Sources Of Law

Question 1

Archaic law

Answer 1

• custom (ius non scriptum)

- royal decrees (legis regiae): prescriptive and condemnatory

Question 2

Republic

Answer 2

• legislation: the twelve tables
• magistrates’ edicts - they had the ius edicendi. The edicts were known as ius honorarium and supplemented the ius civile.
• assemblies
• senate: senatus consulta had great weight (but no formal legal power)
• interpretatio: responsa from the pontiffs and subsequently the praetors.

Question 3

Empire

Answer 3

• legislation: assemblies in decline, senatus consulta given the weight of lex.
• emperor: decreta, mandata, edicta, rescripta (epistulae and subscriptiones via libellue)
• edicts: the importance of the praetor waned following the perpetual edict.
• interpretatio: jurists were given the ius respondendi and became glorified civil servants. Two schools of thought evolved - the Proculians (progressives following Labeo) and the Sabinians (conservatives following Capito)

-

Question 4

Post classical

Answer 4

• jurists disappear
• more legislation
• the law of citations

Question 5

Justinian

Answer 5

Sought to revive Roman classical law through:

• the codex vetus
• the fifty decisions
• the digest
• the institutes
• the new code and the novellae