Law-
The development of law
Civilized societies are so complex that they could not exist without a
well-developed system of law. Scholars therefore conclude that people
began to formulate laws in prehistoric times, before the first
civilizations arose. Prehistoric people had no system of writing, and
so they left no record of their laws. The earliest laws were customary
laws--that is, laws that became established by custom and were handed
down orally from one generation to the next.
The first civilizations and first systems of writing appeared between
about 3500 and 3000 B.C. The invention of writing enabled people to
assemble law codes. The development of written codes made the law a
matter of public knowledge and so helped advance the rule of law in
society. The first law codes were produced by ancient civilizations in
the Middle East.
Early developments in the East. The first known law codes appeared in
the ancient Middle Eastern land of Babylonia. A Babylonian king named
Ur-Nammu assembled the earliest known code about 2100 B.C. Other
Babylonian rulers produced codes during the following centuries. A
king named Hammurabi drew up the most complete and best known of these
codes during the 1700's B.C. Hammurabi's code, like the earlier ones,
consisted mainly of a long list of rules to settle specific types of
cases. The code laid down the law for such matters as the
unfaithfulness of a wife, the theft of a farm animal, and the faulty
work of a housebuilder. Many of the punishments were harsh by today's
standards. For example, a son found guilty of striking his father had
his hand cut off.
From about 1000 to 400 B.C., the Hebrew people of the Middle East
assembled their religious and social laws into a code. The code
reflected the teachings of Moses, a great Hebrew leader of the 1200's
B.C., and so it is often called the Mosaic Code or the Law of Moses.
The Mosaic Code stressed moral principles. It became a key part of the
first books of the Hebrew Bible and later of the Christian Bible.
According to the Bible, the part of the code known as the Ten
Commandments was given to Moses by God. The commandments therefore
have had enormous influence on the moral content of the law in Western
civilization.
By about 500 B.C., the civilizations of India and China had also
produced codes of law. The codes in both countries stressed the moral
obligations of the law. However, except for the religious laws of the
Hebrew people, the legal traditions of Eastern civilizations have had
little direct influence on today's major systems of law. Many Eastern
peoples, even those influenced by Western traditions, still stress the
moral obligations of the law. Accused persons have little opportunity
to defend themselves. Concern for the rights of an accused person--and
for the rights of all citizens--developed mainly in Western
civilization. But this development occurred slowly over many hundreds
of years. Most scholars regard the ancient Greeks as the founders of
both Western law and Western civilization.
The influence of ancient Greece. Unlike earlier civilizations, the
civilization of ancient Greece made the law a clearly human
institution. Before the Greeks, most people believed that only gods
and goddesses had the power to make laws. The gods and goddesses gave
the laws to certain chosen leaders. These leaders passed them on to
the people. Like earlier peoples, the ancient Greeks believed that
gods and goddesses required human beings to obey the law. But the
Greeks also believed that human beings have the power to make
laws--and to change them as the need arises. The Greek city-state of
Athens became the chief centre of this development.
A politician named Draco drew up Athens' first law code in 621 B.C. It
became famous mainly for its harsh penalties for lawbreakers. In the
590's B.C., the ruling council of Athens authorized a high-ranking
official named Solon to reform the city's legal and political system.
Solon repealed most of Draco's stern laws and drew up a much fairer
code in their place. Solon also made the Athenian assembly more
representative and increased its lawmaking powers. In time, elected
assemblies of citizens gained more and more legislative power in
Athens. The Greeks thus began another key development of Western
civilization--the founding of democratic government. However, as many
as a third of the people of Athens were slaves. The Athenians, like
other ancient peoples, denied slaves the legal rights of citizens.
The Greeks believed strongly in the importance of law. They considered
respect for the law to be the mark of the good citizen. The great
Athenian philosopher and teacher Socrates became the supreme example
of this belief. The court sentenced Socrates to death in 399 B.C. for
teaching Athenian youths to disrespect the law. Socrates knew that he
was innocent. But he accepted his sentence to show his respect for the
law.
Ancient Roman law. Ancient law reached its peak under the Romans.
Roman law included all the main branches of public and private law
that exist today. In fact, the scientific classification of the law
began with the Romans. The Romans designed their laws not only to
govern the people of Rome but also to build and hold together a vast
empire. By the early A.D. 100's, the Roman Empire included much of
Europe and the Middle East and most of northern Africa.
Early Roman times. The first known Roman law code, called the Laws of
the Twelve Tables, was written about 450 B.C. It set down the chief
customary laws of the Roman people in a form that was easy to
remember. For hundreds of years, Roman boys had to memorize the code
as part of their schoolwork.
The principles expressed in the Twelve Tables long remained the basis
of Roman law. But the Romans gradually amended these principles to
meet changing social conditions. After 367 B.C., a high public
official called a praetor made the chief amendments. Each year, the
praetor issued an edict (public order) that made any necessary
changes. After 27 B.C., the Roman emperor could make or change laws as
he wished. Eventually, the whole body of Roman law became extremely
complex. The task of interpreting this great mass of laws fell to a
group of highly skilled lawyers called juris prudentes, a Latin term
for experts in law. Since that time, the science of law has been known
as jurisprudence.
For many years, Romans and non-Romans within the empire were governed
under different sets of laws. Roman citizens were governed under the
jus civile (civil law). The Romans developed a special set of laws,
called the jus gentium (law of the nations), to rule the peoples they
conquered. They based these laws on principles of justice that they
believed applied to all people. Such principles are known as natural
law.
However, neither the jus civile nor the jus gentium granted any legal
rights to slaves. Under Roman law, only Roman citizens could own
property, make contracts and wills, and sue for damages. Slaves were
not citizens, and so they had none of these rights. As the Romans
developed the idea of natural law, however, they recognized that
slaves had human rights that should be respected. Roman law thus began
to require that slaves be treated fairly and decently.
Late Roman times. The belief in natural law also led to the idea that
non-Romans within the empire should have the same rights as citizens.
In A.D. 212, the Romans granted Roman citizenship to most of the
peoples they had conquered, except slaves. The jus civile then became
the law of the entire empire.
However, the principles of natural law set down in the jus gentium
remained part of Roman law. These principles were important to future
generations because they led to the belief in equal rights for all
citizens. But hundreds of years passed before people fully developed
the principles of equality that were outlined by the Romans. Once the
principles had been developed, they contributed to the building of
democratic governments in Australia, France, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries.
Beginning with Julius Caesar, a long line of Roman rulers had tried to
organize all the empire's laws into an orderly code. Emperor Justinian
I finally completed this task. Justinian's code, the famous Corpus
Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), went into effect in 533 and 534. It
covered the whole field of law so completely and so skilfully that it
later became the model for the first modern law codes. Even today, the
codes of most civil-law countries are based on Roman law.
The Middle Ages. In 395, the Roman Empire split into two parts--the
West Roman Empire and the East Roman, or Byzantine, Empire. The West
Roman Empire, which had its capital in Rome, fell to invading Germanic
tribes in the late 400's. The empire's fall marked the start of the
1,000-year period known as the Middle Ages. The East Roman Empire,
which had its capital in Constantinople (now Instanbul), escaped the
invasions. In 527, Justinian I became the ruler of the eastern empire,
and his great code of Roman law was mainly enforced there. In Western
Europe, most of the legal and cultural institutions developed by the
Romans gradually died out.
However, Roman law survived in the West as the basis for canon
law--the legal system developed by the Roman Catholic Church. Most
Europeans during the Middle Ages were Catholics, and so canon law had
a powerful influence on their lives.
The Germanic tribes that overthrew the West Roman Empire had their own
law codes, which they introduced into the regions they conquered. But
these codes were undeveloped compared with Roman law. They consisted
chiefly of long lists of fines for specific offences, such as stealing
a neighbour's ox or dog.
By the 800's, Europeans had developed a political and military system
known as feudalism. Under feudalism, people owed allegiance to
individual lords rather than to a central government. A lord enforced
the law in his territory and granted protection to the people who
served in his armies and who lived and worked on his land. The legal
system of the Middle Ages was largely based on this relationship
between lords and the people who depended on them.
In particular, feudal law spelled out the duties that people owed to
their lord. But a lord could not demand more than the law allowed. The
people thus had a right to refuse any demands by their lord that went
beyond the limits of the law. Europeans later used this principle to
resist monarchs who claimed too much power. The principle thus played
an important role in the struggle for democracy in Europe.
Government. Latvia has a 100-member legislature called the Saeima. The
people elect the members to three-year terms. The legislature elects a
president of Latvia to a term of two years and three months. The
president serves as the ceremonial head of state and, with the
approval of the legislature, chooses a prime minister and a cabinet.
The prime minister heads the government. The prime minister and
cabinet carry out the operations of the government. For purposes of
local government, Latvia is divided into 32 administrative regions.
Feudal law remained the basic law in western Europe until about 1300.
By then, western Europeans had begun to establish improved legal
systems. However, this development differed greatly between the
countries of mainland Europe and the British Isles.
Developments in mainland Europe. The economy of western Europe began
to grow rapidly during the 1000's. As commerce and industry increased,
they created a need for a set of laws that was more complex and varied
than feudal law. Scholars believed that ancient Roman law could meet
this need. Beginning about 1100, the University of Bologna in northern
Italy trained law students from many parts of Europe in the principles
of the Corpus Juris Civilis. Interest in the code soon spread to other
European universities. Roman law thus gradually began to replace
feudal law throughout mainland Europe.
Developments in Britain. England already had a strong, unified legal
system by the 1200's, when Roman law was beginning to spread across
Europe.
England's legal system had grown out of the country's courts. English
courts had long based their decisions on the customs of the English
people. But customs varied from district to district. As a result,
similar cases were often judged differently in different districts. In
the early 1100's, however, strong English kings began to set up a
nationwide system of royal courts. In this way, the courts soon
established a body of common law--that is, law which applied equally
anywhere in England. Judges could change the law but any change
applied in all common-law courts.
As English common law developed, it established many precedents that
limited the powers of government and protected the rights of the
people. These precedents made all the people, including the monarch,
subject to the law.
Alongside the common law, there also developed in England a separate
system of justice, known as Equity. In the Middle Ages, people who
could not obtain a remedy at common law turned to the lord chancellor
for assistance. The lord chancellor, and later his assistants in the
Court of Chancery, based their decisions on the principles of equity
(moral justice). In time, these principles became fixed rules. The
rules of equity are still separate from the rules of common law.
The English legal system is the basis of United Kingdom law, except
for Scotland. Scottish law is based on a combination of Roman law and
feudal custom. When Ireland became a republic it continued to use a
system similar to the English system.
The first modern law codes. Roman law had been adopted throughout most
of Europe by the end of the 1500's. But only England had a monarchy
strong enough to establish a unified legal system. In other countries,
law codes were drawn up and enforced mainly by local governments.
These local codes differed greatly from one part of a country to
another. Beginning in the 1500's, many European monarchs set out to
form strong central governments. To help achieve this goal, they began
to assemble the assorted local codes of their countries into national
codes--a development called the codification movement.
The codification movement reached its peak under the French ruler
Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1800, Napoleon appointed a committee of legal
scholars to turn the whole of French private law into a compact,
well-reasoned code. The new code, called the Code Civil or Code
Napoleon, was a skilful blend of Roman law, French customs, and
democratic philosophy. It went into effect in 1804 and has remained
France's basic code of private law ever since. It has also been a
model for the private-law codes of most civil-law countries. Thus,
Roman law, as contained in the Code Napoleon, still influences
people's lives.
English law in the colonies. When English settlers colonized
countries, for example, the United States, Australia, and parts of
Africa, they continued to use English law. Many leaders in the
colonies were lawyers who had been trained in the common law. These
men were especially dedicated to the common-law principles that put
the rights of the people above the will of a monarch. Therefore, when
a country became independent the common law was a driving force behind
the writing of the new country's constitution.
However, newly independent countries adopted the basic ideas, but not
the whole body of English common law. Many parts of the common law
were impractical for new, rapidly expanding nations. English property
law was particularly unsuited in the United States, for instance. Land
was scarce in England, and so the law heavily restricted the transfer
of land from one owner to another. But much of the land in the United
States was unsettled and the nation was constantly expanding its
frontiers. To ensure the nation's growth, people had to be free to buy
and sell land. American property law therefore began to stress the
rights and obligations involved in land transfers. The English laws
that restricted such transfers were discarded.
The legal systems of Australia, Canada (apart from Quebec), India,
Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States (apart from Louisiana),
as well as many African and Caribbean nations, are all based on the
English system, but have developed in different ways according to the
needs and customs of each country.
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