. Although there are many positives to this ruling, innocent newborns with a deformity were ruthlessly killed. (Doc. 6)

The Roman's executive branch, had two consuls and they were elected by the assembly for one year to be the chief executives of the government and the commanders-in-chief of the army. In the judicial branch, the Praetors and the eight judges are chosen for one year by the Centuriate Assembly. Both the Praetor and the eight judges oversee the civil and criminal courts. To become a citizens you have to be an adult male landowner. The citizens had the right to vote, to make legal contracts, to have a lawful marriage, and to have a trial. A common citizen would vote to elect tribunes and to make laws. The Romans had the Twelve Tablets which, were a list of rules that was the basis of the Roman legal system. The laws in the Twelve Tablets talked about property, crime, family, theft, and inheritance.

Rome was extremely organized in the sense that it had in-depth infrastructure and politics. For example, the Roman road network was most complex and advanced road network in the classical world. (Doc 3) Travel, trade, and military actions were all made quicker and easier. This, of course, kept the empire alive for so long. Rome was also organized politically. From a very early point in its history, Rome wrote extensive laws. This is shown by codes such as the Twelve Tables, detailing points such as different ways to deal with debt. (Doc 7) Codes of law such as this are indicative of Rome’s early political organization. The main purpose of creating laws such as these was to maintain order and control over the people of Rome. Without laws and codes detailing aspects of life, the civilization would not be very effective in governing its people. Not only was Rome highly organized, it also had a significant amount of social progress. This can be seen in the ability for people in the civilization to become citizens. In Rome almost every person living in the empire can be a citizen with the exception of slaves. (Doc 8) This contrasts with other civilizations such as Athens that only offered citizenship to males born in the republic. This social progress found in Rome in combination with the great organization of the civilization aided Rome in lowering unrest and adding to the overall

In Ancient Rome, The way society worked was much similar to America. The Roman social class is and has been very significant in the operational American social class. None of the Roman class’ was oppressed or enslaved rather they were split into two. Once the Romans defeated the Etruscans they went on to build an empire that would change the world. Their influence in today’s society is still very present. We still borrow ideas from them. They formed a government where they would elect people to represent for them, called a republic. This is still the foundation for government in most of today’s world. They formed a system of law that was completely ahead of it’s time so much so that it has become the base for many countries legal system today; one of these being The United States. The political system they built, coincidental caused a division between the Romans. Plebeians were the common people of Rome; the Patricians who were the ones of higher class could serve in the consul. This was the highest position in the senate. The Assembly was made up of Plebeians. They had gained a significant amount of importance when they were the ones given the power to elect Consuls. The Assembly head position was a tribune; he was the leader of the Assembly and had a lot of power. Then they developed the Law of Twelve Tables, a

Rome is a beautiful place, with lots of history. Rome and the U.S. weare different in law, religion,and activities.They are similar to each other, but they’re nothing alike at the same time.

In 450 B.C., the first Roman law code was inscribed on 12 bronze tablets–known as the Twelve Tables–and publicly displayed in the Roman Forum. These laws included issues of legal procedure, civil rights and property rights and provided the basis for all future Roman civil law. (Staff)

To begin, they had to have good enforcers and creators of these laws. The creators were the Roman Assemblies. They had different officials for enforcing these laws. The first official was called praetor and they were a part of police departments, these officials took care of little things like thefts and runaway slaves. Praetorian Guard is another type of official. They took care of bigger issues, like groups with weapons. They adjusted the way they had the laws because the patricians were altering the rules in their favor. So, the Romans wrote the laws down. The reason they had flaws was because their punishments weren’t fair. For example, the poor would receive harsher punishments compared to the rich. If Rome got a grade for promote rule of law they would get a C. They would get a C because they were

As Rome became independent from the Etruscan ruling, its government walked away from having a monarch and transformed into a Republic as a way to avoid the tyranny that many times comes with an absolute autocrat. Rigorous precautions were taken from the start in order to keep the power balanced. Moreover, the structure of the government was meant to be resilient to bad judgment. The structure of the Roman Republic with its government and law provided for a more just system.

By that time, the Republic had extended its control throughout the Mediterranean Sea and as far as Britain. That control would operate under an informal unwritten constitution, and establish the use of Latin as its official language, while codifying rights, responsibilities, and status under a written law. Beginning with the Law of the Twelve Tables, Roman jurisprudence would develop over the next one thousand years into a legal system that would eventually become the early basis for law in continental Europe. Even English and North American “common law” owes more than a passing debt to the Romans. Case law and precedents find their roots in a Latin legal term, stare decisis, meaning “ to stand by things decided”. The development of a written law was seen as a method of eliminating indiscriminant application of the law by magistrates and officials upon the lower plebeian class.

Justice has been misperceived to go hand and hand with rules in which a society must conform to, mostly in due part to the enlightenment era. In the case with the Romans, the laws they established, especially early on, dealing with the spread of Christianity has been interpreted with a sense of disgust for the unfair treatment targeted towards Christians, and later on to those of other faiths. However, I argue that, Roman law, when concerning religion, was used to strengthen the identity of what it meant to be Roman. Furthermore, as Rome, the political institution, was beginning to decay, as an act of acclamation, the formulation of Roman Laws allowed Christianity to be a main means of connection to what it meant to identify as Roman. Utilizing various primary sources, it is evident that faith had been gradually accepted as the dominant form of unity and law, beginning with Emperor Diocletian to Emperor Theodosia, even among emperors, the Catholic faith had shown that all men were under God, and under God they were all Roman.