From the 12th century, an active reception of Roman law in Europe began. It is considered one of the key processes of the feudal period. Next, we consider its specifics.
Definition
The word reception has Latin roots. In literal translation, it means acceptance. The reception of Roman law is a kind of restoration of the ideological-theoretical, normative content of laws, which turned out to be suitable for regulating relations at a higher level of social development.
In the XII century. it was not a single, one-act phenomenon. Reception of Roman law is a multi-stage and complex process.
Stages
There are three stages of reception of Roman law. The system of Roman law was first studied in individual Italian city centers. At the second stage, some rules began to be applied by judges. At the third, final stage of reception, Roman law was revised, the achievements of the rulemakers were learned. The key source of the spread of law is the law.
It must be said, however, that the adaptation of the system to practical needs took place to a certain extent in the first stage, and the study in the second.
Specificity
To understand the features of reception of Roman law, it is advisable to correlate it with the Renaissance, Renaissance. For advanced people, the way out of medieval barbarism was the restoration of the remains of ancient culture. That is why special attention was paid to the study of the sources of Rome and Ancient Greece.
The revival should not be regarded as something new in the field of architecture and art. In this era there was a radical change in worldview, spiritual life. The revival was the discovery of some new world.
Even domestic pre-revolutionary authors established an inextricable link between the reception of Roman law in Russia and the "desire of the West for a new life." However, at the same time, their discrepancy in time is revealed. The Renaissance is correlated, as a rule, with the XIII-XIV centuries. As for the reception of Roman law, it began in the XI-XII centuries. This is due not only to the formation of close ties between civil law and commodity production, the improvement of commodity-money relations. At that time, the existing regulatory system was quite independent and was considered as part of the spiritual life of the population.
It should be noted again that in the XI-XII centuries. there was only the beginning of reception of Roman law. Its wide assimilation, processing and adaptation to feudal conditions took place in later periods.
Background
The reasons for the reception of Roman law are diverse. Emerging trade and industrial production required a more advanced legal superstructure, stimulating rather than slowing down progress. At the same time, it was necessary that the legal system go beyond individual states.
Economic ties began to go beyond the boundaries of small feudal territories. Adequate regulation was necessary for them (both in essence and territorially). The use of traditional legal provisions would significantly slow down the development of productive forces.
The way out of this situation was found in the reception of Roman private law. In all respects, it was suitable for regulating contractual and private property relations.
Roman law was abstract. In the first centuries of our era, it lost the signs of a local, narrow-national legal system and became adapted to regulate the economic relations of different nations.
The importance of reception of Roman law is difficult to overestimate. In fact, it has become universal for several states. Roman law was seen as the foundation for the subsequent development of the norms of the feudal and bourgeois eras.
The nuances of the process
It should be noted that the subject of reception was mainly private law. As for the public doctrine, it disappeared with the fall of Rome.
The German Empire began to be proudly called the "Holy Roman Empire", senates were formed in many countries, the imperial title became very common. Even Napoleon at one time was thinking about appropriating the position of the first "consul." All this, however, was only a borrowing, but not a revival of Roman state institutions.
Reception
Private law, with all its adaptability to the needs of practice, could not in unchanged form become a single law for a society within which the core of bourgeois ideology was already ripening. During the reception, Roman law was constantly adapted. Various, including far-reaching interpretations were used, the norms were processed. As a result, the very distorted doctrine arose. It began to be called pandemic or modern Roman law. The second name, according to many experts, is completely illogical and more than strange.
At the same time, regulatory sources underwent significant formal logical adjustment. General principles were extracted from them. They were arranged in a harmonious (at least outwardly) order.
Such processing, however, cannot be considered the result of an intentional desire to distort private law. This adjustment was a necessary historical process of adapting the doctrine to new relationships in the context of new production. The longer the reception lasted, the stronger the pandemic law was removed from the "pure" Roman doctrine. The role of the latter was strengthened due to the fact that the texts of ancient sources were used as the basis on which the theory of bourgeois law developed, in particular in the 17th and 19th centuries. The numerous principles of the transaction, expression of expression of will, contractual relations, the concept and methods of protecting ownership, etc. are based on Roman private law sources. These theories themselves were not in ancient Rome.
The origins of the reception
The beginning of the adoption and adaptation of Roman law coincided with the activation of life in cities in northern Italy in the XI-XII centuries. In these territories, during this period, a significant economic upturn was noted.
At that time, Italy was not a single state. However, in the north there were large independent cities with a republican form of government. In the Middle Ages, they acquired special significance.
Milan has become a major center for artisans; trade is developing in Venice, Pisa, and Genoa; loan sharks are flocking to Florence. Almost simultaneously, craft centers began to arise in France. The active development of private property relations is noted here, trade relations with neighbors are established. All this required appropriate regulatory regulation. In Roman law, ready-made legal solutions were already present for formalizing emerging and rapidly developing economic relations. He began to be taught at the first universities. This became a factor that for a long time determined the need for European countries to master the legal means of regulating bourgeois relations.
Scope of application
The burghery advocated primarily for a complete, broad, accurate restoration of the meaning and operation of the norms of Roman law. The position of the feudal lords, representatives of church and secular authorities was different. It has some similarities with the attitude to the development of trade and production, which was either neutral or expressed a direct desire to receive benefits.
Roman law was used by feudal lords to enslave the peasants and seize their lands. The reception of certain provisions of Roman law was often carried out by direct order of emperors, popes, and princes. Sometimes they also showed open dissatisfaction with the rules of Roman law.
Church attitude towards reception
It must be said that the clergy became the earliest conductor of knowledge of Roman law in the era of feudalism. Christianity, which arose in the early stages of the development of the Roman Empire, well received elements of ancient culture.
Church law began to take shape under the direct influence of a more advanced Roman normative system. Monastery schools taught mainly in Latin, so some handwritten texts containing ancient laws survived and became one of the sources of reception.
Christianity borrowed certain legal institutions and legal views from Rome. Of course, they were adapted to the specific conditions of the Middle Ages, the interests of the church, especially Christian morality. Some authors call canon law a bridge, with the help of which the transition of Roman legal culture to the Middle Ages took place.
Communication with state power
The feudal system actively promoted the reception. However, it must be said that initially only private individuals, some universities studied Roman law. After some time, the rulers of the feudal territories realized the importance of using ancient norms to achieve their own goals.
The legal concept of ancient Rome was firmly associated with the idea of a strong state power that ruled individuals and their groups. The legal understanding of Rome did not recognize the ideas of fragmentation, a mixture of public and private interests. In this regard, all who advocated centralization found support in the formation of Roman public law in the era of the Empire.
The situation in Russia
In Russia, the theory that Moscow is the third Rome greatly contributed to the perception of Roman legal doctrine. The reception reflected the ideas of humanism, rebirth, theological currents. Subsequently, the theory of the "folk spirit" of the historical law school became widespread.
I must say that in ancient Russian legal sources (in Russian truth in particular) there is no direct and concrete influence of the Byzantine doctrine. However, in the charters, the rules containing Christian teachings, it is very clearly visible.
The desire to apply the legal heritage of Byzantium in Russia is seen in the XII-XIII centuries. In particular, in the Charter of Yaroslav (in the Spatial Edition) there are borrowed and adapted to local conditions norms of antique family law.
Eastern Europe
On this territory progressive reception was noted. This was due to the mutual enrichment of legal systems, as well as the assimilation of past legal experience.
Receptions were not subjected to pure Roman doctrine, but the ancient law revised and changed under feudal conditions. However, even in this corrected form it was not mastered mechanically, but again adapted to the specifics of the area.