The first 250 years of the present era are the period during which Roman law and jurisprudence reached their greatest sophistication. The law of this period is often referred to as the classical period of Roman law. The literary and practical achievements of the jurists of this period gave Roman law its unique form. Only England and the Nordic countries did not participate in the full reception of Roman law. One reason for this is that at the time of the rediscovery of Roman law, the English legal system was more developed than its continental counterparts. As a result, the practical benefits of Roman law were less obvious to English practitioners than to continental jurists. As a result, the English common law system developed alongside Roman civil law, its practitioners being trained at the Inns of Court in London, rather than obtaining degrees in canon or civil law at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. Elements of Roman canon law were present in England in ecclesiastical courts and, less directly, through the development of the judicial system. In addition, some concepts of Roman law have found their way into the common law. Especially in the early 19th century, English jurists and judges were ready to adopt the rules and ideas of continental jurists and directly Roman law. The adaptation of the law to new needs has been entrusted to legal practice, judges and, above all, lenders. A praetor was not a legislator and technically did not create a new law when he issued his edicts (magistratuum edicta).
In fact, the results of its judgments enjoyed legal protection (actionem dare) and were often the source of new laws. The successor of a praetor was not bound by the edicts of his predecessor; However, he adopted rules drawn from the edicts of his predecessor that had proved useful. In this way, a constant content was created, which went from edict to edict (Edictum traslatitium). In the book The Twelve Tables, written by an anonymous source whose origins were cooperated through a series of translations of tablets and ancient references, P.R. Coleman-Norton arranged and translated many important features of the debt that put the Twelve Tablets into effect in the 5th century. The translation of the legal characteristics around the debt and derived from the known sources of the Twelve Tablets is given as such The Twelve Tablets were written by 10 commissioners (decemvirs) at the insistence of the plebeians, who felt that their legal rights were hindered by the fact that the judgments of the courts were rendered according to an unwritten custom, which was preserved only among a small group of learned patricians. The first group of commissioners began their work in 451 and produced 10 tables, which were later supplemented by 2 additional tables. In 450, the code was formally affixed, probably on bronze tablets, on the Roman Forum. The written record of the law in the Twelve Tablets allowed the plebeians to become familiar with the law and to protect themselves from the abuses of power by the patricians.
In 449 BC. J.-C. the second decemirate completed the last two codes, and after a secessio plebis (secession of the plebs, plebeian protest) to force the Senate to examine them, the law of the twelve tablets was officially promulgated. [11] According to Livy (AUC 3.57.10), the Twelve Tablets were written on bronze (Pomponius (Dig. 1 tit. 2 s2 ยง4) only said in ivory) and placed publicly so that all Romans could read and know them. The surviving fragments show that it was not a legal code in the modern sense of the term. It did not contain a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules, nor legal solutions for all possible cases. On the contrary, the tables contain specific provisions modifying customary law existing at the time. Although the provisions cover all areas of law, most of them are devoted to private law and civil procedure. Students who learned Roman law in Bologna (and later in many other places) found that many rules of Roman law were better suited to regulating complex economic transactions than the usual rules that applied throughout Europe.
For this reason, Roman law, or at least some provisions borrowed from it, was reintroduced into legal practice centuries after the end of the Roman Empire. This process was actively supported by many kings and princes who employed university-trained jurists as advisors and court officials, trying to benefit from rules such as the famous Princeps legibus solutus est (“The ruler is not bound by the laws”, a term originally coined by Ulpian, a Roman jurist).