Roman Law
Explore Roman law — the legal system that evolved from the Twelve Tables to the Corpus Juris Civilis and became the foundation of Western legal traditions.
Roman law is arguably Rome's most enduring contribution to civilization — more lasting than its roads, aqueducts, or military conquests. The legal principles and structures developed over a millennium of Roman governance form the foundation of the civil law systems used today across continental Europe, Latin America, much of Africa and Asia, and in international law.
The story begins with the Twelve Tables (c. 450 BCE), Rome's first written law code, demanded by plebeians who wanted legal protections against arbitrary patrician power. Over the centuries, Roman law evolved through legislation, judicial decisions, and the writings of legal scholars (jurisprudentes) into an increasingly sophisticated system that addressed property, contracts, family relations, inheritance, and criminal justice.
The crowning achievement was the Corpus Juris Civilis, compiled under Emperor Justinian in the 6th century CE. This massive codification organized centuries of accumulated legal material into a coherent system and became the basis for legal education and practice across medieval and modern Europe. Concepts that originated in Roman law — innocent until proven guilty, the right to a fair trial, the distinction between public and private law, the binding nature of contracts — remain fundamental to legal systems worldwide.