Legal history

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Part of a series on
Law
Foundations and Philosophy
Legal theory
Methodological background
Legal debate
  • judicial opinions

Legal history or the history of law is the study of how

social-science inquiry, using statistical methods, analysing class distinctions among litigants, petitioners and other players in various legal processes. By analyzing case outcomes, transaction costs, and numbers of settled cases, they have begun an analysis of legal institutions, practices, procedures and briefs that gives a more complex picture of law and society than the study of jurisprudence, case law and civil codes can achieve.[3]

Ancient world

Main articles:
Leviticus
See also: Urukagina, Hittite laws, and Ostracism

transliterated and translated into various languages, including English, German and French. Ancient Greek has no single word for "law" as an abstract concept,[5] retaining instead the distinction between divine law (thémis), human decree (nomos) and custom (díkē).[6] Yet Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations in the development of democracy.[7]

Southern Asia

Main articles:
Fatawa-e-Alamgiri
See also: Classical Hindu law, Classical Hindu law in practice, and Hindu law
The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444 articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments and 117,369 words

Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, compiled by emperor Aurangzeb and various scholars of Islam.[11][12] After British colonialism, Hindu tradition, along with Islamic law, was supplanted by the common law when India became part of the British Empire.[13] Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong
also adopted the common law.

Eastern Asia

Main articles: Traditional Chinese law, Tang Code, and Great Qing Legal Code

The eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences.

People's Republic of China was heavily influenced by soviet Socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the expense of private law rights.[17] Today, however, because of rapid industrialisation China has been reforming, at least in terms of economic (if not social and political) rights. A new contract code in 1999 represented a turn away from administrative domination.[18] Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organization.[19]

Canon law

Scale of justice
Part of a series on the
Canon law of the
Catholic Church
Ius vigens (current law)
Legal history
Jus antiquum (c. 33-1140)

Jus novum (c. 1140-1563)

Jus novissimum (c. 1563-1918)

Jus codicis (1918-present)

Other

Eastern law
Liturgical law
Latin Church
Sacramental law

Sacraments

Sacramentals

Sacred places

  • Altars
  • Major basilica
  • Minor basilica
  • Oratory (chapel)

Sacred times

Matrimonial law
Supreme authority, particular
churches, and canonical structures
Supreme authority of the Church

Supra-diocesan/eparchal structures

Particular churches

Juridic persons

Jurisprudence

Philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law

Temporal goods (property)
Law of persons

Clerics

Office


Juridic and physical persons


Associations of the faithful


Consecrated life
Canonical documents
Penal law
Procedural law
Pars statica (tribunals & ministers/parties)

Pars dynamica (trial procedure)

Canonization

Election of the Roman Pontiff

Legal practice and scholarship

Academic degrees

Journals and Professional Societies

Faculties of canon law

  • School of Canon Law

Canonists

Law of consecrated life

Institute of consecrated life

Society of apostolic life

Catholicism portal
Main article: Legal history of the Catholic Church
Further information: Canon law of the Catholic Church

The legal history of the

Catholic canon law, the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West.[20][21] Canon law originates much later than Roman law but predates the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. The cultural exchange between the secular (Roman/Barbarian) and ecclesiastical (canon) law produced the jus commune
and greatly influenced both civil and common law.

The history of Latin

canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law.[22] In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus vetus (all law before the Code) and the jus novum (the law of the Code, or jus codicis).[22] Eastern canon law
developed separately.

In the twentieth century, canon law was comprehensively codified. On 27 May 1917, Pope Benedict XV codified the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

sui juris Eastern Catholic Churches on 18 October 1990 by promulgating the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
.

Islamic law

Main article: Sharia
See also:
Early reforms under Islam

One of the major legal systems developed during the Middle Ages was

French civil law and the Avallo in Italian law.[23]

European laws

Roman Empire

Main articles: Roman law and Byzantine law

Justinian codified and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome so that what remained was one twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.[28] This became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. As one legal historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to the golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before."[29]

Middle Ages

King John of England signs the Magna Carta
Main articles:
Early Germanic law, Anglo-Saxon law, Lex mercatoria, and Early Irish law
See also:
Blutgericht, Magna Carta, and Schwabenspiegel

During the

customary law for the Germanic incomers – a system known as folk-right – until the two laws blended together. Since the Roman court system had broken down, legal disputes were adjudicated according to Germanic custom by assemblies of learned lawspeakers in rigid ceremonies and in oral proceedings that relied heavily on testimony
.

After much of the West was consolidated under Charlemagne, law became centralized so as to strengthen the royal court system, and consequently case law, and abolished folk-right. However, once Charlemagne's kingdom definitively splintered, Europe became feudalistic, and law was generally not governed above the county, municipal or lordship level, thereby creating a highly decentralized legal culture that favored the development of customary law founded on localized case law. However, in the 11th century, crusaders, having pillaged the Byzantine Empire, returned with Byzantine legal texts including the Justinian Code, and scholars at the University of Bologna were the first to use them to interpret their own customary laws.[30] Medieval European legal scholars began researching the Roman law and using its concepts[31] and prepared the way for the partial resurrection of Roman law as the modern civil law in a large part of the world.[32] There was, however, a great deal of resistance so that civil law rivaled customary law for much of the late Middle Ages.

After the

Scandinavian trade customs, then solidified by the Hanseatic League, took shape so that merchants could trade using familiar standards, rather than the many splintered types of local law. A precursor to modern commercial law, the Law Merchant emphasised the freedom of contract and alienability of property.[36]

Modern European law

Main articles:
Napoleonic code, Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, English law, and Francisco de Vitoria

The two main traditions of modern European law are the codified legal systems of most of continental Europe, and the English tradition based on case law.[37]

As nationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, lex mercatoria was incorporated into countries' local law under new civil codes. Of these, the French Napoleonic Code and the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch became the most influential. As opposed to English common law, which consists of massive tomes of case law, codes in small books are easy to export and for judges to apply. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging. European Union law is codified in treaties, but develops through the precedent set down by the European Court of Justice.

African law

See also: Law in Africa

The African law system is based on common law and civilian law.[38] Many legal systems in Africa were based on ethnic customs and traditions before colonization took over their original system.[39] The people listened to their elders and relied on them as mediators during disputes. Several states didn't keep written records, as their laws were often passed orally. In the Mali Empire, the Kouroukan Fouga, was proclaimed in 1222–1236 AD as the official constitution of the state. It defined regulations in both constitutional and civil matters. The provisions of the constitution are still transmitted to this day by griots under oath.[40] During colonization, authorities in Africa developed an official legal system called the Native Courts.[41] After colonialism, the major faiths that stayed were Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism.

United States

The

prior appropriation doctrine and community property, still persist in some US states, particularly those that were part of the Mexican Cession
in 1848.

Under the doctrine of federalism, each state has its own separate court system, and the ability to legislate within areas not reserved to the federal government.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "International law – Historical development". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  2. ^ "International law – Historical development". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  3. ^ "International law – Historical development". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  4. ^ Théodoridés. "law". Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt.
    * VerSteeg, Law in ancient Egypt
  5. ^ Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 5–6
  6. ^ J.P. Mallory, "Law", in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, 346
  7. ^ Ober, The Nature of Athenian Democracy, 121
  8. ^ "Study reveals origin of India's caste system". The Times of India. 11 August 2013.
  9. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 255
  10. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 276
  11. ISBN 9781783475728
    .
  12. ISBN 9781136950360
    .
  13. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 273
  14. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 287
  15. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 304
  16. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 305
  17. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 307
  18. ^ Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 309
  19. ^ Farah, Five Years of China WTO Membership, 263–304
  20. Dr. Edward N. Peters, CanonLaw.info
    , accessed Jul-1-2013
  21. ^ Raymond Wacks, Law: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2015) pg. 15.
  22. ^ a b Della Rocca, Manual of Canon Law, pg. 13, #8
  23. JSTOR 839667
    .
  24. ^ Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 39
  25. ^ As a legal system, Roman law has affected the development of law in most of Western civilization as well as in parts of the Eastern world. It also forms the basis for the law codes of most countries of continental Europe ("Roman law". Encyclopædia Britannica.).
  26. ^ Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 18
  27. ^ Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 21
  28. ^ Stein, Roman Law in European History, 32
  29. ^ Stein, Roman Law in European History, 35
  30. ^ Stein, Roman Law in European History, 43
  31. ^ Roman and Secular Law in the Middle Ages Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ Roman law
  33. ^ Makdisi, John A. (June 1999). "The Islamic Origins of the Common Law". North Carolina Law Review. 77 (5): 1635–1739. suggests that there may have been some importation of Islamic concepts as well, but others have shown that occasional similarities are more likely coincidence than causal.
  34. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.jce.2007.03.007. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  35. ^ Poland, Peter S. “King Arthur, Rambo, and the Origins of Civility at the Bar.” Litigation, vol. 42, no. 2, 2016, pp. 52–57. JSTOR website Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  36. ^ Sealey-Hooley, Commercial Law, 14
  37. JSTOR 838275
    .
  38. ISSN 0022-278X
    .
  39. S2CID 154081067
    .
  40. ^ "Africamix sur le site du Monde". Archived from the original on 2009-03-30. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
  41. ISSN 0021-8553
    .

References

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Legal history.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legal_history&oldid=1210124981"