La Loi a Rome: Histoire D'Un Concept

It is common knowledge that law is a key component of the legacy bequeathed to our world by Ancient Rome. However, perhaps this evidence prevents us from grasping the fact that Roman law did not necessarily rely on the same foundations as our law of today and that, even in Rome, the formulation of a “modern” concept of law took quite a long time. A. Magdelain, who left us in 1993 and who was one of the most renowned experts on Roman law, proves it in this book on the concept of Roman law. In early Roman history, it was holder of power, the king and later the magistrate, who dictated the law which the people could only ratify – the Latin for this was accipere legem (“to receive the law”) – and even then it entered into effect only when the Senate had vested it with its “authority,” the one thing that could render it operative. It was only gradually that the principle of popular sovereignty came into being and that the law appeared as being derived from the will of Rome’s citizens. This work remains one of the best examples of a historical approach to Roman law and shows how important legal frameworks are in order to understand the ancient Roman world.