- Unit 3. Rome, the Global Empire
- Getting Started
  - What Are We Learning?
  - Observe and Think
  - Map Your Mind
- Rome, the Global Empire
  - The History of Ancient Rome
    - A Little City Become Empire
    - The Legendary Origins
    - The Monarchy (753-509 BC)
    - The Republic (509-27 BC)
      - The Fight for Political Rights
      - Major Conquests during the Republic
      - The Crisis of the Republic
    - The Roman Empire (27-476 AD)
      - The Crisis of the Third Century
      - The Recovery of the 4th Century
      - The Fall of the Roman Empire
  - The Roman Society
    - Women in Rome
    - Slaves
  - The Roman Economy
  - The Roman Law
  - The Roman Army
- Self-Evaluation Quiz
- Complementary Activities
  - The Greek and Latin Roots of English
  - One Myth, One Song
  - Games, Comics and Stuff
- References

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# The Roman Law

Roman Law is indisputably one of the most important Roman legacies. According to Wikipedia, Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD when the Roman-Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. This means more than a thousand years of jurisprudence from the Twelve Tables Law (c. 439 BC) to the Justinian Code (529 AD). Roman law was used in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (331-1453), and also served as a basis for legal practice in Europe and its former colonies.

A few of the Roman law principles still in use today are

> - the right of personal property
> - the validity of contracts
> - the right to vote
> - the legality of wills
> - the right of appeal
> - the right for an accused person to be defended and to be innocent until proven guilty
> - the right to get married and to divorce

Think about it

The legal development of the Romans reached the smallest issues of the every day life. For example, what happened if the acorns of your land fell on to the neighbour's? Who had the right to pick them up? The Interdictum de glande legenda gave a crystal clear response. What do you think the answer is?

The law says that when acorns from one person's land (A) fall on to another's (B) it is forbidden for "B" to stop "A" from freely picking the acorns up and carrying them away every third day. For Roman law it is clear that "A" owns the acorns. The word acorn is used in the law to cover all fruit.

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