Issue: № 12, 2025
Doi: https://doi.org/10.37634/efp.2025.12.9
The paper provides a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of Roman legal thought and practice, tracing its development from the archaic and customary origins of early Roman society through the Republic and Classical periods, and culminating in the codification efforts of Emperor Justinian. Central to the analysis is the dualism of the jus civile and jus gentium, which the paper presents as a foundational conceptual framework that allowed the regulation of legal relations both among Roman citizens and between citizens and foreigners. The study situates this dualism within the broader intellectual and social context of Roman law, emphasizing how its flexible yet systematic principles provided practical solutions to the complex and diverse interactions of a growing and cosmopolitan society. The research further examines the reception of Roman law in medieval Europe, focusing particularly on the work of glossators, commentators, and other early legal scholars, whose efforts to systematize, interpret, and adapt Roman legal concepts contributed directly to the emergence of the ius commune. In this context, key principles such as lex domicilii, lex patriae, and lex loci actus are analyzed in detail, demonstrating how they were applied to regulate cross-border private relations, including questions of personal status, contractual obligations, and property rights, in a pre-modern international framework. Drawing upon historical sources, doctrinal analysis, and contemporary scholarship, the paper argues that Roman legal thought did not merely provide a historical precedent but laid the intellectual and practical foundations upon which modern private international law is built.Moreover, the study highlights the methodological approaches of Roman jurists-particularly their emphasis on classification, reasoning by analogy, and systematic interpretation-as mechanisms that were gradually incorporated into later European legal practice, profoundly influencing the development of conflict-of-laws doctrines. By tracing the transmission, adaptation, and integration of Roman legal ideas into different legal systems over centuries, the paper demonstrates the enduring universality, coherence, and flexibility of Roman law, underscoring its continued relevance in regulating contemporary cross-border legal interactions.
Keywords : Roman law, international law, private international law, reception, glossators, Corpus Juris Civilis, Romano-canon law
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