Compatve Legal systems and Legal Pluralsm [Comparative legal tradition in a nutshell] SUMMARY Chapter 1 -History , culture and distribution 1.Civil law tradition Romanist + Romano-Germanic + Civil law = Systems that share a distinctive heritage Civil law is characterized by a particular interaction of :*Roman Law *Germanic and Local customs *Cannon Law *The international merchant *Feudalism & Rise of Nation state.*Legal Science

2.Roman Law Specialist in ancient Roman law subdivided their subjects into various periods. 1st century = Men known as jurisconsults were experts in law and they were THE WORLDS FIRST LAWYERS !! by the end of the late Republic which took place in the post Century bc , Jurisconsults had set a monopoly if legal expertise. They were the men on the street who actually knew the law. They could impose it on others and were respected as being intelligent beings

Judges turned to them for advice

Because of this practice, jurisconsults stayed close to the practice of law and remained in constant contact with actual disputes .

Roman law developed through the different cases that these jurisconsults encountered. Principles , ideas resulted in the making of law.

Well-known jurisconsults are Ulipion, Gaius and Papinion.

Roman law was the highest interest to Byzantine jurist after the fall of the Western Empire .( and Through them had influence on the development of Civil law systems)

Medieval scholars started to discover roman law as as Europe started to Emerge from the middle ages even Through the Roman law that they found wasnt the Roman Law at the Classical period in its original

law actually started to play on important role among the norms that governed the people at that time

Unfortunately, most of the ancient sources had been lost and thats why Roman law couldnt actually be used in its original form .

What survived was the monumental compilation of Roman Law that was made under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century.

Justinian the Byzantine Emperor:

The corpus Juris Civils included 4 parts:1. The institutes- introductory text2. The Digest most of important in terms of its influence3. The code4. The Novels Practically the digest was in accordance to Justinians Jurists, the most valuable from the best Roman Legal writing from all previous periods