omparative European Legal History: Roman Law and the Ius commune

 Final Essay

 

 Due date:   Final Essay is due on Friday, May 8th, 2015; for Civil Law Students the paper is due on Sunday, May 10th;  please remember that the School of Canon Law frowns on incompletes.  If you need an incomplete please talk with the Dean.

Write on each of these questions.

1. Describe, briefly, the revival and teaching of Roman law in Italy at the beginning of the twelfth century.  Why Roman law?

2. Roman law begins to shape all European jurisprudence in the early twelfth century. Discuss the use of Roman law in the first royal compilation of law, King Roger II's Constitutiones, and in Bulgarus' treatise on procedure, De arbitris (arbitration).  What were the two types of procedure that Bulgarus presented to the papal curia in his tract?

3. The most important contributions of the Ius commune to European jurisprudence were the procedural norms and rules that are still shaping modern rules of procedure  in common and civil law courts.  Compare the procedure (modes of proof) in civil law and common law courts.  What accounts for the differences? Discuss and give examples.

4. Roman law provided the foundation for many concepts, rules (of law), jurisprudential principles, legal ideas about justice in the Ius commune.  These principles and norms have entered modern jurisprudence.  Select one example from the following three:  1. Justifiable defense, Ius naturale, and necessitas,  2. Rules of law (regulae iuris), 3. Role of consent

5. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Roman law provided a model for European legal codes.  Discuss the similarities and differences between ancient, medieval, and modern codes of law.

Write an essay covering each of these points. It should be typed, double-spaced, and proofread. The font should be 12 point, the margins 1" left and right, top and bottom. Please number pages (in case of an accident!).  Insert the number of each question in your essay when you being to discuss that part (so I am clear where you are).

I will evaluate your essay on how well you integrate the material on the web and the class lectures with the readings (for this essay Bellomo chapters  3, 4, 5, 6,  Stein, chapter 4, and my essays on the class web pages).  The main point to remember when writing this essay is that none of the questions has any "hidden" or "trick" elements to them.  I want you to write an analytic, thoughtful essay on the material presented in the course.  For that reason, if you have any questions about exactly what I want you to write about in the essay, please ask.  I'll tell you!

You can submit your paper by email (I would prefer that you do).  It should be a DOS document in Word or WordPerfect.  If you are a Mac person and if you know that I cannot read your files, please submit a paper copy of your essay to me.  

Please label your file with your name, last first, first last, e.g. PenningtonKen.doc