Roman law – Source of All Civil Laws
© blmurch
When we speak of law we usually mean to indicate the law which is set and enforced by civilized states. Law, in this sense, derives its sanction, or binding force, from the penalties by which men are constrained to obey it or punished for breaking it. The earliest source law is custom; the customary rules of primitive community formed the basis of Civil law at Rome. If we follow the roman law history at Rome for example the growing commerce of the city compelled the praetor to go beyond the civil law (which was a law for Romans only), and to devise a new law of nations, based on principles of equity, such as all civilized man could understand. When the Romans began to study Greek they identified this law of nations with the law of nature, as explained by Stoics. The civil law, amended and rationalized by successive praetors and emperors, has furnished most of the nations of modern Europe with the greater part of their legal rules and ideas. England, while refusing to borrow directly from the 'Corpus Juris Civilis' has derived no small part of her law from that source.