Global Legal History
Exam Preparation
Module 1-8
Module 1 - Roman Law
The Early Republic, 509 BCE
The Late Republic, 3rd century BCE
The Roman Empire, 49 BCE
Differences in Law
Module 2 - Ancient China and Confucianism
Ancient China → ruled by dynasties
Imperial China → ruled by emperors
Confucius
Legalism
Module 3 - Islamic Law and Slavery
Early Islam
Slavery
Demise of the Abbasid Caliphate
Mamluks
Rise of Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Slavery → Janisseries
Module 4 - Ius Commune
Popes and Emperors
Papal Revolution, 1075-1303
Ius Commune
Module 5 - Common Law
The idea of justice
The rise of English common law
Reinventing common law in England
Towards modern common law in England
Was England so different?
Module 6 - Spanish Imperialism vs. Native Customs
Spanish Imperialism in the Americas
Spanish ruling the Americas
Honor v Gold → whether the central goal of the conquest of the Americas should be
installing law and order or simple exploitation
Treatment of Native Americans
Problems of the Spanish Empire
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Module 7 - Spanish Law, Citizenship and Identity
Citizenship
Spanish America
Naturaleza
Identity
Module 8 - Modern Law
The American Revolution, 1776
The French Revolution 1789
Code Civil of 1804
Bugerlichesgezetzbuch
Module 1 - Roman Law
● Roman law → legal concepts to separate very precisely what is yours from what is
mine, to each by right
○ A system to adjudicate conflicts among individuals that, from archaic times
(eighth to fourth century BCE ), was centered on society’s responsibility to
guarantee order pg. 20
○ The law of the civitas (communal law, ius civile)
■ 7th-8th century BCE
■ Patriarchal society
■ Two tribes:
● Patricians
○ Ruled as aristocracy
○ Held public positions and magjistratures
○ “Secret law”
○ Questions of law as well as actual conflicts could be
presented to a body (college) of patricians who were also
priests (pontifices) pg. 20
● Plebeians
○ Lower class
○ Plebeian tribunals → officials draft plebiscites
■ Rex → the king held supreme power (imperium) over the political, military
and religious functions of the elective monarchy for life.
○ Rebellion of Patricians → creation of Roman Republic and taboo of the Rex
● The Early Republic, 509 BCE
○ Law was closely related to religion and rites, unwritten tribal customs
○ Imperium was given to two public magistrates (consuls) by the assembly of
elders (Senate) pg. 18
■ Mutual veto power
■ One-year term → appointed by vote
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■ Other magistrates: Praetors (judicial), censors (lands, census, and votes),
aediles (buildings and public works), quaestors (treasurer), tribunes
(representatives)
● Elected officials who held certain levels of power over different
areas
● Usually always two or more, originally only patricians, later
plebeians as well
○ Senate
■ Former magistrates, appointed for life
■ Senatus Populusque Romanus, the senate and the people of rome, the
highest authority, SPQR
○ Lex → creation of the first law
■ The law of the Twelve Tables
● 459 BCE
● Result of long discord between patricians and plebeians in the
Senate
● Typical of the Republic: No general code, no written constitutional
order
● The Twelve Tables list the obligation of litigants to appear in court,
sanctioning them if they did not. The Tables also spell out
procedural rules, regulate forms of legal transactions, and list
other basic norms of communal life, pg. 21
● The publication of the Twelve Tables was an important turning
point in the history of Roman law not only because a secret law,
collectively shared by the pontifices, was made public but also
because it marked the appearance of lex, that is, of a law that was
distinguishable from the religious order controlled by priests. Pg.
21
○ System lasted until 27 BCE when Augustus became emperor
● The Late Republic, 3rd century BCE
○ Creation of Roman Empire (mediterranean power) due to the punic wars 246-201
BCE at the defeat of Carthage
○ Roman law developed around officials
■ Praetor urbanus (367 BCE) → nominated annually to oversee the
resolution of conflicts,
■ Praetor peregrinus (242 BCE) → for foreigners, aimed to identify legal
principles shared by all humans
■ Iuris consultus or jurisprudentes → Roman jurists were men who engaged
with the normative order as part of their public duty pg. 26
○ Ius Civile:
■ Legal procedure
● In iure → within the law, questions of law, concerned with
identifying the legal issues at stake and the appropriate remedy
pg. 22
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